Education 

PhD, University of South Carolina, 2007
MA, University of Charleston, 2003
BA, College of Charleston, 2001

Areas of Specialization 

Nineteenth-Century British Literature
Gender Studies
Composition and Rhetoric
Popular Culture
Young Adult Literature
Service Learning

Recently Taught Courses 

ENGL 101/102 Capstone          Reading, Writing, and Researching about Harry Potter as a Cultural Phenomenon
ENGL 101/102 Capstone          Reading, Writing, and Researching about The Hunger Games as a Cultural Phenomenon 
ENGL 282 Fiction/Capstone    Study Abroad (Ireland): Irish Fiction for Children 
ENGL 282 Fiction/Capstone    Study Abroad (Portugal): Portuguese Fiction for Children

Selected Publications 

TEXTBOOKS
   • The Carolina Reader for English 101. Editor and managing editor.
       - 2 editions, TopHat, 2022-2023
       - 9 editions, Hayden-McNeil, 2013-2021.
   • The Carolina Rhetoric for English 102. Editor and managing editor.
       - 1 edition, TopHat, 2023.
       - 7 editions, Hayden-McNeil, 2016-2022.

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
   • “‘I Heard Her Murmurs’: Decoding Narratives of Female Desire in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Eliza Fenwick’s Secresy.” Brontë Studies 33.1 (November 2008): 218-231.
   • “‘A Wild, Wick Slip She Was:’ The Passionate Female in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Mary Hays’s The Memoirs of Emma Courtney.” Bronte Studies 31.2 (July 2006): 133-43.
   • “Lady Audley as Sacrifice: Curing Female Disadvantage in Lady Audley’s Secret.” Victorian Newsletter 105 (2004): 24-27.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS
   • "My Search for My [Child's] Birthmother." Bustle (7 May 2015). 
   • "Why Responding to Bigotry on Facebook Matters." Bustle (5 May 2015). 
   • "Why White People Need to Listen to Baltimore." Bustle (28 April 2015). 
   • "My Husband Walter Scott: A Study in Privilege." Bustle (16 April 2015). 

Presentations

   • “Peacemaking through Storytelling: What I Learned from Suzanne Collins, Author of The Hunger Games.” PJSA Annual Conference in Alliance, OH. 14 October 2022.
   • “‘The way he hates you … [is] so familiar’: Intimate Violence in Suzanne Collins’s War Stories for Children.” International Interdisciplinary Conference: Violence and Power in Richards Bay, South Africa. 9 September 2022.
   • “Integrating Reflection in Study Abroad.” Center for Teaching Excellence Workshop Series in Columbia, SC. 1 April 2021.
   • "From Silence Breakers to Culture Changers: Power and Potential in the #MeToo Movement." SPF/CCC Series on Feminism. 7 January 2018. 
   • “Fostering Classroom Civility.” Center For Teaching Excellence Workshop Series in Columbia, SC. 30 August 2017. 
   • “Higher Education and ‘The Blithe Superiority that is the Refuge of the Small.’” SPF/CCC Conference in Springfield, Missouri. 11 August 2017.
   • "Tributes and American Snipers: How The Hunger Games Helps Us Understand Chris Kyle and Imagine Peace." ECPR Conference in Montreal, Canada. 29 August 2015. 
   • “’Some Kind of Monster that I’m Not’: The Process of Becoming Fully Human in The Hunger Games Series.” PCA/ACA Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. 1 April 2015.
   • “’May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor’: Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games Series as First-Year Composition Theme.” Writing Program Administrators Conference in Savannah, Georgia. 19 July 2013.
   • “Developing Shades of Grey: Moral Development in the Harry Potter series.” Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 28 February 2009.
   • “‘Surely We Shall Find No Lower Depth Than This’: Matrimonial Misery in Charlotte Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Charlotte Smith’s Desmond.” The South Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. 23 February 2008.
   • “Brontë’s Bertha and Fenwick’s Sibella: Parallel Representations of Anxiety and Madness.” The Aphra Behn Society for Women and the Arts Conference in Daytona Beach, Florida.  29 October 2005.
   • “‘A Wild, Wick Slip She Was:’ Parallel Representations of the Passionate Female in Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Hays’s Memoirs of Emma Courtney.  International Conference on Romanticism at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.  15 October 2005.
   • “Twin Souls: Bertha and Heathcliff in Lin Haire-Sergeant’s H: The Story of Heathcliff’s Journey Back to Wuthering Heights.”  The Twentieth Century and the Victorians Conference at University of Leeds, England.  11 July 2005.
   • “Gothic Inversions: Playing with Religious Expectation in Robinson’s ‘The Lady of the Black Tower.”  College English Association in Indianapolis, Indiana.  1 April 2005.
   • “Mary Robinson as Female Prophet: Reading ‘The Lascar’ as a Warning Against Imperialism.” International Conference on Romanticism at Texas A&M International University, Laredo, Texas.  16 October 2004.
   • “Hareton and Heathcliff:  Angelic and Demonic Heroes in Wuthering Heights.”  The Brontës and Their World Conference at Pace University, Pleasantville, New York.  17 April 2004.