Profile
As a seasoned undergraduate writing instructor with teaching and research experience in institutions ranging from elite universities to prison, I have learned to make the most of what any program environment offers to create meaningful, supportive relationships with students and faculty. For many students, lower-division writing instructors are the first substantive points of academic, professional, and personal contact with their universities; I take this responsibility seriously. My passion for teaching and my enthusiasm for connecting with students through writing position me as a welcoming emissary not just for writing studies, but for the university community on the whole. My wide range of experience has shown me that first-year writing students’ skill levels vary significantly. Individually-tailored approaches are often necessary to create favorable conditions for learning repeatable, transferable writing skills. I find that my students’ needs are best served by rhetoric-informed, cross-disciplinary writing pedagogies rooted in a ground-up approach to education that embraces writers at their present skill levels rather than relying upon arbitrary, predetermined starting points.
My teaching philosophy is grounded in post-process theorist Thomas Kent’s assertion that “writing is public, thoroughly hermeneutic, and always situated and therefore cannot be reduced to a generalizable process.” The consequent need for bespoke pedagogies is best served not by abandoning process, but through what rhetoric scholar Hannah Rule calls “situating processes,” physically localizing the act of writing among the interrelated objects and bodies in students’ lived environments. To that end, I balance the broader interpretive principles of rhetorical theory with the situational sensitivity offered by rhetorician Lisa Blankenship’s “rhetorical empathy,” a concept that foregrounds intentionally “feeling with” others as an invaluable attunement for effectively relating and ethically persuading through the practice of writing. My courses most identifiably embody this philosophy through my inclusive, adaptive approach to accommodating students.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy: Composition and Rhetoric
- Dissertation: “Methodological Mutability: Shifting Research in the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine”
- Committee: Byron Hawk, Hannah Rule, Kevin Brock, Lora Arduser
Master of Arts: Writing
Bachelor of Arts: English / Creative Writing
Experience
University of Southern California Capital Campus
The Writing Program — Instructor, 2026–present
Johns Hopkins University
University Writing Program — Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, 2024–2026
University of Maryland Global Campus
Writing Across the Curriculum — Adjunct Assistant Professor, 2023–present
American University
Writing Studies Program — Adjunct Lecturer, 2022–2024
Georgetown University
Writing Program — Adjunct Lecturer, 2022–present
Community Scholars Program — Adjunct Lecturer, 2024–present
Allen University
Department of Humanities — Adjunct Instructor of English, 2018–2019
University of South Carolina
First Year English — Adjunct Instructor, 2022
First Year English — Graduate Teaching Assistant, 2017–2022
Coastal Carolina University
Department of English — Adjunct Teaching Associate, 2016–2017
Department of Politics and Geography — Student Policy Writing Editor, 2015
Waccamaw Journal — Editorial Assistant, 2014
Department of English — Graduate Teaching Assistant, 2014–2016
Courses Taught
Johns Hopkins University
- AS.004: Reintroduction to Writing — instructor of record; significant course revision; three sections per term
University of Maryland Global Campus
- WRTG 111: Academic Writing I
- WRTG 112: Academic Writing II
American University
- WRT 100: College Writing
- WRT 101: College Writing Seminar
- WRT 106: College Writing and Research, Intensive
Georgetown University
- WRIT 1150/115: Writing and Culture
- WRIT 1152: Community Scholars Writing and Culture
Allen University
- ENGL 101: English Composition I
- ENGL 200: Introduction to Literature
- ENGL 208: Professional and Technical Writing
- ENGL 101: English Composition I — South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice
University of South Carolina
- ENGL 101: Critical Reading and Composition
- ENGL 102: Researching & Writing About Rehab
- ENGL 102: Rhetoric and Composition
Coastal Carolina University
- ENGL 101: Composition
- ENGL 102: Composition and Critical Reading
Service
- Writing in the Majors Committee — Johns Hopkins University Writing Program, 2024–2026
Presentations / Workshops / Conferences
- “The Genre of ‘Summarize’: Considering Genre-Bounded Performance and the Rhetorical Situation of LLMs” — Presenter, 4S 2026, Toronto
- “(Re)Search Engine: AI, Invention, and Rhetorical Intelligence in the Writing Classroom” — Workshop Presenter, CCCC Teacher To Teacher Workshop, 2025
- “20 Questions with ChatGPT: AI, Invention, and Inquiry in the Writing Classroom” — Georgetown Writing Program AI Initiative Showcase, 2024
- “Smart Mirrors: What Reflective Writing Can Show Us About Life and Learning in the Medical Professions” — Johns Hopkins Writing Center / JUMP, 2024
- Georgetown University Writing Program Retreat — Participant, Ethical AI Use in the Writing Classroom, 2024
- “Down Through There” — Invited speaker, The Pinch featured issue launch party, 2015
- COHFA Confab — Participant, Comp 101/102 Critical Reading Panel, 2015
- SCCTE Teacher Conference — Presenter, Freshman English Research and Application Panel, 2015
- Coastal Carolina University Graduate Professional Development Series — Participant, 2015
Publications // Scholarship
- “Kairos.” Textbook chapter. The Carolina Rhetoric for English 102, 2021.
- “Introduction: ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.’” Textbook contribution. The Carolina Reader for English 101, 2020.
Publications // Fiction & Poetry
- “A Hindershot of Calion” and “The Poor Man’s Guide to an Affordable, Painless Suicide” — The Sky Is a Free Country, 2019
- “Komodo 90210” — Little Fiction, 2016
- “Down Through There” — The Pinch, 2015
- The Poor Man’s Guide to an Affordable, Painless Suicide — Alternating Current, 2014
- “jr” — Cheap_Pop, 2014
- “Mama Was A Breeder…” — Alternating Current’s Go Read Your Lunch, 2014
- “Grace” — Kudzu House Review, 2013
- “Sestina For The Therapist’s Wife” — Rock Bottom Journal, 2013
- “A Hindershot of Calion” — Pushcart Prize nominee, 2013
- Additional work in Thunder Clap! Review, The Idle Class Online, Fat City Review, and Hobart
Recording / Media Projects
Trocar
- Extremities — debut full-length album, Selfmadegod Recordings, Poland, 2024
- Piecemeal — EP, RxPx Productions, Mexico, 2023
- White Room Torture — split recording, Night Shift Merch, 2023
- “Wonders Cease” — digital single, 2022
- Dissertations — split recording, 2022; CD reissue, 2023
- Four Forfeit Digits — demonstration recording, 2022
Broadcast / Podcast / Video
- Host/Producer — Death Drive 90.5, WUSC & HD1, 2019–2021
- Host/Producer — MALPRACTICE on GimmeMetal, 2021–2023
- Co-host, Interviewer, Producer — Death Comes Lifting Presents Lifts & Riffs, 2020–2022
- Co-host, Co-producer — Symposium of Sickness, 2022
Honors / Awards / Affiliations
- National Council of Teachers of English — Member, 2025–present
- Modern Language Association — Member, 2023–present
- SEIU Local 500 — Member, 2022–present
- WUSC Executive Board — Member, 2020–2021
- WUSC Student DJ Body — Member, 2019–2021
- Carolina Rhetoric Society — Member, 2017–2022
- Judge — Charter Oak Award For Best Historical, Winter 2014/2015
- Finalist — Queen’s Ferry Press Best Small Fictions, 2015
- Luminaire Award for Best Prose — second and fifth place, 2015
- President’s List — Coastal Carolina University, 2014–2016
- Dean’s List — University of Arkansas, 2012–2014
- Second place winner — Fallen Sky Review Journal Launch Contest, 2013