Summary

I am an academic in the field of literary studies, specializing in American literature but with interests in music, politics, religion, and linguistics.

Teaching Experience

Union College, Department of English, Barbourville, Kentucky

English Program Coordinator, Fall 2019-Present

Associate Professor of English, Fall 2020-Present, tenured Spring 2021

Assistant Professor of English, Fall 2015-Spring 2020

Visiting Instructor of English, Fall 2014-Spring 2015

Courses Taught:

English 472                                         Capstone Seminar

English 462/562 American Cultures in Literature: Jewish-American Literature

English 451                                         Modern Poetry

English 431                                         Contemporary American Fiction

English 421                                         History of the English Language

English 412                                         Composition for Teachers

English 352                                         American Novel

English 342/581                                Texts in History, 1800-Present: The Jazz Age

English 340                                         Writing in the Disciplines: Legal Writing

English 334                                         Small Group Writing Instruction

English 327                                         Theories of Composition and Rhetoric

English 323                                         Nineteenth Century Literature

English 315                                         Creative Writing

English 310                                         Major Author: Willa Cather

English 235                                         Southern Literature

English 232                                         American Literature since 1865

English 231                                         American Literature to 1865

English 211                                         Western Literature in Translation

English 102/112                                First-Year Composition II

English 101/111                                First-Year Composition I

Political Science 383                        Modern Legal and Political Thought

Political Science 382                        Classical Legal and Political Thought

Political Science 231                        International Politics

Political Science 101                        American National Government

Humanities 214                                 Modern World in Crisis

Humanities 211                                 Roots of Modernity: Revolutions in Literature

Music 202                                           Applied Music: Guitar

Music 181                                           Bella Union Choir (instructor of record as guitar accompanist)

General Studies 105                        Igniting Higher Order Thinking

General Studies 103                        College Reading Strategies

Eastern Kentucky University, Department of English, Richmond, Kentucky

Adjunct Faculty, Fall 2011-Fall 2013

Courses Taught:

English 301                                         Advanced Composition

English 210 and 210W                    Enjoying Literature (“W” indicates writing intensive)

English 102                                         Research, Writing, and Rhetoric

English 101                                         Reading, Writing, and Rhetoric

Georgetown College, Department of English, Georgetown, Kentucky

Adjunct Faculty, Fall 2012

Courses Taught:

English 111                                         First-Year Composition I

University of Georgia, Department of English, Athens, Georgia

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Fall 2005-Spring 2011

Courses Taught:

English 2330 American Literature to 1865

English 1101/1102                         Composition, Pre-Law Learning Community Section

English 1101 and 1102                   First-Year Composition

Education

Doctor of Philosophy in English

University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, May 2011

Areas of Focus: American Literature, 19th and 20th Century

Dissertation: Conversations with the Dead: Crisis in the Humanities and the American College Novel

Committee: Douglas Anderson (director), Michael Moran, Hugh Ruppersburg

Juris Doctor

Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, May 2005

Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude and Honors College Scholar

Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, May 2002

Research Interests

My academic training is primarily in American literature, specifically the bridge between 19th and 20th Century prose by American authors. In recent years, I have focused on the relationship between opera and literature as a way of incorporating my musical background into my literary scholarship, and I have recently published or presented several papers in this area. My book, Cather and Opera, is forthcoming from Louisiana State University Press, and I am in the research phase of a long project on the relationship between opera and the political rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln. I’m also interested in Willa Cather’s complicated relationship with race and immigration and have articles in those areas currently under consideration for publication, which dovetails with another project that I’m beginning on Cather and language acquisition, especially the presence of classical and constructed languages on the American frontier.

Academic Publications

Cather and Opera. Forthcoming from Louisiana State University Press May 2022.

“The Overland Monthly and Willa Cather’s Chinese Immigrant Stories.” Under review.

“Race, Appalachia, and Willa Cather’s Sapphira and the Slave Girl.” Under review.

“Geography and Bret Harte’s ‘The Luck of Roaring Camp.’” The Explicator. 79 (2021): 1-4.

“An Operatic Inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Winter Dreams.’” The Explicator. 78 (2020): 165-167.

“Classical Music in Ron Rash’s The Cove and The World Made Straight.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 26.1 (2020): 25-39.

“Gatsby and Lohengrin.” Kentucky Philological Review 32 (2018): 89-103.

“Basil W. Duke: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Other Kentucky Connection.” Kentucky Philological Review 31 (2017): 37-46.

“Write What You Don’t Know: Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys and Therapeutic Creative Writing.” In Michael Chabon’s America: Magic Words, Secret Worlds, and Sacred Spaces. Ed. Bob Batchelor and Jesse Kavadlo. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2014. 201-216.

“Prufrock’s Waltz.” The Explicator 71.3 (2013): 177-179.

“Henry Adams’s Gothic Disposition in Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise.” The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review 10 (2012): 93-107.

“Faulkner’s First War: Conflict, Mimesis, and the Resonance of Defeat.” South Central Review 26.3 (Fall 2009): 120-131.

Conference Presentations and Invited Talks

“Bret Harte, the Overland Monthly, and Cather’s Asian Stories.” Paper Presentation. 66^th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference, Red Cloud, Nebraska/Virtual.

“Race, Appalachia, and Willa Cather’s Sapphira and the Slave Girl.” Paper Presentation. 2021 Faculty Lecture Series, Union College, Barbourville, Kentucky.

“Willa Cather’s ‘The Prodigies’ and E. T. A. Hoffmann’s ‘Rat Krespel’; or, Children Singing to Death.” 2021 Kentucky Philological Association Meeting (virtual).

“Introduction to Writing in the Disciplines.” 2020 Union College Faculty Institute.

“The History of Garbage.” Presidential Address. 2020 Kentucky Philological Association Meeting, Campbellsville, Kentucky.

“Cather, Opera, and Immigration.” Paper Presentation. 2019 Kentucky Philological Association Meeting. Pikeville, Kentucky.

“Hawthorne’s Fanshawe and the Yale Report of 1828: An Early Indictment and an Early Defense of the Liberal Arts.” Paper Presentation. 2018 Kentucky Philological Association Meeting. Barbourville, Kentucky.

“Assassin’s Creed III and John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera.” Paper Presentation. 2017 Popular Culture Association in the South & American Culture in the South Conference. Savannah, Georgia.

“Ambroise Thomas’s Mignon and Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House: An Intertextual Study.” Paper Presentation. 2016-2017 Faculty Lecture Series, Union College, Barbourville, Kentucky.

“Ron Rash’s The World Made Straight and the Rejection of Cultural Expectation: Handel’s Messiah in Appalachia.” Paper Presentation. 2017 Appalachian Studies Association Conference. Blacksburg, Virginia.

“Gatsby and Lohengrin.” Paper Presentation. 2017 Kentucky Philological Association Meeting. Richmond, Kentucky.

“The German Operatic Tradition and Ron Rash’s The Cove.” Paper Presentation. 2016 Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Also: Panel Convener.

“Basil W. Duke: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Other Kentucky Connection.” Paper Presentation. 2016 Kentucky Philological Association Meeting, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Winner: Best of Section.

“Blood Meridian and the Old West Fossil Feuds.” Paper Presentation. 2013 Cormac McCarthy Society Conference, Berea, Kentucky.

“What the Age Demanded: Mauberley and Mendacity in ‘Soldier’s Home.’” Paper Presentation. 2008 International Hemingway Conference, Kansas City, Missouri.

“‘Show me a guy that doesn’t want to come down off the cross’:  Death as Duty in The Fifth Column and ‘Today Is Friday.’” Paper Presentation. 2006 International Hemingway Conference, Málaga and Ronda, Spain.

“Lost and Found Implements of Vice in Elizabeth Madox Roberts’s A Buried Treasure and Black Is My Truelove’s Hair,” Paper Presentation, 2006 Elizabeth Madox Roberts Conference, Springfield, Kentucky.

Professional Service to Institutions

• English Program Coordinator, Union College, Fall 2019-Present.
• Kentucky Philological Association Executive Director, Spring 2021-Present.
• Academic Policy Committee Member, Union College, Fall 2019-Present.
• Committee on Committees Committee Member, Union College, Fall 2020-Present.
• Hiring Committee Member for the position of Assistant Professor of Sociology, Union College, Spring 2021.
• Hiring Committee Member for the position of Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Union College, Winter 2020.
• Hiring Committee Member for the position of Assistant Professor of Music, Union College, Summer 2020.
• Hiring Committee Member for the position of Assistant Professor of Biology, Union College, Summer 2020.
• Quality Enhancement Plan Liaison for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Union College, Fall 2019-Spring 2020.
• Kentucky Philological Association President, Spring 2019-Spring 2020.
• Kentucky Philological Association Treasurer, Spring 2017-Spring 2020.
• Cultural Events Committee Chair, Union College, Fall 2015-Spring 2019.
• English Department Assessment Coordinator, Union College, Fall 2015-Spring 2019.
• Kentucky Philological Association Vice-President, Spring 2018-Spring 2019.
• Faculty Research and Lecture Committee Member, Union College, Fall 2017-Spring 2019.
• Hiring Committee for the position of Professional Development Specialist, Union College, Fall 2019.
• Hiring Committee Member for the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs, Union College, Spring 2018.
• Host Committee for the 2018 Kentucky Philological Association Meeting, Union College, 2017-2018.
• Judged the William Faulkner Rushton Literary Awards, Union College, 2015-Present.
• Planning Committee member for the Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference, Union College, Spring 2017.
• Authored new course proposal for English 3XX, “Introduction to Literary Theory,” Union College, Fall 2017.
• Authored new course proposal for English 3XX, “Special Topics in Professional Writing,” Union College, Spring 2016.
• Authored new course proposal for English 4XX, “Modern Poetry,” Union College, Spring 2015.
• Conducted exit interviews for English majors, Union College, Spring 2015-Present.
• Volunteer Writing Center tutor, Union College, Fall 2014-Spring 2015.
• Authored new course description for English 231: American Literature to 1865, Union College, Fall 2014.
• Participated in First-Year Composition rubric pilot program, Eastern Kentucky University, Academic Year 2012-2013.
• Participated in Thinking and Communicating across the Curriculum (TCAC) program, Eastern Kentucky University, Academic Years 2011-2013.
• Participated in first-year learning communities program, University of Georgia, Academic Years 2009-2011.

Miscellaneous Service and Qualifications

• Manuscript Reviewer, Journal of Appalachian Studies, Fall 2016-Present.
• Consulting Editor, The Explicator, Spring 2012-Present.
• Editorial Board, Kentucky Philological Review, 2017-Present.
• Panel Moderator, Kentucky Philological Association Annual Conference, March 2017-2019.
• Completed training for GNST 105, “Igniting Higher Order Thinking,” Union College, May 2016.
• Panel Moderator, “Exploring the Literary World of Ron Rash,” Appalachian Studies Association Conference, March 2016.
• Completed “Designing and Teaching Online and Hybrid Courses” training at Union College, Summer 2015.
• Extensive experience with online learning management systems, including electronic portfolios, Blackboard, and Moodle.
• Intermediate knowledge of German. Reading knowledge of French, Spanish, and Italian (i.e., capable of basic conversation and of reading literary texts with the aid of a dictionary). Currently studying Koine Greek. Highly proficient in Toki Pona. Some experience/proficiency with several other languages.
• Co-President of the University of Georgia Alumni Association Lexington Chapter, 2013-2015.
• Proficient in fundamentals of web design (HTML, CSS, some JavaScript, as well as WordPress).
• Received advising certificate, University of Georgia, 2011.

Awards and Honors

• SGA Distinguished Professor Award, Union College, 2018.
• Best of Session Award, Kentucky Philological Association, 2016.
• Excellence in Research Award, Union College, 2015.
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (university-wide), University of Georgia, 2010.
• Hugh Kenner Travel Award, University of Georgia, 2006.
• Ottenheimer Brothers Scholarship, Washington and Lee University, 2002-2005.
• Honors College Scholar, Henderson State University, 2002.
• Henderson Study Abroad Grant, Henderson State University, 2001.

Other Work and Related Experience

Educational Testing Service

AP Literature Table Leader, 2019-2021

AP Literature Examination Reader, 2007-2018

As reader, evaluated 1200+ essays over each week-long reading period for the English Literature AP examination. As Table Leader, directed a group of eight readers during the evaluation session.

iEntry, Inc., Lexington, Kentucky

Contract Writer, 2013-2014

Researched, wrote, and edited general interest news items based on trending topics for the WebProNews website. Experience with basic graphic design, WordPress article uploads, and search engine optimization.

University of Georgia Writing Center, Athens, Georgia

Tutor, Spring 2009

Advised students on a variety of mechanical and stylistic issues across many disciplines. Significant experience working with ESL students.

Alaska Public Defender Agency, Kenai, Alaska

Law Clerk, Summer 2004

Drafted pleadings. Counseled clients. Represented clients in various proceedings, including bail reviews, restitution hearings, change of plea hearings, and status hearings. Examined and cross-examined witnesses. Researched issues of fact and law. Plotted trial/hearing strategies.

Blue Ridge Legal Services, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Law Clerk, Summer 2003

Drafted pleadings. Met with clients. Researched various legal issues in the fields of family law, property law, administrative law, immigration law, and bankruptcy. Prepared, argued, and won an administrative appeal.