About

Hi! I am Crystal J. Zanders, an assistant professor of English at Chattanooga State Community College teaching hybrid courses such as English Composition and Integrated Reading and Writing. I am someone who seeks and shares knowledge, working to answers the questions that drive our world. I seek knowledge through taking classes, attending conferences, reading, and conducting research. I share knowledge through writing, teaching, creating content, and giving presentations at conferences and other venues. 

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As an educator, I work to give students access to the skills needed to seek knowledge on their own with the goals of helping students grow and increasing educational access. Increasing educational access involves creating spaces where intersectional identities aren’t just tolerated but welcomed and embraced.

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Writing allows me to reach through time and space and connect with others seeking and sharing knowledge. It gives me a space where I can be myself, to unmask in ways that are often impractical in our world. It allows me to explore and interrogate my inner world while challenging popular misconceptions for others of about autism and life as a Black woman. (I wrote about this in detail in my dissertation.)

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Writing a dissertation was an experience in which I could both seek and share knowledge simultaneously. In the summer of 2025, with the support of an American Association of University Women (AAUW) Dissertation Fellowship, I defended my dissertation, Unseen: Black Autistic Women's Masking Practices, Pressures, and Possibilities which examines how Black autistic women hide their autism. This completed my PhD in English and Education from the University of Michigan.

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I also hold an MFA in Creative Writing- Poetry from the University of New Mexico and an Master of Teaching-Secondary from Mississippi State University. My scholarly work has been published in College Composition and Communication, Pedagogy, and Assessing Writing. My creative work has been featured in Mud Season Review, Rigorous, WusGood? and elsewhere.

 

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