Ph.D., Comparative Literature, U. of Georgia, Athens,
August 2008
Dissertation: “Not of This World: Christian Devotional Literature as
Minority Literature”
Areas: Comparative U.S. Ethnic Literature, Christian Devotional Literature, Multicultural Theory and Criticism, Religion and Literature, Dramatic Theory
Certificate in
University Teaching
M.A., Eastern Classics, St. John’s College
Graduate Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 2002
Areas: Foundational philosophical, religious and literary
texts from India, China, and Japan. Study of Classical Chinese language
(Non-thesis program)
M.A., Comparative Literature, U. of Georgia, Athens,
2001
Thesis: “Dangerous Minds: Abuses of Language and Science in Clouds and Les Femmes savantes”
Areas: Western Drama; Continental Literature (Antiquity-Baroque)
B.A., Liberal Arts, St. John’s College, Santa
Fe, NM, 1996
Senior Essay: “No Use Crying over Spilt Milt [sic]: Aristophanes’
Tragic Hero”
Proficiency in French, Attic Greek, Medieval Latin; Reading
Knowledge of German, Spanish,
Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Classical Chinese, Old English, Medieval Welsh,
and Biblical Hebrew
18 or more hours in Christian Religion; American Literature; Dramatic Lit & History; Non-Western Lit; and Medieval & Early Modern European Language & Lit
Dissertation:
My dissertation uses categories taken from
contemporary multicultural studies—exile,
minor literature, borderlands, nationalism & integration, contact zones, and diaspora—to
examine biblical, devotional and theological texts from across the history of
the Christian church, e.g., using the nationalism/integration debate from the
Black Civil Rights movement to examine the early Quaker movement. I supplement
my literary analyses with surveys of the multicultural aspects of three
historical moments in the globalization of the Church—its expansion into
Europe, introduction into the Americas, and development in Africa and Asia;
e.g., examining the ways Thomas Merton uses Asian religion to explore aspects
of Christian spirituality. By comparing Western Christian spirituality to
ethnic minority experience, I suggest that faith in Christianity is a type of
expatriation, thus calling into question common conceptions of Western
Christian identity that claim cultural and political authority.
Teaching Experience:
For
more detailed descriptions, click here.
American Literature 2: (3 sections) Stressed development of multiple traditions based on ethnicity, gender and class
Race and Ethnicity: (1 section, Summer 2010) Focus on
short-style sequences.
World Literature 2:
(1 section) Stressed cultural encounters and globablization
over the past four centuries.
Themes in Literature: Literary
Aspects of World Religions: (2 sections, Spring
2010; Writing Intensive) Comparison of the ways world religions use literary
techniques in their texts.
English 102: Inquiry into Remembering the American War
in Vietnam: (5 sections) Introduction
to University research methods and composition
English 101:
(1 section) Introduction to academic analysis and composition, focusing on
questions of Democracy, Equality, Science and Faith.
Comparative
Ethnic American Literatures: (6 sections) Taught using
3 formats: General Survey, Early-Mid 20th Century, and Contemporary
Asian American
Literature: (2 sections) Focused on
Early Asian American Lit: Far to Kingston
World Literature
1: (2
sections) Taught using 2 formats: General Survey, and Long Form Narrative
World Literature
2: (2
sections) European lit (Enlightenment-Today) juxtaposed with global
20th-century literature
Western World
Literature 1: (3 sections) European lit (Antiquity-Renaissance). Taught
using 2 formats: Genre, and Themes
American
Literature 2: Major authors from 1865 to the present
Argument Based Research: Finding, analyzing, and constructing arguments for use
in research-based papers: evaluations, proposals, etc.
Expository
Writing:
Standard genres of the essay: definition, description, cause-and-effect,
classification, etc.
East Asian
Literature, U. of Georgia, Spring 2007. Writing Assistant, taught through the Writing
Intensive Program (WIP)
Sophomore Music, St. John's
College, 1993-1996. Taught music
theory and analysis to non-majors
Graduate
Certificate Program in University Teaching (expected): 9
credit hours in pedagogy, plus a teaching project and formal presentation
EADU 8050: Multicultural Issues in Adult Education
WIPP 7001: Pedagogy
class for TAs in UGA’s Writing Intensive Program (WIP)
GRSC 7770: Pedagogy
class for UGA Graduate Assistants
Research:
For more detailed descriptions, click here.
** = Article developed from conference
presentation
**
Diasporic Monasticism and Inclusive Hospitality in
Kathleen Norris’s The
Cloister Walk, Benedictines magazine 61.2 (2008):
28-37.
** The Monkey
King in the American Canon: Patricia Chao and Gerald Vizenor’s
Use of an Iconic Chinese Character,
Comparative Literature Studies 43.3 (2006): 355-374.
** St. Catherine of Genoa: Life in the Spiritual Borderlands, Magistra: A
Journal of Women’s Spirituality and History 12.2 (2006): 55-73.
** Conflicts between Christianity and Korean Shamanism in
Nora Okja Keller's Comfort
Woman, Mother Tongue Theologies: Poets, Novelists, and Non-Western Christianity, ed.
Darren J. N. Middleton (Eugene: Pickwick-Wipf &
Stock 2009) 157-171.
Conference Presentations:
A Divine Hope for a Borderlands People: Angelico Chavez’s New Mexico Stories, MELUS 2009.
Mystical Realism in Angelico Chavez’s New Mexico
Stories, ACLA 2009.
Minorities Gone
Missing: Day of Absence and A Day without a Mexican, PCA/ACA 2006
Inter-religious Confrontations in Comfort Woman, CEA
2005
The Monkey King in the American Canon, ACLA 2005
Molière and Atomic Family Values, Soc.
Lit. & Science 2000
Astronomy and Order in The Arabian Nights, Soc. Lit. & Science, 1999
Christians as Minorities in Kierkegaard’s Instant and Luther’s On Temporal Authority, SE Comm. Study of Religion 2009.
The Hebrew Bible as Living Epic: Bede and the Creation of the
English People, SCLA
2007
Kathleen Norris’ The Cloister Walk: Monastic
Diaspora and the Humanism of Inclusive Hospitality, SCLA
2006
Inter-religious Confrontations in Comfort Woman, SE Conf. Christianity & Lit. 2006
A Deleuzian Reading of Richard Rolle, SCLA
2004
Senecan Violence
in Hrotsvit's Plays, Medieval Assoc. Pacific 1999
Saint Catherine of Genoa: Life in the Spiritual Borderlands, U. Miss
Renaissance Symposium 2005
The Monastery as Diasporic Space in
Kathleen Norris' Cloister,
GAMS-UGA Conference 2004
Departmental Service:
Co-Organizer (with Dr. Joel Black), T.A. Roundtable
on World Literature, UGA (November 2006)
Graduate Representative to Departmental Faculty Meetings (2004-2005)
Vice-President for [Umlaut], The Comparative
Lit. Grad. Students’ Association at UGA (2004-2005)
Co-organizer, GAMS-UGA Conference 2004: “Intersectionality: Life on the Borders”
Organizer, T.A.
Roundtable on Teaching Multicultural Literature, UGA (February 2004)
Webmaster for [Umlaut],
The Comparative Lit. Grad.
Students’ Association at UGA (2003-2005)