“Literature and Leadership” Fordham University, Spring 2017-Fall 2019

I designed this core course with two questions in mind: what can we learn about leadership from literature, and what can we learn about literary works by reading them alongside writing about leadership? Authors include Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Peter F. Drucker. I'm currently (slowly) writing about this course, and what my students and I learned over the years.

“American Dream in Literature” Fordham University, Spring 2018

This upper level elective posed and sought to answer broad questions about the American Dream. Why does an idea like “The American Dream” exist in the first place? Who gets to dream the American dream? Why do we call it a dream? Do facts matter when we talk about the dream? What are the consequences of believing in this dream? Students explored the changing conceptions of success in American literature in genres including sermon, autobiography, short story novel, drama and through literary periods including Puritanism, Transcendentalism, Realism, and Naturalism.

“American Literature: Beginnings to 1865” Fordham University, Spring 2017

This upper-level survey course of my own design studies American literature from the close of the fifteenth century through the Civil War. We read the writings of (among others) Anne Bradstreet, Phyllis Wheatley, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson.

“The American Short Story” Fordham University, Spring 2017

This English core course of my own design looks at the ways American short stories (by authors like Irving, Poe, Chopin, Crane, Welty, Baldwin, O’Connor, Oates, Munro, Diaz, and Alexie) comment on cultural issues ranging including war, religion, and social justice.

“Political Incivility & 19th-Century U.S. Literature” Fordham, Fall 2016

Outsider candidates, populist movements, and hate speech have long shaped U.S. politics. This English core course of my own design explored the question: what did citizenship look and feel like for a range of individuals across the long nineteenth century? This course considers what we can learn about our own historical moment from the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Walt Whitman.

“God & New York City” Fordham University, Spring 2013

This upper-level elective focused on the relationship between various religious, spiritual, and literary communities and the city of New York. I designed this course to encourage students to visit New York City landmarks—such as the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park—and to use these visits as occasions for reflection on the built landscape, and the representations of New York City. Students traced the literary history of a religious community, and contributed to a collaborative digital history of the city’s literary-religious past.

Honors Rhetoric and Public Speaking Fordham University, 2013-2015

Equipped students with resources to help forge their own public speaking styles while providing the vocabulary and skills needed to give and receive constructive feedback. Example of student feedback: “This class was key in transforming some of my introverted tendencies into extroverted confidence. I gained awareness that has helped me both in my career and in expanding my relationship circles. The environment of the class was typical of Fordham—open to all ideas with complete ownership of presenting topics in a manner that would engage your peers.” (Read More.)

Honors Writing Intensive Fordham University, 2013-2015

I developed a new model for this course, turning a traditional composition course into a writing across the disciplines course. This course, taught once a year to Fordham’s Lincoln Center Honors first-year cohort, now links an intensive writing seminar with the coursework of other Honors courses, particularly the Literature and Biological Sciences seminars.

Composition I Fordham University, 2011-2012

I taught basic writing and grammar in a course stressing reading comprehension and the process of revision. I taught this course to traditional-age students, and also led an evening section for non-traditional students, including ESL students and veterans.

Composition II Fordham University, 2010-2016

Fordham’s core writing course for first-year students, Composition II is an intensive course in expository writing that equips students with the skills needed to succeed in college and beyond. The small class environment (~16 students) allows for in-depth discussions of texts (particularly student essays) as well as sources ranging from Aristotle to Colbert.

Advanced Composition and Rhetoric II Fordham University, Fall 2016

Students and professors are individually chosen for this special section of Composition II.

Additional Experience

Tutor, Rose Hill Center Writing Center Fordham University, 2009-2010

I worked one-on-one with students (including many ESL and non-traditional students) on all aspects of writing process. I also led presentations and workshops for tutors and instructors.

Teaching Assistant, Romanticism and Revolution, Fordham University, 2010

High School Teaching Certificate, English Language and Literature

I also have a teaching certificate and have taught at the High School level at a private high school.