Writing Center Team

Miles Smith (Rose Hill Graduate Coordinator) Miles is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the English Department, and their dissertation project focuses on rhetoric and nonnormative bodyminds in late medieval literature, with a particular emphasis on gender, animality, and disability. They hold a B.A. in English from Northern Michigan University and an M.A. in English (Medieval Track) from Western Michigan University. While at Fordham, they have tutored at the Rose Hill Writing Center and have taught undergraduate courses in composition and rhetoric.

Hardik Yadav (Lincoln Center Graduate Coordinator) is a fourth-year doctoral student of English. While he is interested in all things English language, he is keener about its queer and postcolonial bearings. He has previously tutored at both the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill writing centers. Now that he is dissertating, he is even happier to receive questions on Bollywood.

Esme Bikales Esme (pronounced ez-may) is a Specialist Year student at Fordham's Graduate School of Social Service. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Business from the University of Pittsburgh. She is passionate about the use of writing as a therapeutic tool for emotional management and knowing oneself better. She has been working at the Writing Center at Lincoln Center for three semesters now and has tutored students from all academic domains.

Diamantina (Dia) Kefalas is a Master's student at Fordham's Center for Medieval Studies and has a keen interest in late Byzantine ethnic and religious identities. As a writing tutor, she is most interested in creating outlines, developing thesis statements, and assisting students in better articulating their own arguments. She is particularly well-versed in the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) and MLA formats, but is familiar with APA as well.

Sarah Yukiko Ng is a graduate of the Dual BA Program Between Columbia University and Sciences Po, where she studied political science and creative writing. She completed an MFA at Columbia's School of the Arts, where she was an Undergraduate Writing Fellow, teaching a fiction workshop. She has also taught creative writing at a nonprofit on the Upper West Side and worked in writing centers at other universities in New York City. Sarah specializes in working with English Language Learners, and her areas of experience include creative writing, political science, and literature.

Mary Ijeoma Nriagu completed her undergraduate degree at Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko and later earned a post-graduate diploma in Education at Nnamdi Azikwe University, Nigeria. She has co-authored and single-authored academic articles: “Racism in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah: A Critical Discourse Analysis" and “Trauma and Epigenetics in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye” respectively, in a reputable international journal. She free writes for Edith Edition Magazine in Nigeria, featuring the challenges African women face. Some of her features in the magazine are "Society and Gender," "The Invincibility of Womanhood," "The Beast Monster: Domestic Violence, Complex Reality in Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’ and Chinua Achebe’s ‘The Mad Man.’ ” Mary's areas of interest are intrinsically woven around racism, immigration, and gender in African American and American literature.

Gianna Welty is a second-year English MA student at Fordham. Having also attended Fordham as an undergraduate, she is greatly familiar with the core curriculum and its requirements. She is particularly interested in early 20th century British literature, especially as it pertains to themes of class within works by the Bloomsbury Group.

Andrea Wilk worked at the writing center last year and loved meeting students and learning about what they were learning about. Having never taken philosophy, theology, business, or social work in college (she went to Vassar, where she majored in anthropology), she feels she’s been given a mini-education in those subjects. Her areas of expertise in tutoring are English, history, anthropology, sociology, art history, film, and psychology. Before working at the writing center, she taught English as a Second Language and writing at Fordham, Columbia, Adelphi, and St. John's, after getting a master's at Columbia. Before that, she worked in book publishing, specializing in children's books. She’s a New York native (she grew up about 25 blocks north of the Fordham Lincoln Center campus) and loves hearing what students from other places think of NYC.