I have always believed in being open to new ideas and new paths, and my scholarly and teaching interests reflect this philosophy. My research interests include material culture, gender studies, women's travel narratives, and the construction of identity in literature. I am the author of The American Counterfeit: Authenticity and Identity in American Literature and Culture, as well as articles on Phillis Wheatley, Sarah Kemble Knight, Walt Whitman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner. I am associate editor of The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry. I also teach a variety of courses, both undergraduate and graduate, including the University's first-year core course, The Journey of Transformation, Women and Literature II, American Romanticism, Studies in American Literature, and Senior Seminar. I am also interested in the use of technology for teaching and to advance learning. Toward that end I have tried various tools in my classes, including wikis, blogs, and, most recently, Second Life, the online virtual community. I am currently at work on a study of the grotesque in early American literature. I have given numerous presentations on both my scholarship and my pedagogical interests. I am on the editorial board of Transformations, the Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, and a member of several scholarly organizations, including MLA, SEA, and NJCEA. Education Ph.D., New York University M.A., Seton Hall University B.A., New Jersey City University
presentations
Fostering Virtual Collaboration Between First-Year Students and Seniors in English Courses (with Mary Zedeck), Educause Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference (2011)
Herding cats in the internet corral (with Joseph J. Martinelli, Marian Glenn, Heidi P. Trotta, Debra Zinicola, and Anthony C. Sciglitano) (2009)
articles
Phillis Wheatley's Construction of Otherness and the Rhetoric of Performed Ideology, African American Review (2002)
Introduction: Early American women writers: The gendering of national identity (with Susan Clair Imbarrato), Women's Studies (1998)
books
The American counterfeit : authenticity and identity in American literature and culture (2006)
Focusing on texts written between 1880 and 1930, this book explores the concept of the...