Growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania, I spent many summers around Lake Erie and Presque Isle State Park, where my love and concern for delicate ecosystems rendered me an amateur naturalist. Whether removing litter from the beaches, collecting data for water quality analysis, or narrating historic tours, my relationship with the lake has been a source of revelation and inspiration. After attending Towson University to earn a bachelor of science degree in English (secondary education track) and teaching high school for five years, I decided to pursue a master’s degree in English at Gannon University, situated less than a mile from the shores of Lake Erie. I remained there for several years, teaching literature and composition courses at local universities while also teaching piano lessons in the surrounding community.
In 2013, I determined to commit to my research in late-nineteenth-century American Literature, and, more specifically, Indigenous texts, broadly conceived to include more than alphabetic compositions. I received my Ph.D. in English and American Literature from The University of South Carolina in 2020. My dissertation, “A Return to Turtle Island: Eco-cosmopolitics in American Indian Literature, 1880-1920” explores interrelationships among Indigeneity, settler colonialism, and environmental stewardship.
Two articles emerged from my dissertation research. The first, based on my reading of queer ecologies in the canoe verse of E. Pauline Johnson (Mohawk) was published in Western American Literature. The second explores the role of sound, especially music and dance, in constructing and resisting hegemonic power structures at the turn of the twentieth century, when the boarding school press became a formidable engine for assimilation projects. This article will soon be published in Resonance: A Journal of Sound and Culture, an interdisciplinary, international journal related to sound art and sound studies.
In 2020, I joined Dixie State University as a Visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow of English. I am excited by the many opportunities here, not only for interdisciplinary collaborations on important research projects, but also for encouraging students to understand themselves as emerging scholars with meaningful contributions to offer society.
I find living among the red rocks of Southwestern Utah to be an experience both humbling and expansive. Whenever possible, I enjoy getting out-of-doors with my family and exploring the complex cultural and geological histories of this region. I am grateful for the planet’s gifts, continually inspired to work for their protection, from the fragile ecosystems along the Atlantic Flyway that provide resting points for migrating birds to the edges of the Mohave Desert where elusive tortoises struggle against extinction.