Faculty and Staff Directory

Introduction

My academic career spans over 30 years across four states and five universities, from the University of Southern Mississippi to the University of Washington, Tacoma. My interests in research and teaching are broad, given my interdisciplinary background. I earned an undergraduate degree in Music and a Masters and Ph. D. in English. 

My interdisciplinary education has given me a unique perspective on the subjects I teach, and an ability to look beyond the boundaries of any one discipline to see the connections between them. In addition to teaching courses on writing, British literature, literature and music, and literary theory, I write a blog entitled "Curious Girl," my subjects ranging from travel and literature to music and art. I have published two books, Virginia Woolf and the Power of Story (McFarland, 2017) and FemPoetiks of American Poetry and Americana Music: A Woman's Truth (Lexington, 2021). I am currently working on my next book which will focus on female authors and their female lead characters, such as Virginia Woolf and one of her most famous characters, Mrs. Dalloway. I have recorded five CDs of original songs: Little Queenie (2016), Songs for Unsung Women (2017), No Limits (2017), By Your Side (2021), and With Any Luck (2023). I signed with Curtain Call Records in September of 2024. My next CD, Another Girl, currently in production, will feature 13 new songs.  

Research and/or Educational Specialty

Modern British Literature, Music and Literature, Women's literature and music, Interdisciplinary Studies, Pedagogy, Composition and Rhetoric

Current Research

Throughout my academic career, I have primarily focused on literature, but more recently, I’ve been interested in connections between literature and science as well as literature and music. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on The Waves by Virginia Woolf, and I continue to view her writings as a significant influence in my scholarship. In 2017, McFarland published my book about Virginia Woolf, an interdisciplinary work that explores the evolutionary foundations of story-telling entitled Virginia Woolf and the Power of Story: A Literary Darwinist Reading of Six Novels. Most recently, one of my interdisciplinary essays about Woolf and the visual arts, “Light and Shadow,” was published in a journal entitled L’Esprit. I have presented papers at conferences in the United States and abroad, such as Rome (New Directions in the Humanities, in person and online) and Hawaii (online).

I’ve also pursued my interest in the intersections of music and literature: in 2021, my book entitled FemPoetiks of American Poetry and Americana Music: A Woman's Truth was published by Rowman & Littlefield in which I explore the feminist discourse that permeates the poems and songs and other writings of women in America, such as Anne Bradstreet and Brandi Carlile. FemPoetiks is basically about the power that words and ideas have to shape a more egalitarian world. I am currently planning to write a book about the women in Virginia Woolf's novels and short stories, accompanied by recordings of original songs. My research and writing, whether on literature, music, or pedagogy, has a significant impact on my teaching. Students must feel that they are both seen and heard, that their ideas matter and that they have the power to effect change in the world.  

Most recently, I have been interested in learning how faculty can make teaching online more accessible to students through programs like Hypothes.is, an online annotation tool. I have also been learning more about the impact that AI is having on higher education, and the opportunities such technology can offer to teachers and students. I have written about and presented my educational research at conferences in the U.S., England (an in-person conference with an online option). My research essay on hypertext was published in 2023, “The Hyperlinked Syllabus and Beyond: Promoting Student Engagement through Technology” for “On the Hypertext, and Beyond!” in SIGWEB: Special Interest Group on Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Web.

Teaching

At the University of Washington, Tacoma, I currently serve as a Full Teaching Professor. Prior to my most recent promotion, I served as an Assistant Director of Undergraduate Education (2012 – 2016), coordinating the teaching schedule of first year courses, and researching subjects such as faculty development, best practices of faculty in pedagogy and theories of student success. Based on our research, OUE created teaching and learning workshops for faculty and students. In addition, as a teacher of first year students and keeping in mind my experience as an administrator in undergraduate education, I remain interested in the ways in which experiential learning impacts student success, and hoping to incorporate more service learning into my courses. At the University of Washington, Tacoma, we have the privilege of working with a variety of community partners. Community engagement and service learning are important areas of research for me as it directly impacts my teaching. 

When I served as the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Education, I taught three courses per year, two of which were first year introductions to academic writing. Core courses were originally taught in teams, so for the first three years, I taught with Sam Parker. Our theme was the Nature-Nurture debate. This course inspired me, when I started teaching it on my own, to further explore this social science theme. In subsequent iterations, I have focused on the nature of identity and how we both shape and are influenced by the world around us: in media, entertainment, politics and the way we interact with the natural world. Prior to 2016, I became interested in having students become more actively engaged with the world outside of the classroom and beyond the text. The theme for this course was service learning. My teaching philosophy is fairly simple, based on my years of experience: I want my students to leave my class inspired to keep learning about the world they live in, and to make the world a better place than it was when they got here. I enjoy teaching Literature and the Arts, an interdisciplinary course focused on exploring the connections between literature and music such as blues and jazz.  

List of courses I regularly teach:

• TCORE 101, First Year Academic Writing: The first year writing course is taught with a particular theme in mind, the theme being the choice of the faculty teaching the course.
• TLIT 101, Understanding Literature: This is a basic, yet essential course, for anyone wanting to study literature in depth, as we read various kinds of texts and discuss ways of reading.
• TLIT220, Literature and Music: This course provides an opportunity for students to study the ways in which literature and music are interrelated, such as drama and opera or musical theater, as well as how poetry and song lyrics have influenced each other. I include examples from classical literature and music, as well as from blues and pop music.
• TLIT 240, Studies in English Literature: In TLIT240, we study prominent texts of British Literature. The time frame is up to each instructor. I teach the course with a Gothic focus, the texts for which include The Castle of Otranto, Dracula and Jane Eyre. I also teach it as a Modern British Literature course with a focus on authors from The Windrush Generation.
• TLIT 325, Medical and Ethical Issues in Literature: The focus of this course is interdisciplinary, an exploration of the ways in which medical and ethical issues associated with illness and the practice of medicine emerge in literature, such as in Frankenstein, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
• TLIT 390, Varieties of Literary Criticism: In this course we explore the various theories and ways of critiquing literary and cultural texts.
• TLIT458, The Modern Novel in which students create digital archives of exhibits that show the development of the novel across history. Prior to 2006, I also regularly taught the following: Nineteenth Century European Literature, Victorian Literature, Romantic Prose and Poetry, Literature and the Arts, Southern Writers.

Affiliations

• Academy of American Poets
• Americana Music Association
• BMI (Music Industry Publisher)
• College English Association (CEA)
• Common Ground Scholar/ Common Ground Research Networks
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
• Popular Culture Association (PCA)
• Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (SLSA)
• Threadhead Cultural Foundation 

Academic Service

For a complete list of my service commitments and activities, refer to my CV.

Honors and Awards

I have been incredibly honored by the students of the University of Washington as their choice for Outstanding Faculty from 2011, 2012, and 2013.