Matthew James Vechinski, Ph.D.- Coordinator of Academic Programming
Harris Hall - Room 5116
804-827-0838
mjvechinski@vcu.edu
Matthew James Vechinski became Coordinator of Academic Programming for University College in May 2022. In this position, Matthew manages the Focused Inquiry Learning Lounge (FILL) space in Harris Hall and is the director of the FILL Peer Mentors program.
He first joined the Department of Focused Inquiry in 2013 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019. He has taught traditional and service-learning sections of UNIV 200 as well as UNIV 112, UNIV 299, and ENGL 215 and has regularly served as faculty for the VCU Summer Scholars program. He designed and piloted the course Interdisciplinary Social Innovation (UNIV 305) for the Interdisciplinary Studies Program, giving undergraduates the opportunity to learn design thinking principles and apply them to creating projects with organizations in the Richmond community. His teaching draws on his interest in process-based writing instruction, communication design, and project-based learning. A first-generation college student himself, he is proud to pay it forward as a faculty mentor and occasional speaker for the VCU You First program.
Matthew has been recognized as a university leader in promoting service-learning and experiential learning. He is currently a member of the VCU REAL Council and was selected as a VCU Service-Learning Faculty Fellow for 2019–2020. For the last two years, he was the faculty mentor for the University College Experiential Learning Student Ambassador program, which he founded. Matthew’s research in literary studies often centers on authors’ relationships with editors and publishers, with a particular focus on writers of short fiction for American periodicals. His book, Twentieth-Century American Fiction in Circulation: Short Stories Written for Magazines and Republished in Linked Story Collections, was published in 2020 by Routledge. He has also written on contemporary constraint-based fiction, conceptual art, design, collecting, and technology. Matthew’s scholarship combining genetic criticism, reception study, and periodical studies has appeared in the journals Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction and Textual Practice; he is a member of the Reception Study Society and the Society for Textual Scholarship; and he regularly peer reviews submissions for VA Engage Journal. Matthew earned his PhD in English and Textual Studies from the University of Washington, where he also taught writing and literature courses for several years. Visit his website: http://matthew.vechinski.com/
