Will Boechler — Teaching Portfolio

Teaching Portfolio — 2026

Writing as witness. Memory.

Community-based pedagogy centering anti-racist practice.
Cross-medium writing, POC & LGBTQ+ narratives,
and the landscapes where memory lives.

Will Boechler — educator, writer, and photographer
5
Courses Designed
MFA
Creative Writing
POC &
LGBTQ+ Centered
Teaching Statement ↗
01 — Philosophy

Writing as a practice of witness

Full Statement

I believe that writing is not merely a technical skill to be acquired — it is a practice of witness, a form of presence, and a way of insisting that one's life, community, and story matter. My classrooms are built around this conviction.

My pedagogy is rooted in anti-racist praxis, centering the experiences and literary traditions of communities that have been historically excluded from the canon. I draw heavily from POC and LGBTQ+ writers — not as supplementary voices, but as the primary architects of the curriculum.

I teach through hybrid and cross-medium forms — letter-writing, nature journaling, documentary analysis, creative-critical hybrid essays — because I believe form is never neutral. The structure of an assignment is itself a pedagogical statement about whose knowledge counts and how.

Ultimately, I seek to build classrooms where students feel equipped to move through landscapes of memory — personal, historical, ecological — with curiosity, rigor, and care.

02 — Curriculum

Courses designed
& taught

← Drag →

Course 01

Literature · Online

The Life of
Toni Morrison

Exploring what made Morrison the writer she was — and how her works illuminate the complexity of racism and the depth of Black inner life.

Summarize Morrison's biography in context of her literary philosophy
Analyze race and identity across novels, essays, and documentary
Compose original creative work in dialogue with Morrison's philosophies
View Syllabus & Assignments

Course 02

Literature · Independent Study

Toni Morrison:
Independent Study

A deeper one-on-one exploration of Morrison's full body of work — expanding beyond biography into her essays, criticism, and the long arc of her literary vision.

Engage Morrison's criticism and non-fiction alongside her novels
Develop an independent research trajectory rooted in her legacy
Produce a sustained piece of creative-critical writing in response
View Course Materials

Course 03

Art History · Lecture

Caspar David
Friedrich

A survey of Friedrich's Romantic landscapes as philosophical objects — how his paintings think through solitude, the sublime, and the human figure dwarfed by nature.

Analyze Friedrich's visual language within German Romanticism
Connect landscape painting to questions of spirituality and loss
Write art historical analysis using close visual reading
View Course Materials

Course 04

Nature Writing · Literature

Henry David
Thoreau

Reading Walden as a practice — students develop a living relationship to nature through sustained observation, walking, and their own writing.

Analyze Thoreau's transcendentalist ideology and writing process
Develop a personal relationship to nature through weekly writing
Construct a creative-reflective hybrid essay at term's end
View Syllabus & Assignments

Course 05

Photography · Independent Study

Landscape Narrative
Photography

An independent study weaving photography, place, and narrative — how images carry memory, history, and the things that resist language.

Build a cohesive photographic body of work with narrative intent
Develop a personal visual language rooted in place and memory
Frame work critically within traditions of documentary photography
View Course Work

Course 06

Coming Soon
Art History · Lecture

Werewolves & the
History of Art

Tracing the werewolf through centuries of visual culture — from medieval manuscript illumination to Romantic horror to contemporary painting. What does the monster reveal about the body, desire, and the boundary between human and animal?

Syllabus in development. Contact for more information.

Course 07

Coming Soon
English · Literature

Introduction to
Gothic Literature

A survey of the Gothic tradition from Walpole and Radcliffe through Poe, Shelley, and into the contemporary — reading the genre as a literature of anxieties, inheritance, and what cannot be buried.

Syllabus in development. Contact for more information.

03 — Voices

What students say

Andy Swinford

Former Student

"Will was brilliant at the writing studio. His energy, excitement and enthusiasm were infectious. I went from a lot of notes but zero narrative, to a page and a half of cohesive narrative in just two sessions."

Student

The Life of Toni Morrison

"Will's class changed how I think about writing — not as a product to submit, but as a way of paying attention to the world and to myself."

Student

Henry David Thoreau

"I've never had a teacher who made the outdoors feel like a classroom and the page feel like a walk in the woods. The Thoreau course was genuinely transformative."

04 — Documents

CV & Teaching Materials

Everything a search committee needs — available for immediate download.