Faculty and Staff Directory

Introduction

My academic career has spanned 34 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 very broad, as I have an interdisciplinary background. I have 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 ways all is connected. In addition to teaching courses on writing, British literature, literature and music, and literary theory, I write in 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 in the process of planning my next book project which will focus on female authors and their female lead characters, such as Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway. As a singer-songwriter with my own label, Paden Street Music, I have recorded five CDs of original music: Little Queenie (2016), Songs for Unsung Women (2017), No Limits (2017), By Your Side (2021), and With Any Luck (2023). 

Research and/or Educational Specialty

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

Current Research

I am interested in many subjects, primarily literature, but also in the intersections between literature and music, and literature and science. 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 (https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/virginia-woolf-and-the-power-of-story/). In 2021, my book entitled FemPoetiks of American Poetry and Americana Music: A Woman's Truth, was published by Rowman & Littlefield (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793621269/FemPoetiks-of-American-Poetry-and-...'s-Truth). In this book, I explain my theory which I refer to as FemPoetiks, a feminist discourse that permeates the poems and songs and other writings of women in America, such as Anne Bradstreet and Brandi Carlile. The research I do, 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. FemPoetiks is basically about the power that words and ideas have to shape a more egalitarian world.

As an administrator in Undergraduate Education from 2012 - 2016, I researched subjects such as faculty development, best practices of faculty in pedagogy and theories of student success. Based on this kind of research, OUE created teaching and learning workshops for faculty and students.

In addition, as a teacher of first year students and as an administrator in undergraduate education, I am interested in the ways in which experiential learning impacts student success, and hoping to incorporate more service learning into my courses. Here 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.

Most recently, I have been interested how faculty can make teaching online more accessible to students through programs like Hypothes.is, an online annotation tool. Over the past two years, I have written about and presented my own findings at conferences both in the U.S. and England. 

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, a course just recently added to the list of courses at UW Tacoma. As an interdisciplinary course, we will be 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 in the 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, please 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.