A Day in the Life of a Visiting Assistant Professor as an Artist

It's really different on a day-to-day basis. From quarter to quarter, depending on the teaching load, spring quarter was intense. I was pulling out my hair daily, lecturing every day of the week.

With the old curriculum, I had almost 300 students. My daily task was creatively preparing lectures, as I'd never taught game design before. I was teaching a new class and needing to prepare for how lectures unfolded.

When you teach a new class, it's not perfect. There's a need to hold space to create and develop structure for a large group, and then execute and reflect on it.

Additionally, I had larger departmental matters. I'd orchestrate support for my course or seek help for confusing student situations. This often involved lots of emails to TAs; I had six that quarter. It was one of the more chaotic and intense teaching quarters.

In winter quarter, teaching "spectacular play," I focused on my own work and brought my creative practice into the classroom. That class suited my expertise in experiential and immersive design. The class went really well.

Students really pushed, and I started holding open studio hours for six hours every class day. Students could come in, work for at least three hours, and be marked as attended. They produced an awesome immersive environment with no budget.

I put a lot of time into thinking about what would push people to grow and help me grow as a teacher by innovating within my teaching. I spent time planning these things, writing notes about outcomes, and what was being explored.

As a visiting assistant professor, you also have to do research, treated like tenured faculty. I was developing two interactive performance works premiering in LA and Santa Cruz. I was also preparing for a gallery show at Gravy Gallery.

I'm also working on two publications. One is a world-building project for a tabletop role-playing setting. The other is a collection of drawings and micro-fiction works, each only a paragraph long.

I feel like a spider in a web, trying to push forward and connect these pieces in my research while showing up for the community and supporting everyone's learning. It's a mix of art, business, and trying to bring qualitative experiences to others.