PhD in English.  University of Connecticut, 1997.

            Specialization in 19^th- and Early-20^th-Century American Literature

MA in English.  University of Connecticut, 1990.

BA in Literature and Writing, summa cum laude.  Eastern College (St. Davids, PA), 1986.

Southern Connecticut State University, 1998-Present:

Graduate Courses:  Modern American Poetry ● The American Novel 1900-1945 ● Poe, Hawthorne, & Melville ● American Renaissance ● Howells, James, & Twain ● Seminar: The Twentieth-Century American Novel

Undergraduate Literature Courses for English Majors:  Early American Writers ● American Renaissance  ● American Literary Realism & Naturalism ● The Twentieth-Century American Novel ● Seminar:  Race & Representation in American Literature ● Introduction to Literary Analysis & Critical Theory

Undergraduate Literature Courses--General Education:  Major American Authors (Introduction to Literature) ● Introduction to Literature:  American Literary Canons and Contexts ● Introduction to Literature: The Political Imagination 

First-Year Composition Courses:  Honors College:  Introduction to Critical Inquiry ● Composition I  ● Composition II ● Composition: Writing Lab (Basic Writing)

Books:

Conscience and Purpose:  Fiction and Social Consciousness in Howells, Jewett, Chesnutt, and Cather.  University of Alabama Press, Studies in American Literary Realism and Naturalism series, 2005.

Articles:

"Racial Duties: Toward a Pragmatist Ethic of Race in W.D. Howells' An Imperative Duty." Forthcoming in Nineteenth Century Literature, December 2008.

"'There Must be Something Wonderful Coming':  Social Realism and Romantic Idealism in Willa Cather's 'Behind the Singer Tower.'"  American Literary Realism 33 (Winter 2001):  110-122.

"Charles W. Chesnutt, The Conjure Woman, and the Racial Limits of Literary Mediation."  Studies in American Fiction 27 (1999):  183-204.

"'To Make Them Acquainted with One Another': Jewett, Howells, and the Dual Aesthetic of Deephaven."  Jewett and Her Contemporaries: Reshaping the Canon, Karen L. Kilcup and Thomas S. Edwards, eds., University Press of Florida (1999):  99-120.

"The Politics of Inspiration in Ayi Kwei Armah's The Healers."  Critique:  Studies in Contemporary Fiction 38 (1997):  279-288.

"'Skulking Escapist' Versus 'Radical Editor':  Willa Cather, the Left Critics, and Sapphira and the Slave Girl."  Southern Quarterly 34.2 (1996):  27-37.

"Hawthorne in Time of Schism:  'The Gentle Boy' and the Second Great Awakening."  Early Protestantism and American Culture, Michael Schuldiner, ed. Studies in Puritan American Spirituality 5 (1995):  149-178.

Reviews and Other Publications:

Rev. of Pebbles, Monochromes, and Other Modern Poems, 1891-1916, by W.D. Howells, ed. Edwin H. Cady, and The Dean of American Letters:  The Late Career of William Dean Howells, by John W. Crowley.  American Literary Realism 34 (2002):  186-188.

Encyclopedia entries in The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia, Gregory Eiselein and Anne K. Phillips, eds., Greenwood Press (2001):  "Henry Ward Beecher" (33), "John Brown" (43-4), "James Family" (156), "My Contraband (1863)" (221-2), "Realism" (278-9). 

"'Fantastic Effigy':  Satirizing the Masculine Construction of Womanhood in Edith Wharton's 'The Other Two.'"  Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Baltimore, MD, March 2007.

Respondent, “Howells and Masculinity” panel.  American Literature Association Conference, Boston, MA, May 2005.

"Racial Duties:  W.D. Howells' An Imperative Duty."  American Literature Association Conference, Cambridge, MA, April 2003.

Invited Participant, “New Psychology, New Politics:  William Dean Howells and His Contemporaries” Conference.  Cambridge, MA and Kittery Point, ME, May 2001.

 “American Literary Realism:  Space, Materiality, and Identity.”  Panel Organizer / Chair.  Northeast Modern Language Association Conference.  Hartford, CT, March 2001.  

“(Re)definitions of American Literary Realism and Naturalism.”  Panel Organizer / Chair.  Northeast Modern Language Association Conference.  Hartford, CT, March 2001.

“Response to Norris Haynes’ ‘Education and the Community’:  Pedagogical Responsibilities in Higher Education.”  “On Responsibility:  An Interdisciplinary, University-wide Conference.”  Southern Connecticut State University, September 2000.

"W.D. Howells as Cultural Icon, 1886-1999; or Why the Howells Revival Never Arrives."  Northeast Modern Language Association Conference.  Buffalo, NY, April 2000.

"Across the Great Divide:  Bridging the Gender Gap in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literary History."  Panel Organizer / Chair.  Northeast Modern Language Association Conference.  Pittsburgh, PA, April 1999.

"W.D. Howells and the Example of Stowe."  Northeast Modern Language Association Conference.  Baltimore, MD, April 1998.

"W.D. Howells's Literary Antitheory:  The Use-Value of Literature in the Editor's Study."  Central New York Conference on Language and Literature.  SUNY Cortland, October 1997.

"Charles W. Chesnutt, The Colonel's Dream, and the Possible Impossibility of Racial Reform."  American Literature Association Conference.  Baltimore, MD, May 1997.

"Discourse Communities, Discursive Conventions:  Interrogating Academic Discourse(s)."  Writing Across . . . Disciplines, Genres, Cultures Conference.  University of New Hampshire, October 1996.

"Jewett, Howells, and the Dual Aesthetic of Deephaven."  Sarah Orne Jewett Centennial Conference.  Westbrook College, June 1996.

"The Novels of Louise Erdrich."  Panel Organizer / Chair.  Central New York Conference on Language and Literature.  SUNY Cortland, October 1995.

"American Women's Fiction in the Wake of Howells:  Sarah Orne Jewett and Willa Cather in Dialogue with Realism."  New England Women's Studies Association Conference.  University of Connecticut, April 1995.

"Reading the Underclass:  Problems of Reader Response to the Fiction of Carolyn Chute."  Central New York Conference on Language and Literature.  SUNY Cortland, October 1994.

"The Dialogic Construction of the Social Self in W.D. Howells's A Hazard of New Fortunes."  Intercollegiate Graduate Student Conference.  Simmons College, April 1994.

"A Proposal, A Problem, and A Plea:  Pedagogy Versus Institutional Structures."  Central New York Conference on Language and Literature.  SUNY Cortland, October 1993.

"'Skulking Escapist' Versus 'Radical Editor':  Willa Cather, the Left Critics, and Sapphira and the Slave Girl."  Twentieth-Century Literature Conference.  University of Louisville, February 1993.

CSU Research Grant, 2007, for research, writing, and revision of forthcoming Broadview Press teaching edition of W.D. Howells' novel, An Imperative Duty

Sabattical Leave, Fall 2007, for research, planning, and writing of teaching edition of W.D. Howells' novel, An Imperative Duty

CSU Research Grant, 2005, for research and revision of essay on W.D. Howells’ novel, An Imperative Duty, race, and philosophical Pragmatism

SCSU English Department Reassigned Time for Research, Fall 2005, for research and revision of essay on W.D. Howells’ novel, An Imperative Duty, race, and philosophical Pragmatism

SCSU Office of Faculty Development Professional Development Grant, Spring 2005, for English Department faculty study group on Robert Scholes' The Rise of English

CSU Research Grant, 2003, for revision, research, and writing of "Conscience and Purpose":  The Legacy of Howellsian Social Commitment in American Fiction

SCSU English Department Reassigned Time for Research, Fall 2003, for revision, research, and writing of "Conscience and Purpose":  The Legacy of Howellsian Social Commitment in American Fiction 

SCSU School of Arts and Sciences Reassigned Time for Research, Spring 2002, for research and writing of conference paper on Edith Wharton's "The Other Two"

SCSU English Department Reassigned Time for Research, Spring 2001, for research and writing of conference paper on W.D. Howells’s novel, An Imperative Duty, and late-nineteenth-century theories of race

SCSU Office of Faculty Development Curriculum Related Activity Grant, Summer 2000, for development of multimedia, interdisciplinary website to accompany new English course entitled “’Race’ and Representation in American Literature”

SCSU Office of Faculty Development “Summertech” program, for faculty education in uses of technology in higher education

SCSU English Department Reassigned Time for Research, Fall 1999, for research and writing of conference paper entitled "W.D. Howells as Cultural Icon, 1886-1999; or Why the Howells Revival Never Arrives," delivered at the Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Buffalo, NY, April 2000

Eugene Gant Scholarship Finalist, for "academic excellence, professional potential, dedicated service, and exemplary personal integrity," University of Connecticut Office of Student Affairs, 1996

Margaret R. Higgonet Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Connecticut English Department, 1995

Kathleen Gibson McPeek Graduate Critical Essay Prize, University of Connecticut English Department, 1993

Phi Kappa Phi scholastic honorary society, inducted 1991

National Endowment for the Humanities Undergraduate Fellowship, 1985

Contributor, William Dean Howells Society Online Bibliography, 2000-Present

Editorial Consultant, LIT:  Literature Interpretation Theory, 1997-Present

SCSU English Department English Majors Committee, Chair 2001-Present

SCSU English Department Research Committee, 2004-Present

SCSU Faculty Senate 1999-2002, 2007-Present

SCSU Faculty Senate Academic Policy Committee 1999-2002, 2007-Present

SCSU English Department Evaluation Committee, 2004-2006

SCSU English Department Personnel Committee, 2001- 2006

SCSU English Department Curriculum Committee, 1998-2000, 2004-2005

SCSU School of Arts & Science Quality Council, 2000-2003

SCSU NEASC Accreditation Subcommittee Standard #4b, 2000-2001

SCSU Sabbatical Committee, 2007-2010

SCSU English Department Library Committee / Chair & Library Liaison, 1999-2001

American Literature Association

William Dean Howells Society

Northeast Modern Language Association