Want to know what it’s like to work with me? I bring my core values to everything I do, including managing my research teams, mentoring graduate students and undergraduate advisees, and teaching in traditional, online, community, and outdoor classrooms.
Students who work with me will:
- Practice taking risks, both small and large, to develop deeper levels of self-authenticity in their research, writing, learning, and creative pursuits. This is particularly true for students wanting to study identity and power connected to their sexualities, gender identities and expressions, races, ethnicities, disabilities, embodiments, classes, nationalities, and regional or political affiliations;
- Learn how to map and plan their projects in order to bring possibilities to life;
- Strengthen their abilities to pack a lot (e.g. of content, of critical analysis) into a little (e.g. of time, of words) and to make a lot (of connections, of ideas, of successful grants) from a little (e.g. time, resources, contacts, effort);
- Come to value, develop, and maintain the intimate human connections that make big shifts possible, whether the shift is a research breakthrough, a learning “lightbulb” moment during a small-group class discussion, or significant change towards social justice.
Letters of Recommendation from Former Students*
“At the community college level, I had been heavily involved in the LGBT club, the environmental club and the feminist club, but I was feeling pressure [at UCLA] to choose between these movements, doubtful that I could find a way to combine my interests. I am so grateful to Professor Heiliger for showing me that being exactly who I am is an asset to the world, something I now strive to bestow on my students. She introduced me to a perspective that has allowed me to constructively critique the ways in which power and inequality are sustained, for the purpose of creating a healthy and equitable society, which I now consider my life’s work.” Read Kaya Foster’s full letter. (Click the link and then the small image to read the letter.)
“Office hours with Professor Vange were like the best composition lessons one could hope for: during our time together, she encouraged and enabled me to explore, in both writing and music, issues that interfaced closely with my own life and experiences. These included rural experiences of queerness, ruralness as embodied performance, and critically queer and crip perspectives on obsessive-compulsive styles of thought and movement. How rare it is to find a mentor with such diverse scholarly experience and pedagogical wherewithal.” Read Greg Manuel’s full letter. (Click the link and then the small image to read the letter.)
“Professor Vange challenged me unlike anyone else. She would often ask me to rewrite assignments or defend myself in class discussions. I wasn’t doing bad work for her when she’d ask me to do better, I just wasn’t doing my best, and she knew that. Not only does this speak to Professor Vange’s unique ability to gauge her students’ capacities and learning styles, but also to her care for her students and determination to see us succeed, executed with exhausting commitment. I don’t know how she does it, but I will be forever grateful that she does.” Read KT Firstenberger’s full letter. (Click the link and then the small image to read the letter.)
“I have a number of learning disabilities that make it difficult for me to learn in a traditional classroom environment. Professor Vange brought the content to me. I learned so much in every class. She packs her syllabus full of content important to the discipline and personally important to her, so everything she teaches is filled with passion. She would divide up the readings so that homework was always more manageable than my other classes, but I always came away learning and understanding so much more because of how she had us share what we learned with our peers. “ Read Ruby Reilly’s full letter. (Click the link and then the small image to read the letter.)
“Outside of class, Dr Vange mentored me as a researcher- a technical skill I use to this day. She took extensive time out of her work to guide another student and me as we did summer research on gender in ads for “green” products. I continue to be humbled by the fact that the mentorship she offered went far beyond what was required of her, even helping me find another summer job when we learned that my stipend would come late in the summer. In my own teaching and mentorship, I strive to remember Dr Vange’s example, because I know I would not be where I am today without the guidance she offered me. “ Read Brendan Moore’s full letter here. (Click the link and then the small image to read the letter.)
*Personal contact information (phone numbers, addresses, email addresses) redacted on this website to protect the privacy of my letter writers. Are you from a hiring committee? Contact me for a pdf packet of these letters with the contact information included.