- Assistant Professor of English
Education
- Ph.D. English, Claremont Graduate University, 2011
- A.M. Religion & Biblical Literature, University of Chicago, 1996
- A.B. Religion & Biblical Literature and Dance, Smith College, 1993

Education
- Ph.D. English, Claremont Graduate University, 2011
- A.M. Religion & Biblical Literature, University of Chicago, 1996
- A.B. Religion & Biblical Literature and Dance, Smith College, 1993
Courses
- Core: Classics of Western Literature, Advanced Composition, American Literature
Teaching Positions & Professional Experience
- Joined Southern Virginia University faculty in 2022
- Faculty Member, Columbus Ohio Institute of Religion, 2013-22
- Faculty Member, The Waterford School, 1995-97
Scholarship & Creative Work
- “The Book of Esther” Follow Him Podcast
- Esther in America
- “The Scarlet Letter as a Great American Novel”
- “Search for Eve in Twain’s Garden of Eden”
- “Queen Aster and Queen Esther”
- Published monograph The Book of Esther and the Typology of Female Transfiguration in American Literature, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018
- Book chapter in The Forgotten Alcott: Essays on the Artistic Legacy and Literary Life of May Alcott Nieriker, Routledge, 2022
- Published book chapter in Esther in America, edited by Stuart W. Halpern, Maggid Books, 2020.
- Published journal article “From Literary Salon to Library: The Female Mind and the Art of Reading Across the Color Line,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 2021.
- Published journal article “Joan of Arc as Avatar of Female Agency and Action in America,” RFEA, 2019
- Book review of Melville’s Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America, Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies, 2022
- Book review of Psychoanalytic Readings of Hawthorne’s Romances: Narratives of Unconscious Crisis and Transformation, Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, 2022.
- Essay forthcoming in Every Needful Thing, BYU Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book, 2023
Awards, Leadership & Service
- Quarry Farm Fellow, Center for Mark Twain Studies, 2022
- MWHIT Independent Scholar Award, 2021
- Women’s Author Initiative, Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2021
- President-elect, Hawthorne Society, 2020-present
- Executive Board, Hawthorne Society, 2020
- External Peer Reviewer, Israeli Science Foundation, Anthem Press, Neophilologus, 2020-22
- Panel Creator and Organizer, NeMLA, 2020-21
- Panel Creator and Organizer, International Melville Symposium, 2019
- Panel Chair, ALA, 2018, 2021
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellow, 2017, 2018
- Has presented around the world on authors such as Hawthorne, Melville, Fuller, and Alcott and figures such as Esther, Hagar, and Eve since 2014
Memberships
- Modern Language Association
- American Literature Association
- C19
- American Society of Religion and Literature
- Society for the Study of American Women Writers
- Society for Biblical Literature
- American Academy of Religion