Kara Knafelc

Kara Knafelc

Adjunct Professor

Part-Time Faculty
Kalmanovitz Hall 381
Socials

Biography

A longtime faculty member at USF, Kara has enjoyed designing and teaching numerous composition and literature seminars for undergraduates. Kara has served as core faculty of the Martín-Baró Scholars, a service-learning living-learning program that fosters social justice thinking and activism at USF and in the broader San Francisco community. She has also worked for many years as one of the lead preceptors at USF's Writing Center. As a graduate of the Nevada foster care system, and the child of an incarcerated person, Kara has deep commitments to posing transformative questions about systems, societies, and power. She maintains an ongoing mindfulness practice that includes meditation, yoga, and growing unruly tomatoes in her backyard.

Expertise

  • Literary Studies
  • Feminist Theory
  • Composition Studies
  • Writing Center Instruction and Administration

Research Areas

  • Literary studies and social justice
  • Subalternity and social caste
  • Harm reduction and writing instruction
  • Feminist rhetorical theory

Appointments

  • Codirector, Martin-Baró Scholars
  • Faculty Advisor, Young Democratic Socialists of America
  • Faculty Preceptor, Writing Center
  • Member, USFPTFA Contract Action Committee

Education

  • University of Washington, MA in Language and Literature
  • Scripps College, BA in Literature

Selected Publications

  • "To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities," audio tour for the Art Institute of Chicago
  • "Degrees of Obsession: An Interview with Peter Scarlet," for Metro Silicon Valley
  • "Bioregions of the Rainbow Trail," audio tour for the US Department of Agriculture