Contact Us
Email: writing.studio@vanderbilt.edu
Front desk phone: (615) 343-2225
Our office can be reached by phone Monday – Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm CST.
Writing Studio Main Office: Curb Center Building (1801 Edgehill Ave.), Suite 112
Writing Studio Satellite Office: Commons Center 217
Mailing Address:
PMB 0138
230 Appleton Pl
Professional Staff
Dr. John Bradley, Director of the Writing Studio and Tutoring Services
John first came to Vanderbilt to join the Writing Studio team in 2012 and in 2018 stepped into the role of director for the Writing Studio. John earned his PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was introduced to writing center pedagogy. As a writing center professional, he is dedicated to the transformational role one-on-one interactions can play for students as they learn to write and has conducted research into the learning experience of undergraduate and graduate student writing consultants, as well. Prior to becoming director, John also taught in the English Department as a senior lecturer, and his teaching and research interests include twentieth-century and contemporary American poetries, with a particular interest in ecopoetry and ecopoetics alongside other movements that push the boundaries of what we expect from poetry.
Dr. Megan Minarich, Associate Director for the Writing Studio and Tutoring Services
megan.l.minarich@vanderbilt.edu
Megan earned her Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University in 2014. During her doctoral studies, she was a graduate consultant and Arts and Science Graduate Fellow at the Writing Studio. She completed a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Tennessee State University before joining the administrative team at the Collaborative Learning Suite in 2017. Megan also serves as Affiliated Faculty in Cinema & Media Arts, where she teaches Introduction to CMA and History of the Musical Film, and as Faculty VUceptor for the Vanderbilt Visions program. Megan has been consulting and teaching collegiately for over ten years. She holds Mellon Certificates in Digital Humanities and Humanities Education, and she has taught multimedia courses in composition, literature, and cinema and media arts at Vanderbilt, Tennessee State University, and Watkins College. Megan holds a B.A. in English and French from the University of Illinois at Chicago, an M.A. in English from Stanford University, and an M.A. in English from Vanderbilt University
Dr. Miriam Erickson, Assistant Director for Tutoring Services
miriam.erickson@vanderbilt.edu
Miriam earned her PhD in History from Vanderbilt University in 2015 where she also worked as a graduate consultant in the Writing Studio. She spent three years as a CASPAR advisor for the Arts & Science College and joins our team to help facilitate Tutoring Services. Miriam’s research examines the Haitian Revolution and a particular group of black militiamen and their families as they navigate the political waters among France, Spain, and Central America. She loves the historiography of rebellion and revolution, and she would be happy to help think through your historical arguments. Miriam has been advising and consulting with students for over ten years, and she believes strongly that the best way to becoming a better writer is working with other writers. She holds a BA in Comparative Literature from David Lipscomb University and the American University of Paris (2002) and a Masters in Classics from St. John’s College (2007).
Dr. Beth Estes, Assistant Director for Writing Studio
Beth earned her PhD in Political Science from Vanderbilt University in 2017. During the final year of her doctoral program, she served as the College of Arts and Science Graduate Fellow at the Writing Studio and developed a passion for writing pedagogy. She is particularly interested in helping science and social science writers craft compelling narratives and harnessing her social science background to contribute to research on writing assessment. Her other research interests include political psychology and intergroup relations.
Dr. Andrew Shipley, Academic Support Coordinator
Drew (he/him/his) joined the Writing Studio and Tutoring Services staff in 2022 after earning his PhD in English from the University of California, Irvine. During his time in California, he worked as a tutor and faculty coordinator at Orange Coast College’s writing center and taught writing courses at UCI focusing on mass incarceration, internet subcultures, and political extremism. Drew’s research concerns allegory and metalepsis in Victorian fiction as well as the history and practice of literary criticism. He holds a BA in English from the University of Oklahoma and an MA in English from UCI.
Nauff Zakaria, Academic Support Coordinator
nauff.m.zakaria@vanderbilt.edu
Nauff Zakaria joined the Writing Studio and Tutoring Services staff in 2024. She is a PhD candidate in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel in the Graduate Department of Religion; she will defend her dissertation early this fall. Her research focuses on the linguistic and grammatical structures of the Hebrew Bible within the context of ancient Near Eastern literature and its impact on the narratives involving women. Prior to matriculation at Vanderbilt, Nauff earned a MA in Hebrew Bible from the University of Chicago and worked as a high school English teacher in San Antonio, TX. While at Vanderbilt, she has worked at Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching and the English Language Center. In these spaces, Nauff has conducted consultations with undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty, developed workshops related to pedagogy as well as writing, and coached graduate student Teaching Assistants. Nauff has a deep passion for education, literacy, and working with underrepresented groups in academia.
Tim Donahoo, Administrative Specialist
timothy.donahoo@vanderbilt.edu
Tim (they/them), originally from Memphis, TN, earned their Bachelor’s in English from Austin Peay State University in 2018. From there they started work with the Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center at Middle Tennessee State University and concurrently began a Master’s degree in English. They left MTSU in 2019 and began work with the State of Tennessee for 2 years before coming to work for Vanderbilt Writing Studio and Tutoring Services in January 2022.