I received a BA in English and Classics from Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI. I received my MA and PHD from the University of Delaware in Newark, DE. My PHD dissertation was on Henry David Thoreau’s satirical treatment of classical literature (Greek and Roman writers) throughout his works. I personally really enjoy the writing of 19th century American writers like Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville and Louisa May Alcott, and that’s why I chose a dissertation during this time period, knowing that it would mean teaching writers like this down the line. I’m also partial to Roman writers like Virgil, Horace, and Ovid.

I’ve taught several sections of English Composition II (most recently on Writing About Film, formerly on Travel and Tourism), Survey of the Literature of the Western World I and II (now World Literature I and II), Business Writing, and upper level courses on Transcendentalism and Travel, Thoreau’s Legacy, Greek and Roman Myth, Roman Literature, Thoreau’s Walden, Women and American Romanticism, Mythology and Folklore, Fantastic Voyages and Self-Discovery, Shakespeare in America, and most recently Rome and the English Renaissance since joining AUM in 2009. I’ve also taught several different variations of both American literature surveys. I’ve published work on Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, William Dean Howells, Edith Wharton, and Southern writer Barry Hannah. I recently published a short introduction to Mark Twain’s classical reading in The Mark Twain Journal and a short article on Thoreau scholarship and the Anthropocene for The Anthropocene: Approaches and Contexts for the Literature and the Humanities edited by my colleague, Seth Reno. I’ve also introduced several films (especially silent ones) for AUM’s CLASS Film Series.