Professor, English
Ph.D., Northeastern University
M.A., Boston University
A.B. with Honors, Brown University
ENGL 150: College Writing II
ENGL 151: Reading and Imagination
ENGL 216: Coming of Age in Literature and Film
ENGL 257: Global Anglophone Language and Literature
ENGL 256: African American Literature
ENGL 291: Community Dialogue Workshop
ENGL 393: Faulkner and the Global South
ENGL 441: Modern and Contemporary Black Literatures of the Americas
My research and teaching focus on Global Anglophone Literatures, African American and African Diasporic Literatures, Nordics Literatures, Postcolonial Theory, and Gender and Sexuality Studies. In my literature and writing courses, students interact with a range of texts, cultural perspectives, and ideas and are active participants in the production of knowledge. Through their active involvement in class discussions, my students develop the ability to engage with language on a deeper level and, as a result, to harness their power to affect change in their fields, the academy, or the world at large.
My research analyzes representations of interracial intimacy, racial and gender hierarchies, and colonial inheritance in literature from across the globe, including Nordic, US Southern, and Caribbean Literatures. My second book, (University Press of Mississippi, 2025), explores the liminality, ambiguity, and general ease that result when postcolonial theories are applied to both Iceland and the U.S. South. Examining the work of U.S. Southern writers, including William Faulkner, Jean Toomer, and Caribbean American Tiphanie Yanique, alongside Icelandic novelists, such as Jakobsd冒ttir, Halld冒r Laxness, and Gu冒bergur Bergsson, reveals much about each region's history and the complexity of colonial dynamics.
Additionally, my first book, (University Press of Mississippi, 2021) examines literary representations of sexual policing of the color line across spaces with distinct colonial histories and constructions of race: Mississippi, Louisiana, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Along with Icelandic scholar, Haukur Ingvarsson, I coordinate , which connects Faulkner scholars living and working in Nordic countries, as well as other scholars across the globe researching Faulkner in relation to Nordic literatures, cultures, and histories.
My community-based leaning course, 鈥淥pen Up: Community Dialogue Workshop,鈥� puts my antiracist scholarship into practice, bridging the gap between theory and social change. I collaborate with 911黑料网 students to develop interactive workshops for local high school students that encourage dialogue on topics like race, racism, and identity through the use of media.
. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2025.
"Aesthetic Radicals: White Violence as Exclusion in William Faulkner's US South and Gu冒bergur Bergsson's Iceland." The Faulkner Journal. 34.1 (Spring 2020/2024): 21-42.
鈥溾�榌T]he critic must leave the Western hemisphere鈥�: Faulkner and World Literature.鈥� The New Faulkner Studies. Ed. Sarah Gleeson-White and Pardis Dabashi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2021.
鈥溾�榌A] border that exists beyond maps鈥�: Contextualizing State-Sponsored Violence in Contemporary Haitian-American and Dominican-American Literature.鈥� Special Issue of The Global South, 鈥淐ontextualizing the Anglophone Novel.鈥� Ed. Shun Y. Kiang, 2021.
"Racial Ambiguity, Bootlegging, and the Subversion of Plantation Hierarchies in Faulkner鈥檚 South.鈥� Southern Comforts: Drinking and the U.S. South. Ed. Matthew Dischinger and Conor Picken. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2020. 193-206.
鈥淧ostcolonial Palimpsests: Entwined Colonialisms and the Conflicted Representation of Charles Bon in William Faulkner鈥檚 Absalom, Absalom!鈥� ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 47.4 (October 2016): 1-23.
鈥溾�楩or fear of a scan鈥媎al鈥�: Sexual Policing and the Preservation of Colonial Relations in William Faulkner and Marie Vieux-Chauvet.鈥� Faulkner and the Black Literatures of the Americas. Ed. Jay Watson and James G. Thomas, Jr. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2016. 183-193.
鈥溾�楳y memory of the genocide stops here鈥�:The Poetics of Traumatized Subjectivities and Colonial Inheritance in Tierno Mon茅nembo鈥檚 The Oldest Orphan.鈥� The Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies 3.2 (Fall 2015): 16-33.
Klaustri冒 Residency at Skri冒uklaustur, residency at Gunnar Gunnarsson's homestead to support research on southern gothic tropes and themes in Icelandic Litrature, July 2025.
Snorri Sturluson Icelandic Fellowship, to support a three-month research visit to Iceland for "Transatlantic Connections, Gender Dynamics, and Saga Realism in Svava Jakobsd冒ttir," The 脕rni Magn煤sson Institute for Icelandic Studies, May-July 2024.
911黑料网 Faculty Award for Leadership in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, in recognition of my contributions to 911黑料网's equity and inclusion efforts in my classroom and through my service, 911黑料网, May 2023.
Faculty Incentive Research Award, for Intersecting Worlds: Colonial Liminality in US Southern and Icelandic Literatures, 911黑料网, May 2023.
Lillian Gary Taylor Visiting Fellowship in American Literature, to work with the William Faulkner Collection at the University of Virginia; The Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture; July 2022.
American Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship, to support research in Iceland and Denmark for Intersecting Worlds: Colonial Liminality in US Southern and Icelandic Literatures, September-December 2021.
Northeast Modern Language Association Summer Fellowship, to support research in Iceland for Intersecting Worlds: Colonial Liminality in US Southern and Icelandic Literatures, September 2021.
Presenter, "Aspirational Representations of an 'Unremembered' War in Gina Apostol's lnsurrecto," The 28th Biennial Conference of the Nordic Association for American Studies Turku, Finland, June 2025.
Presenter, "Hidden in Plain Sight: Faulkner, The Philippines, and Colonial Histories." Modern Language Association Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 2025.
Panel Organizer and Presider, "The Far North & the Global South." Modern Language Association Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 2025.
Panel Organizer, "Faulkner in Asia, Asia in Faulkner, and Faulkner and Asian Writers." Presenter, "'Taste and responsibility-you Manila Snopeses': Faulkner and the Philippines." The Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference: Anniversaries. Oxford, Mississippi/Virtual, July 2024.
"Intersecting Worlds: Colonial Liminality in US Southern and Icelandic Literatures." Invited Speaker: The 脕rni Magn煤sson Institute for Icelandic Studies. Iceland. June 2024.
Panel Organizer, "Unpacking Surplus in the Novels of Tiphanie Yanique." Presenter, '"A woman's wildness': Gender, Intergenerational Ties, and Spectral Colonial Histories in Tiphanie Yanique and Fr铆冒a 脕slaug Sigur冒ard贸ttir." Northeast Modern Language Association Convention, Boston, Massachusetts, March 2024.
Panel Co-Organizer, 鈥淪ocial Realism, Gender Variance, and the Revolt from the Village in Icelandic writer Halld贸r Laxness.鈥� Presenter, 鈥淟iminality, Nonconformity, and Disidentification in Halld贸r Laxness and Carson McCullers.鈥� Modern Language Association Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 2024.
鈥淎 woman鈥檚 wildness鈥�: Gender, Intergenerational Ties, and Spectral Colonial Histories in Tiphanie Yanique and Fr铆冒a 脕slaug Sigur冒ard贸ttir.鈥� Southeastern American Studies Association Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, September 2023.
Panel Co-Organizer, 鈥淐omparatively Queer: Sexuality, Identity, and Experimentation in Faulkner and Beyond.鈥� Presenter, 鈥淐ontaining Subversive Gender Identities in Halld贸r Laxness鈥檚 Salka Valka and William Faulkner鈥檚 Sanctuary.鈥� The Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference: Queer Faulkner. Oxford, Mississippi, July 2023.
鈥淕ender Dynamics and Love Triangles in Halld贸r Laxness鈥檚 Salka Valka and William Faulkner鈥檚 Sanctuary.鈥� Invited Speaker: Glj煤frasteinn Laxness Museum. Iceland. June 2023.
鈥淔irst Drafts: Of Love and Dust.鈥� Invited Speaker: Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Hybrid Event. May 2023.
鈥淣onconformity and Intersecting Hierarchies of Identity in Halld贸r Laxness and Carson McCullers.鈥� American Literature Association Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, May 2023.
鈥淲hite Violence as Exclusion in Gu冒bergur Bergsson鈥檚 Iceland and William Faulkner鈥檚 and Jean Toomer鈥檚 US South.鈥� Invited Speaker: The Mind鈥檚 Eye Works-In-Progress Colloquium. 911黑料网. January 2023.
鈥淓rnest J. Gaines Memorial Lecture.鈥� Invited Speaker: Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Zoom Event. December 2022.
鈥淲illiam Faulkner鈥檚 US South and Tierno Mon茅nembo鈥檚 Rwanda: A Transhistorical and Transgeographical Reading,鈥� International Colloquium: 鈥淔aulkner鈥檚 France / La France de Faulkner,鈥� Amiens, France, October 2022.
Panel Co-Organizer, 鈥淭he Far North and the Global South.鈥� Presenter, 鈥淲hite Violence as Exclusion in Gu冒bergur Bergsson鈥檚 Iceland and Jean Toomer鈥檚 US South,鈥� Society for the Study of Southern Literature, Atlanta, Georgia, June 2022.
Chair and Organizer, 鈥淓merging & Dismantling: Feminist Killjoys Confront SSSL鈥檚 Past and Present.鈥� Society for the Study of Southern Literature, Atlanta, Georgia, June 2022.
鈥淐ontextualizing State-Sponsored Violence in Contemporary Haitian American and Dominican American Literature.鈥� Invited Speaker: Florida Atlantic University. January 2022.
鈥淧eripheralized Norths and Souths: Colonial Liminality, William Faulkner, and Icelandic Literature.鈥� Invited Speaker: University of Copenhagen. November 2021.
鈥溾�榌A] border that exists beyond maps鈥�: Contextualizing State-Sponsored Violence in Contemporary Haitian American and Dominican American Literatures.鈥� Invited Speaker: University of Iceland. October 2021.
鈥淩epetition and the Reifying of Racial Lines in Halld贸r Laxness and William Faulkner.鈥� International Symposium: 鈥淔aulkner鈥檚 fetishized words,鈥� Virtual, May 2021.
Chair and Organizer, 鈥淎nti-Oppressive Pedagogies: Social Justice & Community Engagement in the Classroom.鈥� Northeast Modern Language Association Convention, Virtual, March 2021.
Panel Co-Organizer, 鈥淔aulkner in the North.鈥� Presenter, 鈥淓xposing White Violence in William Faulkner鈥檚 US South and Gu冒bergur Bergsson鈥檚 Iceland,鈥� Faulkner Studies in the UK Colloquium: Faulkner, Transgressive Fiction, Postmodernism, Virtual, January 2021.
