Despite receiving his doctorate in English Literature/ Cultural Studies from McMaster University a decade ago, Dr. William Alejandro Martin (Ph.D.) has exclusively taught courses in Communication Studies at three post-secondary institutions: McMaster University (2004-2005), University of Windsor (2005-2008) and Toronto Metropolitan University (2015-present). William’s passion for pedagogy was ignited through an improbable friendship with Dr. Henry Giroux, during his doctoral studies at McMaster University. Giroux’s capacity to transmute critical theory into sound pedagogical practise greatly impressed him; permanently altering William’s perception of what constitutes superlative teaching.
William’s preliminary teaching philosophy, “Critical Performativity,” for example, is an extrapolation of Giroux’s work, and is even philosophically central to his current pedagogical research into “Transmedial Pedagogy.” Giroux’s conviction that teaching is an indispensable part of an academic’s life had a prodigious impact on William, who received his first teaching honour as a Tutorial Assistant in Communications Studies, about two years after meeting Giroux. His teaching was still saturated in Critical Pedagogy five years later when he was bestowed with his second teaching award: this one for non-tenured faculty, at the University of Windsor.
William nonetheless left the Academy soon thereafter to pursue prospects in Political Public Relations consultancy, and only returned years later to pursue a two-year Diploma in Public Relations while he worked as a Head Tutor. At St. Clair College William tutored students who suffered from truly debilitating neurodevelopmental challenges. Paradoxically, the complexity of teaching such individuals only compounded his previous passion for pedagogy to the extent; he began to earnestly wonder if he had chosen the wrong career path. After much soul searching subsequent to his graduation, William ultimately accepted an offer to teach in the School of Professional Communication at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he happily continues to teach to this day. Aside from his work on Transmedial Pedagogy, William also performs research on the cultural, phenomenological and psychiatric rhetoric of trauma (PTSD), as it relates to Media Audiences, Social Media, and Personality Disorders.