EDUCATION

Ph.D., English, Lehigh University, 2019                                               

M.A., English, Arcadia University, with high honors, 2009 

B.A., English and Business Management, Moravian College, Magna Cum Laude, 2004        

 

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

Assistant Professor of English, Non-Tenure Track, Kutztown University, 2019 – present

Adjunct Instructor, English Department, Lehigh University, 2021 – present

Adjunct Instructor, English Department, Moravian College, 2020 – present

Senior Teaching Fellow, English Department, Lehigh University, 2017 – 2019

Teaching Fellow, English Department, Lehigh University, 2012 – 2017

Adjunct Instructor, English Department, Northampton Community College, 2009 – 2012, summer 2013

Adjunct Instructor, English Department, Moravian College, 2010 – 2012, 2020 – present

Adjunct Instructor, English Department, Lehigh Carbon Community College, 2009 – 2011

 

 

SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

‘a solemn tortured shadow’: Helene Johnson’s Traumatic Pastoral,” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment  Oxford UP on April 5, 2021

 A Post-Pastoral Reading of Ron Rash’s ‘Speckled Trout,'” The Explicator, vol. 79, iss. 3, 2021.

 Toward an Understanding of Helene Johnson’s Hybrid Modernist Poetics,” College Language Association Journal, vol. 61, issue 1-2, 2018

 

 

BOOK REVIEWS  (Selected)

Review of Selected Poems: The Director’s Cut, by John Yamrus, Compulsive Reader

Review of Scraping Away, by Fred Shaw, Appalachian Lit, Iss. 1, spring 2022

Review of A Person Worth Knowing, by Dawn Leas, FootHills Publishing, Small Harbor Press, 2021.

Review of Waiting for the Dead to Speak, by Brian Fanelli, The Pedestal Magazine Issue 79 (December 2016).

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

Competitive Research Funding

College of Arts & Sciences Graduate Summer Fellowship, Lehigh University, 2018

Summer Research Grant, Humanities Center, Lehigh University, 2017

Dissertation Fellowship, English Department, Lehigh University, 2016

Summer Tuition Scholarship, English Department, Lehigh University, 2013

 

Creative Writing Competitions, Awards, and Fellowships

Finalist, House Bird, Gerald Cable Book Award, Silverfish Review Press, 2019

Nominee, Best New Poets 2020 Anthology for the poem “Elegy Written for My Cousin Laura,” nominated by Pembroke Magazine

Finalist, House Bird, CPR Book Award, Cider Press Review, 2019

Finalist, House Bird, Gerald Cable Book Award, Silverfish Review Press, 2018

Nominee, Best New Poets 2019 Anthology for the poem “Palimpsest,” nominated by Cumberland River Review

Finalist, “The Second Offer,” 2018 Rash Award in Poetry, Broad River Review, 2018

Nominee, 2018 Best of the Net Anthology for the poem “Commercial for a Midlife Crisis,” nominated by Crack the Spine Literary Magazine.

Finalist, November Weather Spell, Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Contest, Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2018

Finalist, November Weather Spell, Keystone Chapbook Award, Seven Kitchens Press, 2018

Finalist, House Bird, Gerald Cable Book Award, Silverfish Review Press, 2018

Featured Poet on “The Take,” in Mud Season Review, (June/July 2018)

Contest Winner, “Dumping Leaves,” Annual Poetry Contest, Third Wednesday, 2018

First Place, Poetry Writing Contest, Pennsylvania Writers Conference, Wilkes University, August 5-6, 2016

Second Place, Open Mic Competition, Pennsylvania Writers Conference, Wilkes University, August 5-6, 2016

Mountaintop Creative Writing Fellowship, Department of English, Lehigh University, Summer 2016

Showcase Poet, in The Aurorean, (Spring/Summer 2016)

 

Teaching Awards

Award for Excellence in Teaching by an Adjunct Faculty Member nominee, Northampton Community College, nominated, Spring 2011               

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Composition

“Research and Composition: New Normal(s),” Composition 200, Kutztown University, Spring 2021 (multiple sections)

“Effective Composition: Writing for the ‘Real World,'” Composition 100, Kutztown University, Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Fall 2020 (multiple sections)

“Research and Composition: Place and Community,” Composition 200, Kutztown University, Fall 2019 (multiple sections), Spring 2020 (multiple sections)

“American Protest,” English 2, Lehigh University, Spring 2018       

“Place and Community,” English 2, Lehigh University, Spring 2017

“Write Local, Think Global,” English 1, Lehigh University, Fall 2016

“Reading for Social Justice,” English 1, Lehigh University, Fall 2015; Fall 2014

“Literature and the Environment,” English 2, Lehigh University, Spr. 2014, Spr. 2013

“Why Do We Write?” English 1, Lehigh University, Fall 2012; Fall 2013

“21st-Century American Controversies,” Writing 100, Moravian College, Spring 2012

“War Writing,” Writing 100, Moravian College, Spring 2010, Fall 2011

“College English 1,” Northampton Community College, Fall 2009 to Spring 2012

“Information Research Skills,” Lehigh Carbon Community College, Fall 2009, Spr. 2011

“Business and Report Writing,” Northampton Community College, Fall 2009 to Spring 2012, Summer 2013 (on-site and online sections)

Literature and Film

“Poetic Short Forms,” Online Course, 100-level, Moravian College, Summer Session II, 2021 [upcoming]

“American Literature: The Gangster Film,” Online Course, 100-level, Moravian College, Summer 2020

“American Literature: Disney Ecologies,” Online Course, 100-level, Moravian College, Summer 2020

“Contemporary Poetics & Critical Reading,” Advanced Seminar, Lehigh University, Fall 2018, Spring 2019 (multiple sections)

“American Dream(s),” Advanced Seminar, Lehigh University, Spring 2015, Fall 2017 

“Feels Good to be a Gangster (on Screen),” Online Course, 100-level, Lehigh University, Summer 2016

“Survey Course, Literatures of English,” Northampton Community College, Fall 2009 to Spr. 2012

“Survey Course, Literatures of English,” Lehigh Carbon Community College, Spr. 2011 

Basic Writing Skills

“Fundamentals of Writing,” Lehigh Carbon Community College, Fall 2010

Creative Writing

 “Poetry Matters,” 100-level English course, Lehigh University, Fall 2017, Fall 2018

“Amaranth,” Faculty Advisor, Managing Editor, Lehigh University, Fall 2015; Spr. 2016; Fall 2016; Spring 2017

 

 

CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION [SELECTED]

Conference Presentations

“Haunted by Violence: The Pastoral Visions of Harlem Renaissance Poets.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference in Philadelphia, PA, March 11-13 2021

“‘I didn’t like poetry’: Un-Teaching the Teaching of Poetry,” Craft(ing) the Classroom, A Poetry and Pedagogy Conference,” in West Chester, PA February 18-20 2021

“Reinventing Family: The People in Poems, the Poems in People,” Pop Culture  Association Conference 2020, in Philadelphia, PA Apr 15-18 2020 [virtual poetry reading took place on April 20 2020]

“What Lives Inside Us: Re-Claiming Creativity in the Composition Classroom,”  SUNY Council on Writing Conference: The Art of Writing/The Writing of Art, in Purchase, NY Nov 8-9 2019 

“‘what is / a poet—if any / exists?’: Poets and Building Community,” Pennsylvania College English Association in Bethlehem, PA, March 23-25 2018 (also panel chair)

“‘I see the blade’: The Radical Nature of Jean Toomer’s Pastoral,” Humanities Center grant presentation, Lehigh University,in Bethlehem, PA March 20 2018

“‘Let Me Sing My Song’: Finding the Lost Voice of Helene Johnson,” American Literature Association in Boston, MA May 25-28 2017   

“Traumatic Pastoral: Working Through Helene Johnson’s ‘A Southern Road,’” Wednesdays at Drown, Lehigh University,in Bethlehem, PA October 12 2016

“From Egotism to Empathy: Diversifying the Millennial Generation in the College Classroom” Diverse Literacies Conference 2016 in Macungie, PA Sept 24 2016 (with Evan Reibsome )

“‘A solemn, tortured shadow in the air’: Helene Johnson’s Imagist Protest Poetry,”IX International Aldington Society & V International Imagism Conference in Philadelphia, PA June 30-July 2 2016

“Community Poetry,” Lehigh Grad Student and Alums Roundtable: From Theory to Practice. Lehigh University Literature and Social Justice Graduate Conference in Bethlehem, PA, March 5 2016      

 “Robert Frost’s Pastoral: Uncommon Rural Labor and Common Connection,”Pennsylvania College English Association in Scranton, PA, October 1-3 2015

“‘weeds and shade’: Reconciling the Pastoral and Counter-Pastoral in Jean Toomer’s ‘Reapers’,” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference in Harrisburg, PA, April 3-6 2014

Conference Panels Chaired  

“New Directions in Sherwood Anderson,” American Literature Association Conference in Washington D.C., May 22-25 2014