Marguerite Rivas
Associate Professor
English
EMAIL: mrivas@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-751U
Office Hours:
Phone: +1 (212) 776-7830
A native New Yorker, Marguerite María Rivas teaches women’s literature and writing at Borough of Manhattan Community College, where she mentors first-generation college students. Much of her creative and scholarly work is based on the history, culture, and environment of Staten Island. Her essays and poetry have been published in anthologies, journals, and periodicals, nationally and internationally, and she is the author of two volumes of poetry. She enjoys welding and doing improvisational spoken word performances with musicians in her spare time. She is the Poet Laureate of Staten Island.
Expertise
Literature of U.S. Latino/as, Creative Writing, American Long Poem
Degrees
Drew University
D.Litt., English Language and Literature/Letters (1996 – 2001)
Awarded Robert Campbell Dissertation Award for Excellence in Literary Study, (2001)
City University of New York-College of Staten Island
BA, MA, English (1974 – 1989)
Courses Taught
- English Composition is the standard freshman writing course. The course introduces students to academic writing. By its conclusion, students will be ready for English 201 and for the writing they will be asked to do in advanced courses across the curriculum. Students completing ENG 101 will have mastered the fundamentals of college-level reading and writing, including developing a thesis-driven response to the writing of others and following the basic conventions of citation and documentation. They will have practiced what Mike Rose calls the "habits of mind" necessary for success in college and in the larger world: summarizing, classifying, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Students will be introduced to basic research methods and MLA documentation and complete a research project. Students are required to take a departmental final exam that requires the composition of a 500 word, thesis-driven essay in conversation with two designated texts. Prerequisite: Pass the CAT-R and CAT-W or Accuplacer tests
- This is a course that builds upon skills introduced in English 101. In this course, literature is the field for the development of critical reading, critical thinking, independent research, and writing skills. Students are introduced to literary criticisms and acquire basic knowledge necessary for the analysis of texts (including literary terms and some literary theory); they gain proficiency in library and internet research; and they hone their skills as readers and writers. Assignments move from close readings of literary texts in a variety of genres to analyses that introduce literary terms and broader contexts, culminating in an independent, documented, thesis-driven research paper. By the conclusion of English 201, students will be prepared for the analytical and research-based writing required in upper-level courses across the curriculum; they will also be prepared for advanced courses in literature. Prerequisite: ENG 101
- The objective of this course is to sharpen students' creative writing skills in the genres of the short story, poetry and drama, depending on students' interests and ability. Pre-Requisite: ENG121 or ENG201
- This course acquaints students with the wide range and varied forms of the short story as it developed in America, Europe, and other continents. Readings will include works by male and female authors of different periods and nationalities, and some attention may be paid to the historical development of the short story as a genre, as well as the cultural contexts in which the assigned stories were written. Pre-Requisite: ENG101 and ENG201 or ENG121
- In this course, works reflecting the experiences of U.S. Latino/a writers in English are analyzed. Students will read, discuss, and write about fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama by writers such as Julia Alvarez, Rudolfo Anaya, Gloria Anzaldua, Roberto Fernandez, Tato Laviera, Achy Obejas, Abraham Rodriguez Jr., and Piri Thomas. Note: Crosslisted with LAT 338
Research and Projects
Publications
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
Additional Information
Website: https://margueritemariarivas.com/
