Areas of Specialization
Rhetoric and composition; cinema studies; cultural studies; critical theory; modern and contemporary American literature.
Scholarly and Professional Achievements
Understanding Dave Eggers. University of South Carolina Press, 2013.
“Chaotic Confinements: Interrogating Linearity, Multiplicity, and Modernity through Adrian Sitaru’s The Cage.” Short Film Studies. 3.1., 2012.
Writing Celebrity: Stein, Fitzgerald, and the Modern(ist) Art of Self-Fashioning. Palgrave, 2011.
“Literary Modernism in the Age of Celebrity.” Modernism/modernity 17.2, 2011.
“Gertrude Stein’s Everybody’s Autobiography and the Art of Contradictions.” Journal of Modern Literature. 32.1., 2010.
What is your teaching style?
All of the classes that I teach, from first-year composition courses to advanced seminars, are focused on showing students how writing can transform the way we see and act in the world. In the classroom, I strive to create a supportive community that facilitates student engagement. Guided discussions, group debates, class presentations, and on-line collaborations are just a few of the ways that I encourage students to engage in conversations about writing.
Why do you do what you do?
Because I love teaching and because writing plays an important role in everyone’s life, whether we recognize it or not. Writing is something that we all do in some form every single day.
How do you make learning engaging?
My primary goal as a teacher is to help students get wherever it is that they want to be. To do this, I create projects that engage with the world while giving students room to pursue the subjects that interest them most. As a result, my classroom activities are constantly changing in order to keep pace with the marketplace that awaits after graduation.