Curriculum Vitae

RESEARCH INTERESTS

ecocriticism and environmental studies; Appalachian literature; health humanities; 20th-century literature; 21st-century literature; labor studies; African American literature; racial capitalism; transnational literature; gender studies; women's writing; literary modernism

 

EDUCATION

Ph.D., English, University of Mississippi, In Progress— Graduating January 2026.

Dissertation Title: “Mining the Body: Racial Capitalism and the Embodied Sacrifice Zone”

Committee: Leigh Anne Duck (Chair), Jay Watson, Jaime Harker, Marcos Mendoza

 

M.A., English; Gender Studies Graduate Minor, University of Mississippi, Summer 2019.

Thesis Title: “Subverting the Patriarchal Panopticon: Challenges to Eugenics Rhetoric

in the Novels of McCullers and Welty” 

Committee: Jay Watson (Chair), Kathryn McKee, Jaime Harker

 

B.A., English; Honors Program, University of Kentucky, Spring 2010

Honors Thesis Title: “Call Signs” (Creative Thesis)

Supervisor: Gurney Norman

 

PUBLICATIONS

 Scholarly

“‘Mine More Coal’: Embodied and Environmental ‘Sacrifice Zones’ in Upton Sinclair’s King Coal and Jack Conroy’s The Disinherited.” The Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914–1945, special “Collaborative Forum on War and Environment” issue, in progress.

 

“The Underground City and Hidden Bodies: Coal Mining and the Black Experience.” Mississippi Quarterly, special “Emerging Scholars, Emerging Scholarship” issue, accepted—publication forthcoming.

 

“From ‘Dust’ to ‘Dirt’: Bodily Environmental Engagement in Henry Green’s Living.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isae090.

 

 

Hybrid: Scholarly and Poetry

“Carbon Glow.” How to Do Things in Turbulent Times, special issue of About Place Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 2020.

 

Fiction

“Somewhere Worth Going.” FOLK 3, no. 2 (2013): 46-47.

 

“The Comforts of Home.” FOLK 3, no. 1 (2013): 44-45.

 

“Through the Keys of Time.” FOLK 2, no. 4 (2012): 129.

 

“A Summer Place.” FOLK 2, no. 3 (2012): 97

 

“The Old Cabin.” FOLK 2, no. 2 (2012): 19.

 

“Short Story.” FOLK 2, no. 1 (2012): 19.

 

“Short Story.” FOLK 1, no. 2 (2011): 16.

 

“Short Story.” FOLK 1, no. 1 (2011): 68-69.

 

Creative Non-Fiction and Interviews

“Falling in Love with Post Road Vintage.” FOLK 2, no. 5 (2012): 86-91.

 

“Call Signs.” FOLK 2, no. 5 (2012): 60-61.

 

“Very Vintage: One Girl’s Hunt for the Perfect Vintage Lifestyle.” FOLK 2, no. 4 (2012): 76-79.

 

“Southern Ingenuity.” FOLK 2, no. 3 (2012): 34-39.        

                                                                     

“A Flavorful Life.” FOLK 2, no. 2 (2012): 78-85.

 

PRESENTATIONS

“‘Wom[en] to Reckon With’: Intersectionality and Feminist Resistance in Myra Page’s 1930s Journalism

and Daughter of the Hills.” The Space Between Society Conference—“Peace and Conflict in the

Space Between,” 28-30 May 2025, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.

 

“Energy Innovation and Mining the Body in Upton Sinclair’s King Coal and Jack Conroy’s The

Disinherited.” The Space Between Society Conference—“Innovation and Re-Invention in

the Space Between,” 13-16 June 2024, Wright State University, Dayton, OH.

“‘It Was Brought North’: Modern Mobility in Nella Larsen’s Passing and Frances Harper’s Iola Leroy.”

Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference: Nineteenth-Century Movement(s), 13-

16 Apr. 2023, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Knoxville, TN.

 

“From ‘Dust’ to ‘Dirt’: Bodily Environmental Engagement in Henry Green’s Living.” The Space

Between Society Conference— “Labor in the Space Between, 1914-1945,” 2-4 June 2022, Case

Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH.

 

“Carbon Glow.” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment: Humanities on the Brink:

Energy, Environment, Emergency, 10 July 2020, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

(held virtually).

 

“‘It Was Brought North’: Modern Mobility in Nella Larsen’s Passing and Frances Harper’s Iola Leroy.”

Society for the Study of Southern Literature: “Beyond Borders, Bars, and Binaries: Rethinking

‘South’ in an Age of Crisis,” 2-5 Apr. 2020, The Graduate, Fayetteville, AR (cancelled due to

COVID-19).

 

“‘To be a good animal and to serve my country’: Feeblemindedness and Horse Breeding in Carson

McCullers’ Reflections in a Golden Eye.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association, 2 Nov.

2018, Sheraton, Birmingham, AL.

 

“Feeble Minds, Feeble Bodies: Subversion of Eugenic Stereotypes in Carson McCullers’s Reflections in a

Golden Eye.” Southern Writers Southern Writing, 21 July 2018, University of Mississippi,

Oxford, MS.

 

“‘Funny in Her Head’: ‘Fitter Families’ and the Specter of the Asylum in Eudora Welty’s Delta    Wedding.” Isom Student Gender Conference, 6 April 2018, University of Mississippi, Oxford,

MS.

 

“‘A Family of Imbeciles?: Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying in the Age of Eugenics.” Southern Writers Southern

Writing, 21 July 2017, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS.

 

“The Malleable Memory: ‘Monk’ and Southern Civil War Remembrance.” Space Between Society

Conference–“Memory and Prophecy in the Space Between, 1914-45,” 27 May 2017, University

of Mississippi, Oxford, MS.

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

 Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship, University of Mississippi, Fall 2025

Provides funding for doctoral students who are in the final stages of the dissertation process

 

Bae Magruder Consultant of the Year Award, University of Mississippi, 2025

Recognizes a writing consultant who demonstrates excellence in tutoring, exemplary peer support, and an outstanding tutoring philosophy

 

Louise E. Dollarhide Award Finalist, University of Mississippi, 2025

Recognizes a literary studies graduate student who is a promising scholar and dedicated departmental ambassador 

Graduate School Summer Research Fellowship, University of Mississippi, Summer 2024

Funding enabling promising graduate students to remain on campus during the summer for a minimum of 10 weeks of research

 

Colby Kullman Fellowship, University of Mississippi, 2019 – 2024

Provides additional funding for a term of 5 years to particularly strong Ph.D. applicants

 

English Department Summer Research Fellowship, University of Mississippi, Summer 2018

Stipend to conduct research for thesis during the summer months

 

Honors Program (now Lewis Honors College), University of Kentucky, 2006 – 2010                                                                      

An enhanced course of instruction for highly motivated students, including program-specific courses and a final Capstone Project

 

Presidential Scholarship, University of Kentucky, 2006 – 2010  

Provides full tuition for 4 years

 

Kentucky Governor’s Scholar, Commonwealth of Kentucky, Centre College, 2005

A summer liberal arts and sciences program and residential life experience for outstanding high school students in Kentucky who are rising seniors

    

TEACHING

Courses

Instructor of Record, University of Mississippi

            ENG 226, Survey of British Literature since Romantic Period, taught Summer 2017 and 2023

ENG 224, Survey of American Literature since Civil War (Theme: “Nature, Illness, and the

Body”), taught Summer 2020 (online)

            WRIT 102, First-Year Writing II, taught Spring 2018

            WRIT 101, First-Year Writing I, taught Fall 2017

 

Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Mississippi

ENG 224, Survey of American Literature since Civil War, taught Fall 2019 and Fall 2023

ENG 226, Survey of British Literature since Romantic Period, taught Spring 2017 and Fall 2022

ENG 220, Survey in Literary History (Theme: “Literature and Economics: Use Value, Exchange

Value, Artistic Value”), taught Spring 2021 (online)

            ENG 225, Survey of British Literature to 18th Century, taught Fall 2016 and Fall 2020 (online)

            ENG 222, Survey of World Literature since 1650, taught Spring 2020 (hybrid)

 

Consulting

Graduate Writing Center Consultant, Graduate Writing Center, University of Mississippi

            Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

 

Invited Presentations and Lectures

“T.S. Eliot and Transatlantic Modernism”

            Presented to Melissa Ginsburg’s ENG 224: Survey of American Literature since Civil War course

            at the University of Mississippi, Fall 2023

 

“Gender and Eugenics”

            Presented to Amber Hodge’s G St 201: Introduction to Gender Studies course at the University of

            Mississippi, Fall 2020

 

“William Butler Yeats and Literary Modernism”

            Presented to Dr. Kate Lechler’s ENG 226: Survey of British Literature since Romantic Period

            course at the University of Mississippi, Spring 2017

 

“‘A Tale of Two Cities’ – Charles Dickens and the Social Problem Novel”

            Presented to Dr. Kate Lechler’s ENG 226: Survey of British Literature since Romantic Period

            course at the University of Mississippi, Spring 2017

 

“‘A Modest Proposal’ – Jonathan Swift”

            Presented to Dr. Kate Lechler’s ENG 225: Survey of British Literature to 18th Century course at

            the University of Mississippi, Fall 2016

 

JOURNAL WORK

 

Editorial Assistant, The Global South, 2021 - 2022

 

Reader – Fiction, Yalobusha Review, 2016 - 2019

 

Features Editor, FOLK Magazine, 2011 - 2013                                                                                                                               

 

Book Review Columnist, Kentucky Kernel, 2006 - 2007

 

INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE

Departmental

 

Co-President (Literature), English Graduate Student Board, 2020 - 2021

 

Graduate Student Representative, English Department Chair Search Committee, 2020

 

Scholarly Activities Chair, English Graduate Student Board, 2018 - 2020

 

Panel Chair, Southern Writers Southern Writing Graduate Conference, 2018

 

Planning Committee Member, Southern Writers Southern Writing Graduate Conference, 2018

 

University

 

Secretary, OUTGRADS: LGBTQIA+ Organization for Graduate and Professional Students, University

of Mississippi, 2019 – 2022

 

Freshman Representative Council, Student Government Association, University of Kentucky,

2006 - 2007

 

State

 

Graduate Student Representative, Mississippi Writing Center Association Board, 2018 - 2019 

 

Panel Chair, Southern Writers Southern Writing Graduate Conference, 2018

 

Planning Committee Member, Southern Writers Southern Writing Graduate Conference, 2018

 

PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS

 Head Docent, Oxford Associated Historic Properties, Oxford, MS, 2022 - 2023

 

Docent, Oxford Associated Historic Properties, Oxford, MS, 2018 - 2019, 2024 - 2025

 

Bookseller, Square Books, Oxford, MS, 2021 - 2023

 

Assistant to the Dean of the School of Theology and Formation, Asbury Theological Seminary,

2013 - 2016

 

Staff Member, Christian Student Fellowship, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 2010 - 2011

 

Intern, Christian Student Fellowship, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 2009 - 2010                                                                                            

Intern, Office of the State Supreme Court, Frankfort, KY, 2006   

                                                                                                                                                             

ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIPS

 Association for the Study of Literature and Environment

The Space Between Society

Society for the Study of Southern Literature

 

LANGUAGES

English (native)

French (conversational, intermediate reading ability, basic writing ability)

 

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS

Amateur Radio Technician License (Call Sign: WB4EOZ), ARRL: The National Association for Amateur Radio, 2020 – present

 

Amateur Radio Technician License (Call Sign: KG4JNS), ARRL: The National Association for Amateur Radio, 2000 – 2020