Education

PhD in English, University of South Carolina
MA in English, California State University Stanislaus
BS in Social Sciences, Saint Thomas Aquinas College

Areas of Specialization

Early American Literature & Culture
African American Literature & History
Print and Material Culture
Book History
Social History
Curriculum Design

Recent Courses

ENGL 101: Critical Reading & Composition
ENGL 101 Honors: Critical Reading & Composition
ENGL 102: Rhetoric & Composition
ENGL 102 Honors: Rhetoric & Composition
ENGL 287: American Literature
UNIV 101: The Student in the University

Research Awards

   • Bilinski Dissertation Fellowship, College of Arts and Sciences, Univ. of South Carolina
   • Lapidus Dissertation Fellowship, Omohundro Institute for Early American Literature & Culture
   • Peterson Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society
   • Andrew Mellon Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society
   • Love of Learning Grant, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
   • Institute for African American Research Fellowship, Univ. of South Carolina

Select Publications

   • Reimagining Prince Hall: Race, Freemasonry, and Material Culture in Boston, 1775-1870, PhD   Dissertation. 2021
   • “The Transcendence of Class Ideologies in James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” Children’s Literature Review, Gale/Cengage’s Literary Criticism Series, 2021
   • “African Free School.” African American Leadership: A Concise Reference Guide. SAGE, 2015
   • “Homogeneity as a Source of Power in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Sweat’ and Their Eyes Were Watching God.” San Joaquin Valley Journal, 2011
   • “A Battle for Cherl Masculinity in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” Sigma Tau Delta Review, 2011
   • “The Transcendence of Class Ideologies in James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” Sigma Tau Delta Review, 2010

Invited Talks/Presentations

   • “Reconstructing Prince Hall: Fraternal Artifacts, Slave Relics, and Historical Narration.”  For a panel entitled, “Brotherhood Commodified: The Material Dimension of American Fraternal Orders,” sponsored by the Material Culture Caucus, American Studies Association Annual Meeting, 2016
   • “African Americans and the Cultural Work of Freemasonry.” Massachusetts Historical Society, 2015
   • “The Cultural Work of the Early American Fraternal Sphere.” American Antiquarian Society, 2015
   • “Freemasonry, Race, and Material Culture in Early America.” Seminar sponsored by the Institute for African American Research, Univ. of South Carolina, 2015