Matthew James Vechinski, Ph.D.
Professor
Faculty Director of Transformative Learning Course Innovation, Office of the Provost
Harris Hall 5113
Office hours: By appointment
Experiential Learning
Project-Based Learning
Undergraduate Research
Textual Studies
About
Matthew James Vechinski joined the VCU Department of Focused Inquiry in 2013 when he was hired as a term assistant professor. He was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 2019 and full professor in 2026. He has taught over 75 sections of six distinct courses at VCU, including four special topics courses that he designed centering on social innovation, sustainable design, collecting, and peer mentoring in higher education as well as several courses for the Department of English and the Summer Scholars program.
Matthew is the author of two books: Twentieth-Century American Fiction in Circulation Short Stories Written for Magazines and Republished in Linked Story Collections (Routledge, 2020) and Original Inquiry: A Guide to Research for Undergraduates (Broadview, 2025).
Matthew served as the Experiential Learning Coordinator for the former University College from 2020 to 2022 working with faculty and staff to increase and improve hands-on learning, mentoring, and reflection in courses across the curriculum. Next he was hired as the unit’s inaugural Coordinator of Academic Programming and led a peer mentoring program and managed a student study space, the Focused Inquiry Learning Lounge, from 2023 to 2026.
Matthew's service extends to student success and high-impact experiential learning efforts at the university level, too. He is currently Faculty Director of Transformative Learning Course Innovation for the Office of the Provost where he leads the RAMPS (Real-world Applications in Multidisciplinary and Project-based Studies) program and undergraduate course redesign initaitives. He trains and mentors faculty adding research-supportive project-based learning and service-learning elements to their undergraduate courses and directs assessment efforts.
Education
- University of Washington, PhD, English and Textual Studies
- University of Washington, MA, English
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, BA, English and French
Publications
- Twentieth-Century American Fiction in Circulation. Routledge Studies in Twentieth Century Fiction. Routledge, 2020. ISBN 9780367424466.
- Original Inquiry: A Guide to Research for Undergraduates. Broadview Press, 2025. ISBN 9781554816002.
Courses
- UNIV 200: Advanced Focused Inquiry: Literacies, Research, and Communication
- UNIV 299: What's the Big Idea?
- UNIV 305: Interdisciplinary Social Innovation: Designing Social Change
- ENGL 215: Reading Literature
Affiliations
- VCU Transformative Learning
- Council for Undergraduate Research
- Reception Study Society
- Society for Textual Scholarship
Awards
- VCU Service-Learning Faculty Fellow, 2019–2020