Teaching

Currently teaching (Fall 2022)

ENGL 205: Literature and the Moral Imagination: Focus on Literature of Diversity

Literature raises questions about ethics and society, but rarely answers them; as readers, we must interpret these matters ourselves. In this course, students will develop skills of literary interpretation and analysis to help them discovering and articulating their own responses to the texts.

In this course, we will discuss how literature can represent and engage with diversity. We will read books, short stories, and essays that engage with diversity and intersectionality on many levels. In our conversations, we will discuss how these works construct the voices of marginalized people and how our understanding of the marginal can be shaped by art. We will consider how literature represents moral and ethical issues inherent in diversity

ENGL 425: Shakespeare (and performance, and race)

This class introduces William Shakespeare’s works through the lenses of performance studies and race. In addition to reading each of the major Shakespearean genres—poetry, tragedy, history, comedy, and romance—we hope to attend two performances at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and a staged reading on campus. Throughout the class, we will consider not only the historical context of the works and their critical heritage, but also what it means to encounter them in theatrical productions today, and how we can enhance our appreciation of the texts through critical race theory and scholarship. In addition to spirited participation in class discussion and a presentation, students will write in a variety of forms, including an online discussion forum, wikis, performance reviews, creative work, and research-driven essays. All the coursework is designed to strengthen students’ critical reading, writing, and thinking skills.

Courses Taught Previously at Xavier

  • CORE 100: First-Year Seminar: Villains and Anti-Heroes (15 sections); First-Year Seminar: Difficult Women (4 sections)
  • English 115: Rhetoric (14 sections)
  • English 205: Literature and the Moral Imagination: Literature of Diversity (15 sections, including 2 fully online)
  • English 210: Methods Workshop (1 section)
  • English 375: Literature and the Arts in Ireland (5 sections, Xavier Ireland summer program, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019)
  • English 361: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Women’s Literacy (1 section)
  • English 376: Literature and the Arts in Britain, cross-listed as English 205: Literature and the Moral Imagination: Focus on Literature and Place (2 sections [1 team-taught with Jodi Wyett], Xavier London summer program, 2011 & 2013)
  • English 425: Shakespeare (14 sections, including 1 fully online, and two tutorials)
  • English 429: Renaissance Drama: Revenge on the Early Modern Stage (2 sections)
  • English 430: Seventeenth-Century Literature: Renaissance Heroisms (2 sections)
  • English 499: Senior Seminar: Adaptation and Appropriation (2 sections)
  • English 525: Shakespeare, graduate level (4 sections, including two cross-listed with 425)
  • Theater 305: Shakespeare in Performance (monthly guest lecturer: 10 semesters, 32 lectures)

Updated 15 January 2023