Education

Ph.D.               Temple University, Department of English, 2011.

Certificate       Women’s Studies Program, Temple University, 2011.  

M.A.                Temple University, Department of English, 2005.

B.A.                 University of Virginia, Department of English, 1995.

 

Dissertation Committee

Carolyn Karcher (Chair), James Salazar, Roland Williams, and John Ernest

 

Dissertation

“Theorizing and Performing Socio-political Representation: Harriet Wilson, Harriet, Jacobs, and Pauline Hopkins”

 

Fields of Specialization

African American and Euro American Literature 1845-1945, Postcolonial Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Postcolonial Theory, Women’s Studies, and Performance Studies 

 

Academic Positions:

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Salisbury University 

September 2011- Present

 

Multicultural Fellow, Department of English, Pennsylvania State University, Abington College 

September 2009-June 2011

           

Consortium for Faculty Diversity Fellow, Haverford College 

September 2008-May 2009

           

Teaching Assistant, Department of English, Temple University

September 1999-December 2002

           

Academic Intern, Undergraduate English Office, Temple University

January 2003-May 2003

 

Honors and Fellowships

Spring 2014                  Woodrow Wilson Junior Faculty Career Enhancement Fellowships Honorable Mention

 

Summer 2013              NEH Institute: - Don’t Deny My Voice: Reading and Teaching African American Poetry                                        

Fall 2012                     Salisbury University Faculty Development Travel Grant

 

Summer 2012              Salisbury University Foundation, Inc. Grant 

 

Spring 2012                 Salisbury University Fulton Faculty Grant

 

Fall 2009-Spring ’11    Multicultural Fellow, Pennsylvania State, Abington College

 

Fall 2009                     Building Solidarity Award, Philadelphia Chapter Jobs with Justice

Summer 2008-’09        Consortium for Faculty Diversity Dissertation Fellowship, Haverford College     

 

Spring 2008                 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship Program Honorable Mention

 

Summer 2007              College of Liberal Arts Graduate Student Travel and Research Award, Temple University                                         

Spring 2000                 Distinguished Teaching Award, Department of English, Temple University                                          

 

Spring 1995                 Award for Significant Contribution to Hillel and Jewish Life, University of Virginia                                                    

Selected Presentations

 

May 2013 “Clarence and Corinne, or God’s Way: Mrs. A.E. Johnson’s Lesson in Black Voices”

American Literature Association Annual Conference, Session Organized by the Children’s Literature Society and the African American Culture Society, Boston, MA        

 

May 2012 “Savage Cultural Performance in the Poetry of Pauline Johnson”

American Literature Association Annual Conference; Session Organized by 

San Francisco, CA      

 

March 2012 “The Curse of Caste: Mulattoes, the Civil War, and other Tragedies,”

Invited Talk, SUNY Rockland              

 

April 2011 “The Sounds and Choreography of Resistance: Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” College Language Association Annual Convention, Spartanburg, SC

 

November 2010 “In Medias Res: Teaching Critical Reflection on Feminism’s Now,” Feminism in Practice Conference, Lehigh University    

 

May 2009 “Pauline Hopkins: Middle-Class Clubwoman or Double-agent Bohemian,”

American Literature Association Annual Conference, Session Organized by the Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins Society, Boston, MA   

 

February 2009 “Fighting Like a Man in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Invited Talk, SUNY Rockland            

 

December 2006 “The Social Justice of Pauline Hopkins’s Theatrical Aesthetic,” Modern   

Language Association Annual Convention, Session Organized by The Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, Philadelphia, PA

                                   

April 2005 “The Deconstruction, Elision, and Negotiation of Race, Gender, Place, and Labor in Our Nig,” Celebrating the African American Novel Conference, Pennsylvania State University

 

April 2002 “Harriet Jacobs: Creating Citizenship and Solidarity through the Body,”

Society for the Study of Narrative Literature Annual Conference, Michigan State University

 

Works in Progress

Book

Theorizing and Performing Representation: African American Women Writers 1840-1930

 

Peer-reviewed Articles

Invited Submission: “Pauline Hopkins: Middle-Class Clubwoman or Double-agent Bohemian,” New England Quarterly

 

Invited Submission: “Savage Cultural Performance in the Poetry of Pauline Johnson,” MELUS

 

Peer-reviewed Chapters

Accepted and Under Review: Clarence and Corinne, or God’s Way: Mrs. A.E. Johnson’s Lesson in Black Voices.” Early African American Children’s Literature: An anthology of original essays. Eds. Linda Salem and Dorothy Clark. Expected publication 2015. 

 

Book Reviews

Invited: Rev. of Rhetorics of Literacy: The Cultivation of American Dialect Poetry, Nadia Nurhussein. American Periodicals. Expected publication 2014.

 

Teaching Experience 

African American Literature: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Present – Salisbury University

Every Other Spring Semester

Designed a hybrid (online and traditional classroom), upper-level survey course that teaches the fundamentals of literary analysis, critical reading, and college writing. Teaches students the conventions, terminology, and history of African American literature written from Harlem Renaissance to the twenty-first century. 

 

African American Literature: From the Beginnings to the Harlem Renaissance - Salisbury University Every Other Fall Semester

Designed a hybrid (online and traditional classroom), upper-level survey course that teaches the fundamentals of literary analysis, critical reading, and college writing. Teaches students the conventions, terminology, and history of African American literature written from the colonial period to the Harlem Renaissance. 

 

African American Literature: A People’s Search for a Home - Salisbury University

Every Other Spring Semester

Designed an upper-level survey course that teaches the fundamentals of literary analysis, critical reading, and college writing. Teaches students the conventions, terminology, and history of African American literature written from 1845 to 1919.

 

American Women Writers of Color - Salisbury University

Every Other Spring Semester.

Designed an upper-level survey course that teaches the fundamentals of literary analysis, critical reading, and college writing. Studies Native American, African-American, Chicana (or Latina), and Asian American women's writing through the theme of American identity. 

 

Understanding Poetry: Language’s Borders - Salisbury University

Each Fall Semester

Designed a General Education, survey course that teaches and reviews the fundamentals of literary analysis, college writing, and critical reading and gives students an understanding of the history, conventions, formal elements, and forms of poetry.   

 

The Short Story: The Art of Storytelling - Salisbury University

Each Spring Semester

Designed a General Education, survey course that teaches and reviews the fundamentals of literary analysis, college writing, and critical reading and gives students an understanding of the history, conventions, and terminology of the short story.   

 

Introduction to Women’s Studies: Women’s Worlds, at Home and Abroad – Pennsylvania State University, Abington College, Spring 2010

Designed a survey course that provided an interdisciplinary overview of scholarly theories and research pertaining to women’s experiences and women’s statuses in contemporary American society and international contexts.  

 

Black American Literature: A People’s Search for a Home – Pennsylvania State University, Abington College, Spring 2010

Designed a survey course that taught the fundamentals of literary analysis, critical reading, and college writing.  Taught students the conventions, terminology, and history of African American      literature written from 1845 to 1973 through the theme of home. 

 

Authors and Contexts: Pauline Hopkins, William Wells Brown, and the Freedoms of Performance – Pennsylvania State University, Abington College, Spring 2010

Designed an upper-level course that examined the works of Pauline Hopkins and William Wells Brown within the political and artistic contexts of the periods in which they wrote.  Course reviewed skills essential to developing and writing research papers and included archival research into nineteenth-century African American periodicals.

                         

Introduction to African American Literature: Race, Writing, and Liberty – Temple University, Haverford College, Pennsylvania State University, Abington College, Fall 2002, Spring 2001, Fall 2007, Spring 2009, Fall 2009 

Designed a survey course that taught the fundamentals of literary analysis, critical reading, and college writing. Taught students the conventions, terminology, and history of African American literature written from the commencement of slavery to the early 1900s. 

 

Introduction to Fiction: The Art of Storytelling – Temple University, Fall 2007

Designed a survey course that taught and reviewed the fundamentals of literary analysis, college writing, and critical reading and gave students an understanding of the conventions, genres (in particular fables, folk tales, short stories, and the novel), and terminology of fiction. 

 

Honors Composition and Literature: Her Story on Caribbean History –

Temple University, Fall 2002

Designed a hybrid composition and literature course for freshman honors students.  The course explored how postcolonial Anglophone Caribbean women writers use gender, the body, and   sexuality to critique nationalism and related issues such as identity and displacement.

           

Introduction to Literature: Texts: Their Worlds and Contexts – Temple University, Fall 2001

Designed a survey course on the fundamentals of literary analysis, college writing, and critical reading; taught students the conventions, genres, and terminology of English literature.  Course included a class trip to the Temple Theater to view “Seven Guitars” by August Wilson, the author of a play studied by the class.  

 

Introduction to Composition – Temple University, Fall 1999-Fall 2001, Spring 2008

Taught department-designed syllabi Fall 1999 and Spring 2008. 

Designed writing courses Spring 2000, Fall 2000, and Fall 2001 (Exploring the Truth About Crime to Find Our Ideas About Truth and Africans in the New World) that engaged students in the analysis of the underlying ideological and rhetorical strategies of written arguments and taught students the fundamentals of research, academic writing, paper revision, and critical           reading.  These courses were a part of learning communities, in which I worked with faculty in the disciplines of Criminal Justice and African American Studies to create and achieve goals for a shared group of students.  Created and coordinated service projects at two local parole facilities for the Criminal Justice/Composition courses.  The composition class in the African American  Studies learning community visited the African American Museum of Philadelphia at the end of the semester.

 

Reading Course: Public Readings on Intimate Lives – Student Support Services, Russell Conwell Center Summer Bridge Program, Temple University, 2002

In an intensive six-week course, taught students analytical reading, critical thinking, and note-taking skills.  The course included the application of these skills in debates, daily assignments, and midterm and final exams. 

 

Language Arts Seminar: The Arts and Tools of Academia – Education Services Component, Russell Conwell Center Summer Bridge Program, Temple University, 1999

In an intensive six-week course, taught students analytical reading, critical thinking, expository and rhetorical writing, note-taking skills, study habits, and geography.  The course included the application of these skills in quizzes, a final exam, writing assignments, and class discussion. 

 

Tutor: 

Faculty Tutor, Haverford College Writing Center, Philadelphia, PA  

September 2009-May 2011

Assisted seniors, from all disciplines, with the development and writing of theses.  Designed and taught workshops on the process of writing a thesis.       

 

Reading and Writing Specialist, Community College of Philadelphia Central Learning Lab,

Philadelphia, PA

September 2008-December 2008 

Assisted undergraduate students with the development, revision, and organization of papers, textual analysis, study skills, grammar, and punctuation one-on-one and in labs. 

 

Writing Tutor, Philadelphia University Teaching and Learning Center, Philadelphia, PA 

September 2000-May 2001.

 

Writing Tutor, Temple University Athletic Study Hall, Philadelphia, PA,

August 1998-April 1999.

 

Academic Service

African-American History Assistant Professor Job Search Committee, Salisbury University 2013-2014

Poet, Wordstock, Salisbury, University, April 2013

Creative Writing Fiction Assistant Professor Job Search Committee, Salisbury University, 2012-2013

Chair, African American History Month Committee, Salisbury University, 2013-Present

African American History Month Committee, Salisbury University, 2012-2013

Women’s History Month Committee, Salisbury, University, 2012-Present 

Director, American Women Writers of Color Conference, 2012-Present  

President, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins Society, 2013-Present    

Parliamentarian (founding member), Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins Society, 2010-2013   

English Department Library Liaison, Salisbury University, 2012-Present

Undergraduate English Committee, Salisbury University, 2011-Present  

Black Student Union Co-Adviser, Abington College, 2009-2011           

 

Community Service

Judge, Poetry Out Loud Wicomico County Competition, January 2013 

 

Professional Affiliations

Modern Language Association

American Literature Association

College Language Association

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins Society