I received my Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 2012 where I taught a variety of English literatue and composition courses for the UA Writing Program. Two of my greatest academic accomplishments include being awarded the Ruth Gardner Outstanding Teacher Award in 2009 and the New Start Outstanding Instructor Award in 2010. I recently joined the English Department at Ithaca College and am teaching a course this spring semester titled Writing as Resistance: Black Women's Literature of the post-Civil Rights Era. 

The short list of my research interests include the redefinition of African American literature in the context of post-racial discourse, hip-hop's impact on global societies and social movements, and reappropriating the concept of the "student-athlete" in higher education. Currently, I am working on a project that examines unconventional performances of racial normativity in African American and American literature. The project explores some of the more subtle connections between the American canon of racial passing literature and the current social climate of "racelessness" in the United States.

EDUCATION                                             

Ph.D. University of Arizona (2012)                                                      

M.A. University of Arizona (2010)

B.A. California State University Bakersfield (2006)