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Teaching

Lecturing at Herman Melville's birthplace (photo: Victoria Schultz)

"Adam's class inspired me to quit my job and leave New York City to get my Ph.D. in Creative Writing."
-- Margot Singer, Associate Professor of English, Denison University; author, Underground Fugue and The Pale of Settlement, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, and the Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish Fiction

"Adam Sexton's instruction set me on a thrilling path. A teacher in the true sense of the word, Adam is a confident, brilliant guide to recognizing your talents and building beautiful things from there. I've taken many classes in my life and have forgotten many lessons and guides in the process but his classes and method have remained with me, daily. I work to make him proud."
-- Carmen Rita Wong, author, the memoir Why Didn't You Tell Me, and (as Carmen Rita) the novels Never Too Real and Never Too Late

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, CT

Yale in London

Department of British Studies

Lecturer, Summer 2022

-- Writing About Music in the UK

 

School of Art
Department of Graphic Design
Critic, 2016-present

Yale College

Department of English
Lecturer, 2013-present
-- Writing Concentration Senior Project, 2017-present
-- Writing About Music, 2016-present
-- The Craft of Fiction, 2014-present
-- Reading and Writing the Modern Essay, 2013-present

Bass Family Trumbull College Writing Tutor, 2014-present
Daily Themes Tutor, 2014


COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, School of the Arts, New York, NY

Adjunct Assistant Professor
-- Reading Fiction for Writers, Summer 2015
-- Nonfiction Workshop, Summers 2014, 2015


NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, New York, NY

Instructor
-- Fiction Writing I, 2007
-- Reading Moby-Dick, 2006
-- Philip Roth’s Alter Egos, 2005
-- Reading Fiction for Fiction Writers, 2003-2006
-- Nonfiction and Fiction Tutorials, 2002-2007
-- Beginning and Advanced Nonfiction Writing, 2001-2006

Part-time Lecturer
-- Beginning and Advanced Nonfiction Writing, 2001


PARSONS THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN, New York, NY

Instructor
-- Critical Reading and Writing I and II, 2003-2007
-- HEOP Critical Studies, Summers 2004-2005
-- Literature and Composition II: Race and Gender, Rock and Rap, 2002-2003
-- Wireless Literature and Composition I and II, 2001-2003
-- Literature and Composition I, 2000-2003

Faculty Adviser
-- Independent Study in Fiction Writing, 2001


RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY, New Brunswick, NJ

Part-time Lecturer
-- Expository Writing, 1997


GUEST LECTURING

 

Yale University, New Haven, CT

Invited lecturer, Yale Summer Session Lecture Series, 2023

 -- Topic: "What Is a Narrative?"

 

Yale University, New Haven, CT

Plenary lecturer, Daily Themes, 2023

 -- Topic: "Characterization Through Narrative"

 

Yale Writers' Conference
Plenary lecturer, Craft Talk, 2017
-- Topic: Reading Like a Writer

Yale University, New Haven, CT
Plenary lecturer, Intro to Creative Writing, 2015-16
-- Topic: Introduction to Fiction Writing

University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
Hudson Strode Lecturer in the Age of Shakespeare, 2015
-- Topic: "Classics, Illustrated: Faithfully Adapting Shakespeare's Tragedies as Manga"

Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
Guest lecturer, “Words on Will” series, 2008
-- Topic: Shakespeare + Manga

New York University, Gallatin School, New York, NY
Guest lecturer, 2008
-- Topic: Adapting Hamlet

New York University, Paul McGhee Division, New York, NY
Guest author, Foundations of the Creative Process course, 2008

University of Pennsylvania, Kelly Writer’s House, New York, NY
Guest lecturer, 1999 and 2006
-- Topics: Point of View in Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Structure in Joyce’s ‘Araby’, and Plot and Structure in Fiction Writing


TEACHING HONORS

Named Finalist for Distinguished University Teaching Award, The New School, 2007

Awarded Professional Equity Project Grant, The New School, 2003
-- Nominated by The New School and awarded membership, expenses, and admission to annual Conference on College Composition and Communication

Awarded New School Faculty Development Fund Grant, The New School, 2002-2003
-- One of 2 instructors awarded $6,000 to instruct Parsons faculty in pedagogical adaptations of new media

Awarded teaching fellow for assistance with instruction, The New School, 2002

Interviewed on the teaching of writing and literature by Time and Poets & Writers

Classes featured on BBC Radio and in Philadelphia Weekly