kevinmkilroy

Welcome to my site! Although I'm floating around in the ether on various platforms, the mass academic migration post-Musk Twitter takeover has pushed me to (a) look into other social media options, including (and perhaps especially) decentralized ones, and (b) think more about what I'd like to get out of a social media and web presence. So, with that in mind, I find myself here on Write Freely—or, I suppose, Write.as—(re)starting a blog.

About myself

So, first thing first—a bit about myself. My name is Kevin, and I’m currently a PhD candidate studying rhetoric and composition, working tirefully to complete my dissertation on poetic inquiry in first-year writing. At the same time, I am also an instructor of composition and literature—mainly the former, though sometimes the latter—and have been for a little more than ten years now, going back to 2010 when I taught my first composition class after completing my MFA in poetry. I grew up in southern New Jersey—or “down the shore”—but now call Jersey City home. I watch too much TV; have an affinity for stationary and fountain pens; play too much Magic: the Gathering (mostly online due to pandemic-related reasons); am an erstwhile drummer and traveler, sometimes poet, and infrequent skier; and am papa to two lovely cats who mostly dislike one another but seem to like me well enough.

What you’ll find here

As I’m working on my dissertation and launching my career, the main thing I’m looking to write about here is rhetoric, composition, pedagogy, and literature. I’d like to use this space to write about my research, work out ideas, perform public scholarship, and think through questions related to teaching. I don’t plan to limit my writing to that, and would certainly like to carve out space to write about shows I’m watching and—eventually—places I’ve been, along with other current topics and issues, but that’s where I’m primarily planning to focus.

So, welcome, and hope you come along for the ride!