About the Writing Fellows

The SPS Writing Fellows are CUNY doctoral students trained in Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) pedagogy. They will not edit or correct your work for you, but will make suggestions for improvements to structure and content and help you identify and correct errors.  The fellows can provide assistance at any stage of writing from brainstorming and planning to proofreading and editing, and can assist writers at every stage of ability. All of the fellows can assist with APA format, though some may be experts in MLA and Chicago styles as well.

The Fall 2023 Writing Fellows are:

Ada Gafter-O’Higgins is a 5^th year PhD student at the Graduate Center, CUNY, majoring in Comparative Literature. She also holds a BA in French Literature. Her academic interests range from the 17th century French female memoir to Marcel Proust, and also encompass philosophy with a special interest in Plato and Heidegger. Some topics she is interested in are theories of knowledge, memory, the history of sexuality, and the intersection of philosophy and literature. She has tutored in French and taught English Composition courses at Brooklyn College for 3 years. 

Aneela Rahman is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research interests involve early detection of Alzheimer’s disease using sensitive neuropsychological tests. She has previously taught Statistical Methods Lab in Queens College. In her free time, she loves reading, meditating and going on nature walks!

Ferhat Zabun is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His research focuses on international relations and comparative politics. He specifically works on the credibility of leaders during conflicts and how we can understand whether leaders lie, bluff or tell the truth. He has taught research methodology, foreign policy and international conflicts courses at Queens College, CUNY. He knows French and Turkish. He is currently working on his dissertation and three separate book projects (one on etymology, one on humans as political animals, and a political novel). 

Lili Voisinet is a PhD Candidate in Cognitive and Comparative Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. She has a Master’s degree in biological science with a research focus on elephant seal physiology, and her current doctoral work focuses on the vocal learning abilities of bottlenose dolphins. She is interested in applying her research to improving the welfare of marine mammals in human care and the rehabilitation of wild marine mammals. She has taught over 20 sections and was a TA for over 30 sections of undergraduate courses, including general biology, general psychology, cell and molecular biology, and neuroscience. She also worked as a private tutor for K-12 students in English, math, and science. She is most experienced in APA formatting

Liz Weglarz is a Ph.D. Candidate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at CUNY’s Graduate Center. Her research is focused on leadership, emotions, and motivation. Liz currently teaches a motivation and learning course at Baruch College and a Human Resource Management course at Brooklyn College. Before joining the WAC@SPS team, Liz worked in various human resources roles in HR consulting and technology organizations. Liz completed her Bachelor’s degree and M.B.A. at Stony Brook University. 

 

Lydia Villaronga is a PhD student in the Urban Education Department. Their research interests include self-directed education, racial identity formation, and political identity formation. They have taught language arts to high school students and have also served as a graduate lecturer at CCNY where they taught a social foundations in education course. Outside of school, you can find Lydia gardening, making art, or hanging out with their dogs. 

 

Zoe Goldstein is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her interdisciplinary research investigates possibilities for pleasure, resistance and environmental response-ability in the discard space. Zoe has taught Composition, Creative Writing, and Environmental Humanities courses at Fordham University, NYU, Baruch, and Brooklyn College among other places. She also holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and writes short fiction and poetry. Zoe has the most direct experience with MLA and Chicago style but is comfortable with all citation styles. 

 

Erin Heiser is the Assistant Coordinator for the Writing Fellows at SPS. She has a Master’s degree in English with a focus on Composition and Rhetoric, and is a doctoral candidate in the English program at CUNY’s Graduate Center. She previously held a Writing Fellowship at Lehman College, CUNY.  Her dissertation focuses on how working-class lesbian writers use the autobiographical in their texts. Erin is interested in the intersections of race, class, sexuality, and gender; and these themes show up regularly in her own writing and on her syllabi at CUNY and NYU where she has enjoyed teaching literature and writing for over a decade.

 

This site is organized and maintained by the SPS Writing Fellows. If you have questions about the Writing Fellows program, you can contact Kate Moss, the Writing Fellows Coordinator.