I study and engage students in discoveries about the craft of human expression.   More specifically, I am interested in interplay, the ways in which forms of expression from various contexts, media, traditions, and communities engage with one another on the page.  I explore this interplay in my study of the blues-infused storytelling of African American writer Ernest J. Gaines, the work I have done on writing for digital environments such as ePortfolio, my teaching of writing courses across disciplines (business, technical, and academic writing),  and my current project on text and visuals in graphic novels.  I consider myself a collaborator with students, and each course is a unique opportunity for my students and me to engage together in inquiry, the discovery of knowledge, the interpretation of literary texts, the understanding of how an author responds to his or her cultural and/or historical moment, and the appreciation of what good writing really is.   This collaboration has yielded my co-founding of the UNH chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society, and various independent studies on strategies for teaching composition and Manga as literature.

Ph.D. in English, University of South Carolina
Major Field: Twentieth-Century American Literature
Minor Field: Southern Literature
Dissertation: A Gathering of Voices: Dialogic Interplay in the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines

M.A. in English, Indiana State University

B.A. in English, Manhattan College

"Sustaining and Assessing Shared Learning through ePortfolios," co-authored with Drs. Jerry Allen and Ronald Nowaczyk.  Presented at the16th Annual National Learning Communities Conference, Chicago, IL, November 4, 2011

"From Fortunate Sisterhood to Unfortunate Rivalry: the Transformation of Female Relationships in American Women's Writing and Historical Documents" presented with Dr. Pamela K. Asmus, College English Association Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, April 1, 2011

“‘Woman’s Work’: Frances E. W. Harper’s Models of Female Sanctioned Authorship,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference,” Atlanta, GA, November 6, 1999

“Voices of a Southern Community: The Language of the Quarters in Ernest Gaines’s Fiction,” Southern Writers, Southern Writing: Graduate Conference, Oxford, MS, July 24, 1999

“Giving Voice to the Visions of the Past: The Composition of A Gathering of Old Men,” Southern Humanities Council Annual Conference, Charleston, SC, April 18, 1998

“Rewriting and Righting the Past: Narrative Representations of Justice in A Gathering of Old Men,” Southern Humanities Council Annual Conference, Huntingdon College, March 21, 1998

“The Blend of Objectivity and Subjectivity in a Realist Novel: William Dean Howells’s A Hazard of New Fortunes,” National Social Sciences Association Midwest Conference, St. Louis, MO, March 15, 1991

“Power of Gender” Panel at Reawaken: Sigma Tau Delta International Convention, Moderator and Discussion Facilitator, New Orleans, LA, March 1, 2012

Jump Start Your Semester Faculty Panel for Academic Probation Students, University of New Haven, January 18, 2012.

Fireside Chat on Freshman Common Read, Making the Impossible Possible, University of New Haven,September 2011.

“Breaking Silences,” University of New Haven’s Common Read Discussion Panel on The Kite Runner, University of New Haven, October 8, 2008

Founding Faculty Co-Sponsor of Alpha Sigma Theta, the UNH chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society

Administrative Role

Coordinator of ePortfolios for the College of Arts and Sciences, 2009-2011

Committees

• Co-director of English Department's Assessment Committee, 2010-present
• Member, Freshman Writing Program Review Committee, 2011-present
• Member, ePortfolio Task Force for College of Arts and Sciences, 2009-2011
• Member, College of Arts and Sciences Learning Community Steering Committee, 2008-2009
• Member, Ad Hoc Core Committee, 2007-2009