Ph.D.   English, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Graduate Certificate Women’s Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
M.A.   English (Creative Writing), University of Georgia, Athens, GA
B.A.     English, summa cum laude, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

My research is primarily on contemporary women’s autobiographical writings, whether those writings are ostensibly fiction, nonfiction, or a combination of the two. I am most interested, in fact, in blended forms: montage or femmage, as well as the medium of the graphic memoir.

My interest in contemporary writing of all types resulted in the founding of the Society for Contemporary Literature in May of 2011. Originating under the aegis of the American Literature Association, this society currently sponsors panels at various conferences, those focused on American literature and otherwise, and hopes to expand its activities to host its own conference or symposium in the next few years. Fellow scholars should contact me directly to join this group.

I also explore the way aspects of contemporary identity and positionality affect social justice issues, as shown in the edited collection Privilege and Prejudice. My research is primarily on contemporary women’s autobiographical writings, whether those writings are ostensibly fiction, nonfiction, or a combination of the two. I am most interested, in fact, in blended forms: montage or femmage, as well as the medium of the graphic memoir.

 Books
Editor. Privilege and Prejudice: Twenty Years with the Invisible Knapsack. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009. 182 pp.
Editor. Women Know Everything!:  3241 Quotes by Women.  Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books, 2007, rev. 2010. 480 pp.

“Words Are All You Need: Speech Acts in Lorrie Moore’s Anagrams.” Journal of American Studies, Special Issue on Lorrie Moore. Forthcoming.
“Multi-Ethnic Identity and Denise Chavez’s The Last of the Menu Girls.”  Blackwell’s Companion to the American Short Story.  Eds. James Nagel and Alfred Bendixen. Blackwell, 2009.
“Consuming and Dying: Meaning and the Marketplace in Don DeLillo’s White Noise.”  LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 18.4 (2007): 285-302.
“Othered Writers, Other Forms:  Biomythography and Automythography.” Genre 39.2 (2006): 329-46.
“Taking Stock in Live People: Using Contemporary Literary Journals in the American Literature Classroom.”  Pedagogy 5.3 (Fall 2005): 461-64.
“Identity in the Short Story Cycles of Lorrie Moore.”  Journal of the Short Story in English 39 (Fall 2002): 109-22.
“Poe’s Feminine Ideal.” The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe.  Ed. Kevin Hayes. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. 148-62.

Areas: contemporary literature, American literature, women’s writing, women’s studies
ENGL 136      The Graphic Novel
ENGL 140      Contemporary Literature
ENGL 200      Introduction to Critical Reading (Literary Theory)        
ENGL 232      American Literature from 1865
ENGL 050      Introduction to Creative Writing
ENGL 213      Introduction to Poetry Writing
ENGL 004      Basic Writing Skills
ENGL 490      Women Writers (cross-listed with Women’s Studies)   
ENGL 487W  Senior Seminar on Postmodernism
ENGL 419      Advanced Business Writing
ENGL 417      The Editing Process
ENGL 003      Traditions in American Literature
ENGL 001      Understanding Literature (Honors Seminar)                        
PSU 001          Freshman Seminar: Issues in Women’s Health
WMNST 001  Introduction to Women’s Studies
WMNST 301  Introduction to Feminist Thought

Lion Heart Award, Penn State Abington Senior Class, 2008.
Chief Ogontz Award, Penn State Abington, 2008.
Club Advisor of the Year, Penn State Abington, 2007.
Abington Nominee, Atherton Teaching Award, Penn State University, 2006, 2007.
Outstanding Teacher Award, Penn State Abington, 2005.
Recipient, “Above & Beyond” Student-Selected Faculty Award, April 2004.