Julie Amparano Garcia

Julie Amparano is the Writing Certificate director and a principal lecturer at ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles in 2006 and began teaching at Arizona State University in 2005 as a faculty associate. Serving in the School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, Amparano teaches scriptwriting, cross-cultural writing, fiction, persuasive writing, and other writing courses. She also is the publisher of Canyon Voices online literary magazine on the West campus.

In teaching writing courses, Amparano seeks to apply interdisciplinary and interactive techniques to help bring her students' words to life. Recently, she aligned her scriptwriting class with a directing course, allowing student directors to stage the work of the student writers in a two-night festival. Whether the writing is staged, read or printed, she pushes students to use their writing to engage and interact with their community. She has guided many students with their internships, independent studies and writing projects.

Her current writing projects include short stories, plays and nonfiction articles that explore issues of biculturalism and assimilation, in particular in the Mexican-American culture. Her most recent play, "A Mother's Will", was nominated for an ariZoni for best original script and overall production. The play also was a winner at the Arizona Women's Theater Co.'s Pandora Festival.

In addition to teaching, Amparano serves on the ASU’s Commission on the Status of Women. She is the chair-elect of the Hispanic Heritage Committee at the ASU West campus and she serves on several campus groups, including the Online Education Group Task Force, the Events Committee, the Oral History Research Cluster, and the Documentary Studies Organizing Committee. Off campus, she is a board member of New Carpa Theater and a member of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, to name a few.