Profile
When I was trying to decide on a major in college, my dad gave me some advice that profoundly influenced the course of my life: 鈥淒o what you love, and the job will follow.鈥� In my case, he was right. I changed my major to English, and I have never left the field. To appreciate and to work to understand literature is a way to appreciate and understand people. I love to help my students connect their own lives and their own feelings to those of characters with notably different experiences who may have lived in entirely different eras. In the same way, I will always enjoy helping students appreciate the beauty of language as well as helping them to organize their own thoughts, their own language, into compelling essays.
I love how the small classes here at 糖心Vlog allow students to work together to discuss and analyze assigned readings in a comfortable, supportive environment. Similarly, in my role as department head of English, I love helping to create a cohesive community of English majors, minors, and faculty.
Academic Credentials
M.A and Ph.D. – University of California at Davis
B.A. – University of Minnesota
Presentations
鈥�Mothers, Daughters, and Rape Culture in Bonnie Jo Campbell鈥檚听Mothers, Tell Your Daughters鈥� Presented at Pacific Modern Language Association (PAMLA) in San Diego, CA, November 16, 2019.
鈥淕ender and Class in the Country Noir Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell.鈥� Presented at South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, November 3, 2017.
鈥淎tticus Revised: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in听Go Set a Watchman听补苍诲听To Kill a Mockingbird.鈥� Presented at the SSSL (Society for the Study of Southern Literature) Conference at Boston University, March 10, 2016.
鈥�’Make Them Know’: Literary and Cultural Reconstructions in Jesmyn Ward鈥檚听Salvage the Bones.鈥� Presented at the American Studies Association conference at Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas on November 14, 2014.
鈥�’You Can鈥檛 Not Go Home Again’: Jhumpa Lahiri鈥檚 鈥楿naccustomed Earth.鈥欌�� Paper presented at the American Literature Association Conference, Savannah, GA. 9 October 2009.
Reviewed manuscript on听To Kill a Mockingbird听for submission to the听Children鈥檚 Literature Association Quarterly听(Katherine Capshaw Smith, Acquisitions Editor). August 2009.
鈥淩eframing Responses to Masculine Performances in Barbara Kingsolver鈥檚听Prodigal Summer.鈥� Paper presented at the Society for the Study of Southern Literature Biennial Conference, Williamsburg, VA. 19 April 2008.
Publications
鈥淢others, Daughters, and Rape Culture in听Mothers, Tell Your Daughters.鈥澨�Michigan Salvage: The Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell.听Ed by Lisa DuRose, RossTangedal, and Andy Oler. Michigan State University Press, 2023, pp. 86-98.
“Atticus Revised: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Go Set a Watchman听补苍诲听To Kill a Mockingbird.鈥澨�Mockingbird Grows Up: Re-Reading Harper Lee since Watchman.听Edited by Michele Reutter听and听Jonathan S. Cullick.听University of Tennessee Press, 2020.
听“Sexual Violence and Cultural Crime in the Country Noir Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell.”听Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction,听19 June, 2019.
DOI:听
鈥溾�楳ake Them Know鈥�: Jesmyn Ward鈥檚 Salvage the Bones,鈥澨�The South Carolina Review. Fall 2016. Vol. 49, No. 1: 48-58.
Wrote new section on听听 for听听 Published in July 2015.
鈥溾�� TheConversation.com February 5, 2015
鈥淪pace and Hybridity in Jhumpa Lahiri鈥檚 鈥楿naccustomed Earth鈥� and 鈥極nly Goodness.鈥欌�澨�South Asian Review听32.2 (November 2011): 209-222.
鈥淩eframing Responses to Masculine Performances in Barbara Kingsolver鈥檚听Prodigal Summer.鈥澨�South Carolina Review. 42.1 (Fall 2009). 123-131.
鈥淗arper Lee鈥檚 Structuring of Her Narrator鈥檚 Rebellion in听To Kill a Mockingbird.鈥� Farley, Alice Hall (Ed).听Harper Lee: Essays and Reflections.听 University of Tennessee Press. (2007): 176-204.
“Claiming Personas and Rejecting Other-Imposed Identities: Self-Writing as Self-Righting in the Autobiographies of Richard Rodriguez.”听 Reprinted in听Contemporary Literary Criticism: Volume 155.听 Ed. Janet Witalec. Detroit: The Gale Group, (2002): 271-279.
Prefaces on 鈥淪appho,鈥� 鈥淧lato,鈥� and 鈥淒ante.鈥澨�Global Literature: One World, Many Voices, Volume One听 (Second Edition). Ed. Charles Duncan.听 Orlando: Harcourt, 2000.
鈥淕oing Nowhere Slow: The Post-South World of Bobbie Ann Mason”听The Southern Literary Journal听32 (Fall 1999): 87-97.
“Gender Conflicts and Their ‘Dark’ Projections in Coming of Age White Female Southern Novels.”听听Southern Quarterly听(Summer 1998): 121-129.
Prefaces on 鈥淕ender and Society,鈥� 鈥淩obert Hayden,鈥� 鈥淪eamus Heaney,鈥� and 鈥淩ichard Rodriguez.鈥澨�Global Literature: One World, Many Voices, Volume Two.听 Ed. Charles Duncan.听 Orlando: Harcourt, 1998.
Prefaces on 鈥淧lato鈥� and 鈥淒ante.鈥澨�Global Literature: One World, Many Voices, Volume One.听 Ed. Charles Duncan.听 Orlando: Harcourt, 1997.
“Claiming Personas and Rejecting Other-Imposed Identities: Self-Writing as Self-Righting in the Autobiographies of Richard Rodriguez.”听Biography听19听(Spring 1996): 119-136.
