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EDUCATION
- University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi
- PhD Candidate, August 2017-Present
- McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana
- MFA in Fiction; MA in English, May 2014
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- BA in Cultural Studies (minor: Creative Writing), May 2009
- Study Abroad: University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, January 2008-May 2008
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS
- Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Association of American University Women, 2022-2023
- Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship (Finalist – Decision Forthcoming), Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society, 2023
- Residency Scholarship, Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, 2022
- St. Louis Mercantile Fellowship, Bibliographic Society of America, 2022
- Phil Zwickler Memorial Research Grant, Division of Rare Manuscript Collections, Cornell University, 2021
- Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate School, University of Mississippi, 2021
- Dollarhide Fellowship, English Department, University of Mississippi, 2021
- WW Dissertation Fellowship in Women’s Studies (Finalist), Institute for Citizens & Scholars, 2021
- Mary Lily Research Grant, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s Cultural History, Duke University, 2020
- Course Development Grant, Department of Writing and Rhetoric, University of Mississippi, 2020
- NWSA Conference Scholarship, National Women’s Studies Association, 2019
- Professional Development Grant, University of Mississippi, 2019
- Don Kelly LGBTQ Research Collection Fellowship, Texas A&M University, 2019
- Robert Watson Fiction Prize, The Greensboro Review, 2019
- Course Development Award, McNeese State University, 2012
- Good Citizen Teaching Award, McNeese State University, 2011, 2012
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
- “‘How Not to Get Killed’: Feminist Aftercare in the Dorothy Allison Papers.” Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society (Forthcoming)
- “‘I was returning to see if the ghosts were still astirring’: Southern Lesbian Reflexivity as Social Movement in Feminary (1979-1982).” Journal of Lesbian Studies (26)1, 2022; reprinted in Is Lesbian Identity Obsolete? In conversation with queer and trans perspectives, Routledge (Forthcoming)
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
- “Desperado Summer.” Short story, Focus LGBT+ Magazine, 2022 (pen name: Ponyboi)
- “Still Water: Poems by Jewelle Gomez.” Book review, Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal (Forthcoming)
- “Labors of Love and Loss: An Interview with Minnie Bruce Pratt on the Occasion of ‘Magnified,’ Her Latest Poetry Collection.” Interview, Autostraddle, March 2021
- “Electric Rapture at the House of Tin Gods.” Short story, West Branch, June 2020
- “Googling Literary Lesbians: On Carson McCullers and the Erotics of Incompletion.” Essay, Literary Hub, February 2020
- “The Chair Kickers’ Tale.” Short story, The Greensboro Review, June 2019
- “My Butch Career by Esther Newton.” Book review, Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal, November 2019
- “Sugar Land by Tammy Lynne Stoner.” Book review, Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal, March 2019
- “The Lesbian South by Jaime Harker.” Book review, Lambda Literary, January 2019
- “Wild Mares: My Lesbian Back-to-the-Land Life by Diana Hunter.” Book review, Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal, September 2018
- “Creating Home: This LGBTQ Bookstore is Amplifying Voices in the Queer South.” Essay, Bitch Media, January 2018
- “It Must Clean the Walls.” Short story, Broken Pencil Magazine, October 2017
- “Logic and the Long Gone.” Short story, The Chariton Review, Spring/Summer 2017
- “Prayer for Girl Body.” Poem, Ellipsis: A Journal of Art, Ideas, and Literature, March 2017
- “The Twins.” Short story, Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art, February 2016
- Contributor, McNeese State University Composition and Rhetoric Guide, 2012; 2013
- Contributor, The Greenwood Dictionary of Education, 2nd edition, 2011
TEACHING
- Graduate Instructor of Record, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi
- Survey of British Literature to the 18th Century (2021, 2018)
- The South and Sexuality (2020)
- Introduction to Gender Studies (2019, 2020)
- Composition II (2019)
- Composition I (2018)
- Teaching Assistant, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi
- Survey of American Literature Since the Civil War (2017, 2021)
- Survey of World Literature to 1650 (2020)
- Survey of British Literature to 18th Century (2018)
- Adjunct, East Arkansas Community College, Forrest City, Arkansas
- Composition II – Concurrent Credit (2017)
- Composition I – Concurrent Credit (2016)
- Adjunct, Arkansas State University – Mid-South, West Memphis, Arkansas
- World Literature I (2015)
- Developmental Reading (2015)
- Graduate Instructor of Record, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana
- Composition II (2012, 2013, 2014)
- Composition I (2012)
- Developmental English (2011, 2012)
- Teaching Assistant, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana
- Introduction to Women’s Studies (2013)
CONFERENCES AND READINGS
- “Archival Exchange: Jewelle Gomez’s Intersectional Coalitional Politics.” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Minneapolis, MN, November 2022
- “Ann Allen Shockley’s Archival Opacity.” South Central Modern Language Association, Memphis, TN, October, 2022
- “Sooper Scoopers.” South Central Modern Language Association, Memphis, TN, October, 2022
- “Re-Imagining Feminist Cartographies in Bitch Planet.” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, November 2019
- “Co-Imagining Feminist Intimacies: Erotohistoriography in the Dorothy Allison Archives.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, Birmingham, AL, November 2018
- “Feminist Intimacies Across Time and Space.” Isom Student Gender Conference, Oxford, MS, April 2018
- “Southern Kink: The Grotesque Erotic in Tennessee Williams’s ‘Desire and the Black Masseur.’” Society for the Study of Southern Literature Conference, Austin, TX, February 2018
- “Embodiment of Time in Chris Ware’s Building Stories.” South Central Modern Language Association Conference, Dallas, TX, November 2016
- “Intertextuality in the Composition Classroom.” Louisiana Association for College Composition Conference, New Orleans, LA, February 2014
- “The Reader Saves! in Chris Ware’s Building Stories.” Society for Comparative Literature and the Arts Conference, Greensboro, NC, October 2013
- “Love and Theft in Eudora Welty’s ‘Powerhouse.’“ South Central Modern Language Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, October 2013
- “Everything Was Stories.” Free Range Fiction and Poetry Reading, Lake Charles, LA, March 2013
- “Electric Rapture at the House of Tin Gods.” First Friday Reading Series presented by Southwest Louisiana Arts and Humanities Council, Lake Charles, LA, September 2012
- “Flying Below the Radar: Crossing Education Frontiers Using Sci-Fi and Fantasy.” BayouCon, Lake Charles, LA June 2012
- “The Twins.” McNeese State University MFA Poetry and Fiction Reading, Lake Charles, LA, May 2012
INVITED TALKS
- “Pride and Prejudice: Gender, Sexuality, and Identity in Literature.” Mississippi Book Festival, August 2022
- Skype discussion about “The Chair Kickers’ Tale.” McNeese State University MFA in Creative Writing, November 2021
- “A Conversation with Dorothy Allison.” Glitterary Festival, University of Mississippi, April 2021
- “Perverting the Archives: Sex, Shame, and Intimacy in the Dorothy Allison Papers.“ Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, University of Mississippi, April 2021
- “Advancing Each Other: Building Coalitions Across Communities.” A conversation with Mandy Carter, University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media, February 2020
- “Student Activism.” University of Mississippi Summit on Women & Civic Engagement, February 2020
- Skype discussion about “The Chair Kickers’ Tale.” McNeese State University MFA in Creative Writing, October 2019
PROFESSIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE
- Volunteer, OUTMemphis: The LGBTQ+ Community Center of the Mid-South (June 2022-Present)
- Referee, The Journal of Lesbian Studies (2021-Present)
- Volunteer, Violet Valley Bookstore (December 2017-Present)
- Senior Fiction Editor, The Yalobusha Review (May 2020-May 2021); Reader (August 2017-May 2020)
- Planning Committee, Glitterary – A Queer Literary Festival (August 2019-April 2021)
- President, OUTGrads – LGBTQIA+ Graduate and Professional Students at The University of Mississippi (October 2017-May 2019); Communication Chair (May 2020-May 2021)
- Historian, English Graduate Student Body at The University of Mississippi (August 2018-August 2019)
- Planning Committee, Southern Writers, Southern Writing Conference (May 2018-July 2019)
- Interviewer, University of Mississippi LGBTQ+ Oral History Project (January 2018-May 2018)
- Panel Chair, “Gender and Identity in Lesbian Literature.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association (November 2018)
- Co-Founder, Fiction Editor, Ostrich Review (April 2012-August 2017)
- Referee, International Journal of Critical Pedagogy (October 2009-May 2016)
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Writing Specialist, Premium Prep, Remote, April 2018-Present
- Advise college and scholarship application essay writing through in-person and virtual meetings; past student acceptances include MIT, Juilliard, Brown, Caltech, Duke, Northwestern, Penn, USC, and UNC-Chapel Hill
- Program Associate, The College Initiative, Memphis, Tennessee; January 2015-December 2017
- Wrote and facilitated college readiness programming for seventh through twelfth-grade students
- Met individually with students and parents to advise on college preparation
- Partnered with development team to write grant proposals to further organizational reach
- Fostered relationships between Title I high schools, community organizations, and businesses in Memphis and East Arkansas