Bio

As you might have gathered, I’m Courtney Elizabeth King.

I was born in L.A., but spent most of my childhood in rural MO. I studied Literary Criticism and Women’s Studies at Truman State University in Kirksville, MO and started presenting at conferences during my undergraduate program where I found myself drawn to more challenging research projects and ways to connect with other scholars.

I completed my MA in Literature at Washington State University in 2013. During my program I taught Introductory Comp. and Introductory Comp. for ESL Students at WSU, as well as ESL courses at Lewis-Clark State College. At WSU I also founded and served as editor-in-chief of a graduate-only electronic peer-reviewed journal called Textual Overtures.

I relocated to Michigan during the summer of 2013, where I was hired to teach Women Writers at SVSU and English Language courses in the CMU ELI. I then went on to teach intensive, credit-bearing, and graduate-level EAP courses at CMU’s English Language Institute until January 2017. I graduated with my MA TESOL from CMU in May 2016.

I have presented my work at conferences near and far, including NCUR 2011, LSU’s Mardi Gras Conference 2012, PAMLA 2013, the Northwest Women’s Studies Association Conference 2013, the International Virginia Woolf Conference 2014, the Great Lakes Conference on Teaching and Learning 2014, the 2014, 2015, and 2016 MITESOL Conferences, and the 2016 National Geographic MSU Learning Symposium. I also presented my work at TESOL International in 2016 as one of the Best of Affiliates, and at TESOL 2017 I was selected to present in an Intersection Panel and the Electronic Village.

During the summer of 2016 I lived in China where I taught 6-week summer versions of the CMU ELI courses. This experience provided me with some much-needed perspective on what my students undergo as newcomers in America.

In a whirlwind move, I traveled back across the country to California in January 2017 where I immediately began teaching for College of the Redwoods and later Humboldt State University. After piecing together work from many different sources (I had three or four jobs at any given point in 2017 and could still barely afford gas to drive between jobs) I made the difficult choice to leave academia for more stable work.

After entering my civil service journey as a Workers’ Compensation Insurance Technician with State Fund in Eureka, I was hired by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to be a Talent Acquisition Analyst at their West Sacramento headquarters. As of this writing, I have over a year in California state service and hope to serve the people of this great state for many more to come.