Teaching

Rocky Hill Country Day School

Humanities Department Chair
Humanities Teacher

East Greenwich, RI

Eastern Washington University

Assistant Professor

Spokane, WA

Baruch College

Adjunct Instructor

New York, NY

Advanced Humanities 12: Borderlands

In this interdisciplinary course for seniors, students consider the notion of "the border" as a literal as well as abstract concept. They study border literatures, and also study the history of border communities. In so doing, they develop a dynamic approach to transnational culture and history. For instance, they take up such tasks as studying the contributions of Chinese immigrants in New Spain, and reading the Chinese epic, Journey to the West, in order to discuss the mobile extension of culture and influence. They discuss the role of the translator in translated texts, along with cultural and historical issues of translation and authority. They discuss how to understand and produce memes as a form of specialized cultural knowledge and communication. They go on to discuss topics such as post-humanism and eco-criticism. Students produce dramatic adaptations, translations, research essays, podcasts, and interview series as assessments and carry out "Harkness-style" seminar discussions during each class session.

Advanced Humanities 11: American Studies

In this Interdisciplinary course for juniors, students explore American history and culture from the Ice Age to today, with a focus on decentering received notions of nationalism and dominant ideologies. Students engage in regular, graded discussions and produce a number of assessments in different modes and media across the year. For instance, students developed research projects to answer whether or not the United States constitutes a true democracy. They wrote resumes and cover letters, along with reflections upon how these texts demonstrate their position within American economy and culture. They explored literature written In Cape Verdean Kriolu They also produced creative works and conducted podcast interviews.

Senior Elective: Political Polarization

Senior-level study of political polarization throughout history, with a particular emphasis on contemporary topics in American politics and current events. Students read documentary materials, articles, and scholarship in advance of student-driven discussions. Students design and carry out a "civic action" as their culminating project.

Senior Elective: The Power of Women

A cultural study of women in politics and public life, as well as an examination of individual experiences. In addition to extensive reading and discussions, students designed presentations to be given to the entire school on topics such as LGBTQ+ activism, toxic masculinity, radicalism and resistance. Students also carried out an "act of power" as a culminating project, in which they were challenged to manifest their personal understanding of the course topics as action In the world.

Advanced Seminar: Ethics

Discussion and debate-oriented course in which students learned the history of important schools of ethics, and worked together to address weekly ethics case studies on real world topics, ranging from such topics as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to text ghosting, to bioethics, etc. Students designed their own case study as a final project.

Advanced Seminar: Psychology

Students in this course studied the sometimes-problematic history of psychology as an evolving discipline. They also learned contemporary theories on topics related to cognition, mood disorders, learning, mental illness, and therapeutic practices. They also considered how to apply psychology as an interdisciplinary study, with relevance to fields such as literature and film. Students designed and carried out their own psychology studies as a final project.

AP US History

Taught to AP-level juniors, this course covered topics from prehistory through our present moment, with an emphasis on topical connections, in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between historical events and culture in the United States. Students carried out daily discussions about primary source texts, case studies, and scholarship, and produced academic analyses, along with multimedia projects, such as digital mapping projects.

US History

Taught to juniors, this course covered topics from prehistory through our present moment, with an emphasis on topical connections, in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between historical events and culture in the United States. Students carried out daily discussions about primary source texts, case studies, and scholarship, and produced academic analyses, along with multimedia projects, such as digital mapping projects.

ENGL 596: Master’s Seminar: Designing Digital Archives

Co-taught with Professor of Technical Communication, this master’s-level course collects underrepresented archival material that has heretofore not been critically preserved or analyzed, including literature from the Spokane tribe of Eastern Washington. It also bridges the gap between composition studies in literature and technical writing programs. Students additionally research issues of access in the Washington State Public Education System and the Washington State Prison System. The class then creates an archive of written and non-written regional literatures. Finally, students use social media platforms in order to engage the public in archival curation and to collaborative publication.

ENGL 347: World Literature: Diaspora

In this course, students study narratives, histories, drama, and non-fiction essays related to themes of diasporic movements and the syncretic cultures to arise from diaspora. In particular, readings focus on African and Atlantic diaspora, and Spanish-language literature from the Americas.

ENGL 344: Survey of American Literature 1865 to Present

Survey of literature from the period spanning the American Civil War to the contemporary era. This course asserts a hemispheric interpretation of Americanist themes, emphasizing the porosity of borders, along with the extension of American cultural influence and hegemony. It incorporates Anglophonic, Spanish language, and Indigenous-American texts, as well as genre including horror and speculative fiction. Ida B. Wells, Mark Twain, Derek Walcott, Octavia Butler, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Janet Campbell Hale, Roxanne Gay, and Jamaica Kincaid.

ENGL 343: American Literature Survey: Origins to 1865

Survey of topics and texts in American literature and literatures of the Americas, including First American literatures, Spanish-language poetry, colonial and postcolonial text, transnational political and creative writing, fiction and personal narratives from the Americas. Texts include Juana de Asbaje, Cabeza de Vaca, Venture Smith, Cotton Mather, Unca Eliza Whitfield, James Fennimore Cooper, Olaudah Equiano, Benjamin Franklin, David Walker, Edgar Allen Poe, andLouisa May Alcott.

ENGL 270: Introduction to Fiction

Introduction to theories and practices of fiction, literary analysis, and creative writing. Students in this course, including first-year writers, and advanced Running Start high school in college students, learn to draft and produce written analyses of works spanning a wide breadth of genre, origin, and theme, from sources including Spanish language and First American authors, short fiction, and graphic novels. Texts include Will Cather, Edith Wharton, William Earle, Alice Munro, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Frank Miller, Shirley Jackson, Jorge Luis Borges, and Louise Erdrich.

ENGL 439: Topics in American Literature: Moby-Dick

Seminar analysis of Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, Moby-Dick. Students discuss topics including scriptural typology, queer and homosocial subtext, democratic framing, structuralism, the development of the novel, national and Atlantic literature, and philosophy. The course concludes with a student-organized public symposium in which students present scholarly papers and creative works in a conference format.

ENGL 438: Topics in American Literature: Zombies, Cannibals, and Witches: Early American Horror Seminar

Seminar-based analysis of early American horror stories, novels, novellas, and music, from the colonial era through the early twentieth century. Texts include Washington Irving, Charles Brockden Brown, George Lippard, Herman Melville, John Neal, Edith Wharton, and H.P Lovecraft.

ENG 2100: Introduction to Literature and Composition Topic: Cosmopolitanism Disputes

Introductory composition, grammar, analysis, and research. Readings include Herman Melville, Charles W. Chesnutt, Edith Wharton, Amiri Baraka, Marshall Berman, Joan Didion, Junot Diaz, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

ENG 2150: Intermediate Literature and Composition Topic: History, Memory, and Haunting

Mastery of composition, grammar, literary analysis, and research. Introduction to critical theory, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Judith Butler, Ian Baucom. Readings include Richard Wright, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Wole Soyinka, William Earle.

ENG 2150: Intermediate Literature and Composition

Composition, analysis, and research. Readings include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anna Julia Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Law Olmsted, Pierre Bourdieu, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Benedict Anderson.

ENG 2100: Introduction to Literature and Composition

Introductory composition, grammar, analysis, and research. Texts include Frederick Douglass, Catharine Sedgwick, Henry David Thoreau, and Ernest Hemingway.