Academics

Below you will find a background of my academic career as a literary critic. For a more detailed account of my past accomplishments and positions of employment both inside and outside of academia, visit the page describing my past employment. You can download a copy of my CV here.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy in English, Rice University, defended 17 April 2020 (Dissertation: Theophanic Reasoning: Science, Secrets, and the Stars from Spenser to Milton)

Master of Arts in English, Rice University, May 2018

Master of Arts in English, University of Massachusetts Boston, June 2013 (Thesis: “Feminine Endings: Female Onanism and Self-Injury in The Faerie Queene”)

Bachelor of Arts in English, University of Mississippi, May 2010 (Minor: Art/Graphic Design, coursework in journalism)

Publications and Special Projects

Peer-Reviewed Publications

“Toward a Blue Gender Studies: The Sea, Diana, and Feminine Virtue in Pericles,”* Special Issue: Of Seas and Oceans, of Storms and Wreckage, of Water Battles and Love in Shakespeare’s Plays, in Représentations dans le Monde Anglophone 1 (April 2020): 49–74. ISSN 2552–1160. Download the article here.

*Winning essay: 2020 Shirley Bard Rapoport Graduate Essay Prize

Public-Facing Writing

“Banksy and Black Mermaids.” Civic Humanism blog. August 24, 2020.

“Reflections on the River Tiber.” Humanities Moments: A Project of the National Humanities Center. July 2020.

“Searching for Our Voices.” Intelligēns, a Teaching Blog. February 20, 2020.

Public-Facing Projects

Invited Lecture: “Enraptured: Reading Ovidian Sexual Violence in Early Modern Literature.” Our Voices: A Conference for Inclusive Classics Pedagogy. Columbia University. New York, NY. February 16, 2020.

Public Exhibit: “Robinson Crusoe and the World of Real Voyages of Exploration.” The Imaginative Worlds of Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and the Early Novel. Central Library, Copley Square (Rare Books Room), February 25–August 30, 2013.

Invited Panelist: Roundtable on Interdisciplinary Research Methods. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Historical Inquiry. History Graduate Student Association at University of Massachusetts Boston. Boston, MA. March 9, 2013.

Teaching Experience

As Instructor of Record

FWIS 198: Astronomical Ambition: Exploring Science, Space, and the Stars Through Literature (First-Year Writing Intensive Seminar), Rice University, Fall 2019.

LATI 309: Recovery, Rebirth, Regeneration: Classics and the European Renaissance, Rice University, Spring 2019. Co-taught with Professor Scott McGill.

English 210: Survey of British Literature from Chaucer to 1800, Rice University, Fall 2017.*

*Finalist: Center for Teaching Excellence’s Outstanding Graduate Instructor award

English 262G: The Art of Literature (Writing-Intensive Junior Seminar), University of Massachusetts Boston, 2 sections: Fall 2012 and Spring 2013.

As Teaching Assistant

For Nonya Grenader, (FWIS 117: Art in Place and Places for Art), Rice University, Fall 2017.

For Joseph Campana (ENGL 321: Love, Sex, and Death in the Renaissance), Rice University, Fall 2015.

For Rosemary Hennessey (ENGL 300: Practices of Literary Study), Rice University, Spring 2016.

For Betsy Klimasmith (ENGL 406: American Realism), University of Massachusetts Boston, Spring 2012

For Rajini Srikanth (ENGL 293: Literature and Human Rights), University of Massachusetts Boston, Fall 2011.

Selected Conference Presentations

“Spenser’s Triumphant Beast: Mutability, the Multi-verse, and Early Modern Cosmology.” Shakespeare Association of America. Remote Conference. April 16–18, 2020.

“Spenser’s Ecology of Temperance.” MLA Annual Convention. Seattle, WA. January 9–12, 2020.

“Toward a Blue Gender Studies: The Sea, Diana, and Feminine Virtue in Pericles.” European Shakespeare Research Association. Rome, Italy. July 9–12, 2019.

“Magic, Memory, Climate: Occult Agents in Shakespeare’s Tempest.” Shakespeare Association of America. Washington, DC. April 17–20, 2019.

“‘Knowledge of Man is as the Waters’: The Poetics of Seafaring in Francis Bacon’s Utopia.” Renaissance Society of America. Toronto, Ontario. March 17–19, 2019.

“Alchemical Tinctures and the Secret Soul in Paradise Lost.” Shakespeare Association of America. Los Angeles, CA. March 28–31, 2018.

“‘His will though free, Yet Mutable’: Materialist Wandering and the Lucretian Model of Desire in Milton’s Paradise Lost.” EcoMaterialisms: Organizing Life and Matter. University of California Irvine. Irvine, CA. May 15, 2015.

“The ‘Best Man’ for the Job: Bodies and Gendered Justice Borders in The Faerie Queene.” Clash Zones: Identities in (R)evolution. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. April 5–6, 2013.

“The Pains of Allegory: Tracing Trauma in Courtly Elizabethan Discourse.” Interdisciplinary Approaches to Historical Inquiry. History Graduate Student Association at University of Massachusetts Boston. Boston, MA. March 9, 2013.

“Thinking and Linking: Teaching with Hypertext.” Co-presented with Professor Alex Mueller. Center for Innovative Teaching and Educational Technology Conference. University of Massachusetts Boston. Boston, MA. May 10, 2012.

Student Support and Engagement

Program Manager, Civic Humanist Program, Humanities Research Center, Rice University. Fall 2019–Present.

Pro Bono Academic Advising, Admissions and Writing Coach, Self-Employed, May 2013–Present.

Secretary, Humanities Graduate Student Association. Rice University, July 2016–June 2017.

Media and Communications Coordinator, Graduate Student Symposium, Rice University, Fall 2016–Spring 2017.

Graduate Student Representative, Department of English, Rice University, June 2015–July 2016.

MA Program Advisory Board, University of Massachusetts Boston, Spring 2012–Fall 2013.

Related Professional Employment

Copyeditor – Diana Hobby Editorial Fellow, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1800 academic journal, May 2015–Present.

Interim Development Communications Coordinator, Harvard Law School Alumni Center, August–November 2013.

Copyeditor, Communications Writer, Graphic Designer, University of Massachusetts Boston – Research and Sponsored Programs, April 2012–May 2013.

Copyeditor, Graphic Designer, The Sun Herald Production Desk (Biloxi, MS), June 2010–September 2011.

Academic Articles in Progress

“Spenser’s Ecology of Temperance” (article).

“Francis Bacon’s Starry Message: Natural Divination, Deification, and the Return of Ancient Knowledge in the New Atlantis” (article).

“Bees, Flowers, and Honey: Renaissance Latinity, Classical Imitation Theory, and Yearning for Antiquity in Francesco Storella’s Secretum Secretorum (1555),” Valuing Forgery, ed. Scott McGill and John North Hopkins (chapter).

Foreign Languages

Latin: Advanced Reading, Speaking at Working Proficiency

Italian: Elementary Reading and Speaking

Funding and Fellowships

Doctoral Fellowship, Department of English, Rice University. Fall 2014–May 2020 ($24,500).

Civic Humanist Program Manager, Humanities Research Center, Rice University. Fall 2019–Spring 2020 ($5,000).

Margaret C. Ostrum Summer Research Travel Grant, Department of English, Rice University. June–July 2018 ($1,000).

Graduate Fellowship, Rice Seminar: Forgery and the Ancient: Art, Agency, and Authorship, Rice University. Fall 2017–Spring 2018 ($5,000).

Competitive Travel Research, Humanities Research Center, Rice University, March 2018 ($500).

Diana Hobby Editorial Fellowship, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1800, Rice University. May 2015–May 2019 ($11,000).

Teaching Assistantship – First-Year Writing Intesive Seminar, Center for Written, Oral and Visual Communications (NKA: Center for Academic and Professional Communication), Rice University. Fall 2017 ($3,000).

Floyd L. Moreland Scholarship, Friends of the Latin/Greek Institute, City University of New York.June–August 2016 ($1,200).

Competitive Summer Research Funding, from multiple on-campus sources, including: Dean of Humanities, Humanities Research Center, and Department of English, Rice University. Summer 2016 ($6,975).

Communications Assistantship, Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, University of Massachusetts Boston. Fall 2012–Spring 2013 ($8,000).

Teaching Assistantships, Department of English, University of Massachusetts Boston. Fall 2011–Spring 2013 ($12,000).

Honors and Awards

Shirley Bard Rapoport Graduate Essay Prize for peer-reviewed essay, “Toward a Blue Gender Studies: The Sea, Diana, and Feminine Virtue in Pericles,” Department of English, Rice University. 2019–2020 academic year ($2,000).

Admitted to the Rare Books School course: The Books of the Plays: Shakespeare & Print (Instructor: David Scott Kastan), Beinecke Library, Yale University. June 2017 (could not accept).

First Prize – Fondren Library Research Award, Friends of Fondren Library, Rice University. January 2017 ($500).

2nd (2011) and 3rd (2010) Place Design Award, Mississippi Press Association, Better Newspaper Contest.

Artist Technical Grant (Summer 2009), Yoknapatawpha Arts Council; Oxford, MS.

Artwork featured in NASAD student exhibition (April 2009): Gallery 130 and Meek Hall; Oxford, MS.

Best College Arts & Life Writer, Southeastern Journalism Conference (April 2008); Oxford, MS

Department Scholarship, Department of Journalism (NKA: Meek School of Journalism and New Media), University of Mississippi. Fall 2006–Spring 2009.

Scholarship for Study Abroad in Sydney (Australia), Study Abroad Office, University of Mississippi. Summer 2007.

Knight Ridder Young Journalist Scholarship, The Sun Herald in Biloxi, MS. Fall 2006–Spring 2007.

Download my curriculum vitae here.