Curriculum Vitae

Education

UNCThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Ph.D., English & Comparative Literature, 2018

Dissertation: “Our Microbes: Imagining Human Interdependence with Bacteria in American Literature, Science, and Culture, 1880-1920,” directed by Jane F. Thrailkill & Priscilla Wald (Duke University)

UMDUniversity of Maryland, College Park | M.A., English Language & Literature, 2011

Capstone Essay: “The Race for Hysteria in Pauline Hopkins’ Of One Blood; Or, the Hidden Self and Angelina Weld Grimké’s Rachel,” directed by Keguro Macharia

LVC sealLebanon Valley College | B.S., Biochemistry & Molecular Biology with minor in English Literature, summa cum laude, 2006

Professional Appointments

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of English & Comparative Literature

  • Teaching Assistant Professor, 2019-present
  • Co-Director of HHIVE Lab, 2019-present
  • Associate Director of English & Comparative Literature M.A. concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture, 2019-present
  • Associate Director of English & Comparative Literature Dual Degree B.A./M.A. concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture, 2020-present
  • Associate Director of English & Comparative Literature Graduate Certificate in Literature, Medicine, and Culture, 2020-present

Vanderbilt University
Department of Medicine, Health, and Society

  • Senior Lecturer, 2018-2019
  • Assistant Director of Graduate Studies, 2018-2019

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles

Book Chapter

  • “Microbe,” Keywords for Health Humanities, edited by Sari Altschuler, Jonathan Metzl, and Priscilla Wald, New York University Press, forthcoming

In Progress

  • “Our Microbes: Imagining Human Interdependence with Bacteria in American Literature, Science, and Culture, 1880-1920,” book manuscript in progress.
  • “Alice James’s Alternative Influenza Etiology: Emulating Microorganisms in the Midst of Epidemic Disease,” article in progress.

Digital Work

Awards, Fellowships, and Honors

2022

  • Special Funds awarded by Carolina Seminars to support Health Humanities Grand Rounds, Office of the Provost, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2021-2022

  • Seminar Funding awarded by Carolina Seminars to support Health Humanities Grand Rounds, Office of the Provost, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Seminar Funding awarded by Carolina Seminars to support Arts Across the Ages, Office of the Provost, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2020-2021

  • Seminar Funding awarded by Carolina Seminars to support Health Humanities Grand Rounds, Office of the Provost, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Seminar Funding awarded by Carolina Seminars to support Arts Across the Ages, Office of the Provost, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2020

  • Summer Online Course Design Grant awarded by Summer School and Digital and Lifelong Learning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Collaboration Grant awarded by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2019-2020

  • Seminar Funding awarded by Carolina Seminars to support Health Humanities Grand Rounds, Office of the Provost, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2019

  • Special Funds awarded by Carolina Seminars, Office of the Provost, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Programming Grant awarded by the “Countering Hate: Overcoming Fear of Difference” Initiative, College of Arts & Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2018

  • Dissertation Research Fellowship awarded by the Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2017-2018

  • Senior Teaching Fellowship awarded in recognition of teaching excellence by the Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2017

  • Thomas F. Ferdinand Summer Research Fellowship awarded by the Graduate School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Rebekah F. Kirby Dissertation Fellowship awarded by the Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2016

  • Eliason Dissertation Fellowship awarded by the Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Summer Research Fellowship (declined) awarded by the Graduate School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Nannerl Keohane Visiting Professorship Graduate Student Award presented by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University in recognition of substantial scholarly contributions in the areas represented by the visiting Keohane Professor, Susan Lederer
  • Erika Lindemann Award for Excellence in Teaching Literature awarded by the Peer Mentoring Committee in recognition of teaching excellence in literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Future Faculty Fellowship Award, Center for Faculty Excellence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2015

  • Engaged Instructor Award for outstanding contributions to professional development awarded by the Writing Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2011-2012

  • Jackson Fellowship awarded by the Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Powell Graduate Support Fund awarded by the Graduate School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Presentations & Conference Participation

Invited Talks & Guest Lectures

2022 

  • “Medical Humanities and the Practice of Medicine,” invited lecture at the Dunlevie Honors Colloquium, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • “Health Humanities Modes of Inquiry,” invited guest lecture for Elizabeth Jones’s Modes of Inquiry course, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • “Research in Health Humanities,” invited guest lecture for Dr. Mary-Charles Horn’s Pursuing Health Professions course, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2021

2020

  • “Disability Studies & Health Humanities,” invited guest lecture for Dr. Jane Thrailkill’s Health Humanities Practicum (graduate) and Medicine, Literature, and Culture (undergraduate) courses, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • “Interdisciplinary Collaboration,” invited workshop facilitator at Health Humanities 2020: Narrative and Counter Narrative Summer Seminar, Hiram College (Cancelled due to COVID-19)
  • “Health Humanities in a Public Health Crisis,” invited guest lecture for Dr. Rachel F. Seidman and Dr. Ross Simpson’s Preventing Broken Hearts in North Carolina course, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2019

  • “From Germ Theory to the Outbreak Narrative: How Cultural Narratives Shape Responses to Epidemic Disease,” invited guest lecture for Dr. Miranda Welsh’s Communicating Science in Sickness and in Health course, Duke University  (Delivered again in 2020)

2018

  • “Microbe Fictions: Narrating Ecocentrism in Turn of the Century American Literature,” Center for Medicine, Health, and Society Colloquium, Vanderbilt University

2016

  • “The Falls Narrative Study: Writing, Health, and Interdisciplinary Research” with Molly Brewer, Sue Coppola, and Manisha Mishra, Health and Humanities Exchange, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC
  • “Two Perspectives: Learning from the Falls Narrative Study as Students in English and Occupational Therapy” with Molly Brewer, CHCI Health Humanities Summer Institute, King’s College London, United Kingdom
  • “The Falls Narrative Study” with Jane F. Thrailkill, CHCI Annual Meeting, University of London, United Kingdom

Conferences Convened

2015

  • Boundary: KCL/UNC Nineteenth Century Studies Conference, UNC Conference Convener, King’s College London, United Kingdom
  • UNC-King’s College London Nineteenth Century Studies Partnership, Symposium Chair, Chapel Hill, NC

Conferences Panels Organized

2022

  • “Making Space: Health Humanities Pedagogy Across the Curriculum,” panel organizer, International Health Humanities Consortium Virtual Conference

2020

  • “Being Human in a Microbial World,” panel presider and co-organizer with Melissa Wills (UC-Davis), Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Seattle, WA, January 2020

2019

  • “Microbial Futures” Panel Stream (includes one roundtable discussion and three traditional panels), co-organized with Melissa Wills (UC-Davis), Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Conference, Irvine, CA, November 2019

Conference Papers Presented

2022

  • “Making Intellectual and Curricular Space for Disability Studies in Health Humanities,” International Health Humanities Consortium Virtual Conference

2021

  • “Our Microbiota, Ourselves: Imagining Communal Health in a Pandemic,” Health Humanities Consortium conference, Hershey, PA (virtual)

2020

  • “Our Microbiota, Ourselves: Imagining Communal Health,” Health Humanities Consortium conference, Nashville, TN (Cancelled due to COVID-19)

2019

  • “Toward a Literary History of Microbes,” part of “The Future of Microbe/Microbiome Scholarship” roundtable discussion, Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Conference, Irvine, CA

2018

  • “Thinking with Our Microbes: Human Autonomy and Microbial Agency in Nineteenth Century Fiction,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts Conference, Toronto, Canada
  • “Horizontal Exchange in Health Humanities” as part of the “Possibilities of Public Humanities” roundtable, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, New York City, NY

2016

  • “Microbial Allies: Opening up to Microbes in Alice James’s Diary,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Atlanta, GA
  • “The Falls Narrative Study: Writing, Health, and Interdisciplinary Research” with Molly Brewer, Sue Coppola, and Manisha Mishra, Health and Humanities Exchange, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC
  • “The Falls Narrative Study” with Jane F. Thrailkill on “New Formations in the Humanities: International, Transdisciplinary Collaborations” panel, CHCI Annual Meeting, University of London, United Kingdom
  • “Two Perspectives: Learning from the Falls Narrative Study as Students in English and Occupational Therapy” with Molly Brewer, CHCI Health Humanities Summer Institute, King’s College London, United Kingdom
  • “Imagined Ecologies: Mark Twain and the Human-Microbe Relationship,” European Society for the Study of Literature, Science, and the Arts Conference, Stockholm, Sweden
  • “Health Humanities Interdisciplinary Research: The HHIVE Falls Study,” Critical Juncture Conference, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

2015

  • “Passing Germs: Imagining Interconnectedness through Microbes,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Durham, NC
  • Respondent, “Across Disciplines: Literature and Science,” Boundary: KCL/UNC Nineteenth Century Studies Conference, King’s College London, United Kingdom

2014

  • “From Ether to 23andMe: Learning from Breast Cancer in the Nineteenth Century,” The UNCommon: UNC’s Interdisciplinary Conference for Nineteenth-Century Americanists, Chapel Hill, NC
  • “Race, Gender, and the Medical Underpinnings of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Double Consciousness,” Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL

2013

  • “Cancer, Mendacity and Containment: Duplicitous Diagnosis in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” College English Association convention, Savannah, GA

2011

  • “Encounters and the Metaphorics of Disease in Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of a Return to the Native Land.” Northeast Modern Language Association Convention, New Brunswick, NJ
  • “The Race for Hysteria in Pauline Hopkins’ Of One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self.” Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, Louisville, KY

Courses Taught

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of English & Comparative Literature

Teaching Assistant Professor

Graduate Level

  • Narrative, Literature, and Medicine | Graduate seminar that examines diverse narrative representations of illness, disability, and healthcare.
  • Introduction to Methods in Health Humanities | Graduate seminar that uses interdisciplinary readings to define the scope, methods, and values that constitute the field of health humanities.

Undergraduate Level

  • Introduction to Disability Studies | 200-level course that introduces students to key critical concepts and debates in disability studies by drawing on multiple disciplinary perspectives.
  • Healers and Patients |First-year Honors seminar that examines multiple facets of illness and healing through memoirs, poetry, film, fiction, and oral history.
  • Major American Authors: Protest & Dissent | Online introductory American literature course that examines American authors’ engagement with protest and dissent from 1850-1950.
  • Writing in Health & Medicine | First-year specialized writing in the disciplines course that introduces students to professional and popular genres common in health and medical fields.

School of Medicine

Co-Instructor

Professional Student Courses

  • Social Health Systems (SHS4) Humanities Seminar | Year-long application-phase course that provides a forum in which students can reflect upon and discuss their clinical experiences from various perspectives.

Vanderbilt University
Center for Medicine, Health, and Society

Senior Lecturer

Graduate Level Courses

  • Narratives of Contagion // Contagious Narratives | Graduate seminar that explores the material and narrative effects of epidemics, both real and imagined.
  • Interdisciplinary Writing | Workshop-style graduate seminar aimed at developing academic writing habits in an interdisciplinary context.

Undergraduate Level Courses

  • Health Humanities | 300-level course that trains students to apply the critical reading and analytical practices of humanities to a range of issues and texts related to human health.

Advising

PhD Student Supervision
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2021-Present

  • Committee Member, Mindy Buchanan-King, Department of English & Comparative Literature
  • Committee Member, Savannah Foreman, Department of English & Comparative Literature
  • Committee Member, Elisabeth McClanahan Harris, Department of English & Comparative Literature

Master’s Student Supervision
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2021-Present

  • Director, Jesse Bossingham, MA concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture
    Capstone Project: “Continuity in Dementia”

2020-2021

  • Director, Austin Hopkins, MA concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture | Capstone Project: “The Harms of a Single Story: The Medicalization of Trauma and A Little Life”
  • Committee Member, Megan Swartzfager, MA concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture | Capstone Project: “‘A motherly affection for them all’: Rhetorical Domesticity and the Legitimization of Woman Nurses During the American Civil War (and Beyond)”

2019-2021

  • Director, Savannah Bateman, MA concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture | Capstone Project: “Medically Contested Illnesses: A Comparative Epistemology of Chronic Lyme”

2019-2020

  • Director, Rabab Husain, MA concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture | Capstone Project: “Muslim Medical Humanitarianism”

Vanderbilt University

2018-2019

  • Director, Summer Brown, Department of Medicine, Health, and Society | Thesis: “Illness Memoirs: Implementing and Expanding Narrative Medicine as Part of the Medical School Education Curriculum”
  • Director, Qianhui “Loro” Pi, Department of Medicine, Health, and Society | Thesis: “Doctors with Borders: Medical Brain Drain Through the Ethical Lens”
  • Director, Elsa Young, Department of Medicine, Health, and Society | Practicum Project: “Structural Violence and Chronic Malnutrition in Guatemala”
  • Director, Kylie Hardin, Department of Medicine, Health, and Society | Non-Thesis Project: “Media and Healthcare Environments”
  • Committee Member, Erik R. Henning Ander, Department of Medicine, Health, and Society | Thesis: “A Change in Structure: Perceptions of Mental Health and Illness at the University”

Undergraduate Student Supervision
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2022-Present

  • Faculty Mentor, Milena Jojic, Morehead-Cain Global Perspectives faculty-mentored research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Faculty Mentor, Sarah Prosser, Morehead-Cain Global Perspectives faculty-mentored research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Faculty Advisor, Maura O’Sullivan, Interdisciplinary Studies major in Disability Studies
  • Faculty Advisor, Tori Owens, Interdisciplinary Studies major in Genetic Counseling

2021-Present

  • Research Advisor, Health Humanities in Physician Burnout (HHIPB) Team including Mehal Churiwal, Alexandra Mao, and Tyler Owens
  • Faculty Advisor, Tessa Bucher, Interdisciplinary Studies major in Disability Studies from a Sociological Perspective

2021

  • Faculty Mentor, Caroline Womack, Honors Carolina faculty-mentored research | Research Project: “Humanities Methods & Health Disparities”

2019-2020

  • Research Advisor, Undergraduate Research Consultant Team (URCT) including Mehal Churiwal, Lauren McCormick, Annika Alicardi, Hannah Feinsilber, and Naijha Nsehti | Research Project: “Diarrhea in Bokaro, Jhakarhand”

University & Professional Service

Profession

2022-Present

  • Elected Steering Committee Member and incoming Treasurer, Health Humanities Consortium

2019

  • Reviewer, Palgrave Macmillan Major Reference Works

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2022-Present

  • Reviewer, Master’s Merit Fellowship, Graduate School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Understanding Empathy Working Group, Co-PI with Jane Thrailkill, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Pedagogy Reading Circle, Center for Faculty Excellent, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2021-Present

  • Hardison Award Inaugural Committee, Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Professor’s Perspective presentations at New Student Orientation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Faculty Mentor, The Health Humanities Journal of UNC-Chapel Hill
  • Faculty Mentor, Abolition Medicine student organization

2021

  • Shape of the Major event co-organizer, 225th Anniversary Celebration, Department of English & Comparative Literature

2020-Present

  • Curriculum Committee, Science, Medicine, and Literature concentration representative, Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillFounding Associate Director, BA/MA Dual Degree Program in Literature, Medicine, and Culture, Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Founding Associate Director, Graduate Certificate in Literature, Medicine, and Culture, Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Curriculum Committee, Science, Medicine, and Literature concentration representative, Department of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Walker Percy Prize Board of Judges, Health Humanities Journal, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2019-Present

  • Advisory Board, Stories to Save Lives, Southern Oral History Program, Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Co-Convener, Carolina Seminar: Health Humanities Grand Rounds, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Co-Convener, Carolina Seminar: Arts Across Ages, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Member, Disability & Access Initiative, Duke University

Vanderbilt University

2018-2019

  • Graduate Curriculum Committee, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt University
  • M.A. Thesis Seminar, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt University
  • M.A. Student Advising Oversight Committee, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt University
  • Student Advisory Board Committee, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt University
  • Student Awards Committee, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt University

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2016-2018

  • English M.A. Concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    • Graduate Administrator, 2016-2018

2015-2018

  • HHIVE Laboratory (Health and Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Venue for Exploration), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    • Founding Assistant Director, 2015-2018
    • Study Coordinator of Falls Narrative Study, 2015-2016
  • Faculty Advisory Board, English M.A. Concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Carolina Seminar: Health Humanities Task Force, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    • Co-Convener & Health Humanities Grand Rounds Chair, 2017-2018
    • Graduate Assistant, 2016-2017

2012-2018

  • Literature, Medicine, and Culture Colloquium and Working Group, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    • Director, 2014-2016

2016-2017

  • Re-envisioning the Humanities Ph.D. Collaboration Sub-Committee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2015-2017

  • Peer Mentoring Committee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2015-2016

  • UNC-King’s College London Nineteenth Century Studies Colloquium, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Writing Program Mentor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Duke University

2013-2017

  • Americanist Speaker Series Planning Committee, Duke University
    • Co-Chair, 2013-2016

University of Maryland, College Park

2010-2011

  • Graduate Studies Committee, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Master’s Program Representative, 2010-2011
  • Graduate English Organization Conference Planning Committee, University of Maryland, College Park
    • Conference Planning Committee member, 2010-2011
    • Social Chair, 2010-2011

Professional Affiliations

  • C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists
  • Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, Medical Humanities Network
  • Health Humanities Consortium
  • Modern Language Association
  • Society for Disability Studies
  • Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts