In this solo episode of Writing Remix, Dan Dissinger reflects on the end of the 2025 Spring semester at USC. He shares what he changed and what worked in his classroom, the impact of creating meaningful and accessible assignments, student reactions to and experiences reading Exile & Pride by Eli Clare and All About Love by bell hooks, and he talks about the impact of these two texts on students and standout moments. After, he shares & reflects on his personal experiences and challenges as an educator, the personal emotional toll of the semester’s end, balancing personal well-being with professional responsibilities, and how fostering a supportive classroom environment is an act of resistance for students and instructors. This is vulnerable deep dive. Please share this episode with the teachers in your life, your fellow faculty members, and prospective teachers.
If you resonate with this episode, please email and share your experiences at writingremixpodcast@gmail.com.
Approximate Show Notes
00:00 Introduction and Podcast Promotion
02:46 Reflecting on the End of the Semester
04:21 Implementing More Reading in the Syllabus
04:56 Book Review: Exile and Pride by Eli Claire
08:42 Book Review: All About Love by bell hooks
13:00 Meaningful Assignments and Student Engagement
19:20 In-Class Reflections and AI Concerns
21:16 End-of-Semester Challenges and Personal Reflections
27:30 Looking Forward to Future Semesters
34:44 Conclusion and Call to Action
Daniel Dissinger is an Associate Professor in the Writing Program at the University of Southern California, creator & host of the award-winning podcast Writing Remix, host & creator of The Nostalgia Test Podcast a poet, Kerouac scholar, and writing coach. In 2021, he co-created an international network of academic podcasters called The Humanities Podcast Network, which has hosted workshops at Stanford, UCSB, and Macalester College, published an online handbook on teaching podcasts in the classroom, has a book contracted by Palgrave, and has held an annual international symposium since 2021. He’s helping plan the 5th symposium for 2025.
People, Texts & Podcasts Mentioned in the Episode
- All About Love by bell hooks
- Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation by Eli Clare
- Inspired Belonging Workshops facilitated by Dan Dissinger & Stephanie Renée Payne
- Stephanie Renée Payne
- The Meaningful Writing Project: Learning, Teaching, and Writing in Higher Education by Michele Eodice, Anne Ellen Geller, & Neal Lerner
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
- “This is Water” a speech by David Foster Wallace
”I think it’s just the unstructured time after the 15 weeks [that] truly throws me for a loop.”
-Dan Dissinger
“We don’t have to have answers at the end of books as much as have moments of contemplation”
-Dan Dissinger
“I had students tell me that [All About Love]showed them that they don’t have to accept abuse from not just people, but from [higher ed degree] programs as well. Education doesn’t have to be abusive.”
-Dan Dissinger
“The [writing] course doesn’t have to break a student down as much as I felt like USC wanted me to do it. I can build way more [and] build up.”
-Dan Dissinger
“The most important thing was making sure that we were taking care of ourselves [this semester]. And I think that mean[t] pulling back on the amount of assignments so that we all could have time with them, whether making, writing them, and me assessing them. That was a big change, and it made it a much more enjoyable semester for me and for my students. And I don’t think doing less assignments isn’t student centered. In fact, I believe that it was absolutely student centered so that they can focus on doing meaningful and purposeful work.”
-Dan Dissinger
“I feel like my purpose vanishes [when the semester ends] and I don’t know how to come to terms with that. It’s like a 15-week rush, and then I hit a wall, and I feel like I’m alive, but I can’t move.”
-Dan Dissinger
“Something that I’ve been trying to understand is like, why do I feel so depressed at the end of the semester, even though a rest is needed? I think it’s just [so much energy being expended] […] and then there’s nothing there. You know, you create all these relationships and all these bonds and everything, and then the next day you wake up and and there’s nothing.”
-Dan Dissinger
“ I really feel like I came back to the core reason of why I do this job, and that’s to hopefully learn as much as I can from my students while they learn from me.”
-Dan Dissinger
“This classroom is the place where we can work together in community.”
-Dan Dissinger
“I think I’m finally hitting the stride that I wanted to at USC and really making the class the way I always felt would be best for students and for myself, because it is a collaboration with them, we do everything collaboratively.”
-Dan Dissinger
“Teaching these three classes made me feel hopeful and each of my students really allowed for me to be myself, and I’m hope that they felt the same way, that they felt that they could be themselves. I hope they learned something. I hope that they continue to write.”
-Dan Dissinger
“Teaching is not about just how my class runs. I love hearing about how other teachers and other professors and workshop leaders, poets, writers, artists, are out there teaching people and creating community. It’s one of the most important things that we could do, especially right now where everyone needs and is thirsty for community.”
-Dan Dissinger
Episode 113 Transcript
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