Teaching

At Harvard, I have had the privilege of teaching for a wide variety of courses and students within English and the Program in General Education, including introductory Old English and the History of the English Language as well as a multidisciplinary introduction to medieval art and culture and an honors seminar on literary theory and postmodern detective fiction, which received a grant from Harvard's Paul John Balson II Enrichment Fund.

I am committed to pedagogy and have written about revivifying Old English verse for beginning students in an essay in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching. I am also a three-time winner of Harvard's Certificate of Distinction and Excellence in Teaching.

Interests
  • British literature, Beowulf to Milton
  • Old English and Anglo-Latin language and literature
  • Poetry and Poetics
  • Literary Theory and Practices of Reading
  • Affect Studies
  • Theories of Cognition
  • Enigmatic Literature and ​Detective Fiction
  • The History of the English Language
  • ​Medieval Drama
  • Manuscript Culture, Digital Humanities, and Media Studies
  • Southern Literature
  • Refugee Literature

Experience

As Sole Instructor:

Syllabus: Riddles, Dreams, Wonders
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Syllabus: Suspicious Characters
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As Head Teaching Fellow:

Head Teaching Fellows coordinate all course logistics for lectures with over 100 students and/or intensive digital and material culture components.

As Teaching Fellow:

Additional Teaching Experience:

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Introduction to Old English: Riddles, Dreams, Wonders
Lecture Course (Fall 2016)
  • In this course, you will learn to read English as it was written a thousand years ago, beginning with a grammatical overview and ultimately translating a wide array of the earliest English literature, from riddles and dream guides to monastic sign language and travel narratives. Throughout, we will examine varying assumptions about knowledge and knowledge production, literature and literary theory then and now, focusing in particular on texts that instruct their readers in how to read them—from magical incantations to manuals on how to predict the future.


Suspicious Characters: Postmodern Detectives and Critics
Seminar for Honors English Majors (Fall 2016) 
  • Should we be suspicious of what we read? Where might we look for evidence? And, wherever we find our clues, how should we assemble them? In engaging these questions, this tutorial will examine a key genre in postmodern fiction: the metaphysical detective novel, which asks us not just to solve the crime but also to understand the process of reading and interpretation behind any solution. The “theory of the novel” justifiably continues to spark debate, but we will turn our attention instead to what I would call “novels of theory”: experimental works that self-consciously exploit the mystery genre to interrogate textual interpretation and hermeneutics writ large, from The Big Sleep to The Big Lebowski.


Literature and Revolution: Great Books in Moments of Cultural Transformation
Head Teaching Fellow for James Simpson (Fall 2015)
  • What is the function of literary texts in moments, from Plato to the Russian Revolution, that promise total, enlightened societal transformation? Each week, this course will focus on two texts related to selected "revolutionary" moments, one philosophical and one literary. Literary texts do not participate easily in the revolutionary order. They resist the textual simplicities of philosophy. Which do we trust: philosophy or literature? Texts include many found in traditional "Great Books" courses: Plato, Virgil, Augustine, Dante, Luther, Milton, Swift, Rousseau, Twain, Kant, Marx, and Chekov, among others.

Making the Middle Ages
Head Teaching Fellow for Nicholas Watson and Catherine McKenna (Spring 2015)
  • This course offers a general introduction to the cultures and beliefs of medieval Europe. We focus on a variety of artifacts and cultural productions as the centerpieces of a broad and interdisciplinary exploration of medieval studies. Using specific objects and texts as points of entry into a vanished world, we encourage students to explore those areas that interest them most, teasing out the cultures and beliefs of the past while simultaneously developing their skills in research and writing. Through collaborative projects and a creative exploration of texts, images, and collections at Harvard and beyond, students will be invited to make their own Middle Ages.

Arrivals: British Literature 700-1700
Teaching Fellow for Daniel Donoghue (Spring 2016)
  • An introduction to major works in English literature from Beowulf up to the eighteenth century, the course explores various ways that new identities are created through the cultural forces that shape poets, genres, and groups. You will hone close reading skills, deepen your awareness of rhetoric, learn to read Middle English, and develop your ability to write critical essays. Every week you will encounter amazing literature from earlier periods. The syllabus is organized around genres or modes rather than chronology, although we will always keep historical context in mind. Major works will include Beowulf, Chaucer’s neglected masterpiece Troilus and Criseyde, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave—to name a few. We explore the genres of romance, epic, lyric, and prose fiction, and drama. Assignments will include response papers, memorization, creative projects, and critical essays.
  • Guest Lecture on Donne, Wroth, Herbert, and Marvell

Introduction to Old English: Reading Anglo-Saxon Landscapes
Teaching Fellow for Joseph McMullen (Fall 2015)
  • A basic introduction to Old English, with special attention to literary landscapes and seascapes. After an overview of Old English grammar, we will translate excerpts that describe the lushness of paradise, the terrors of hell, the desolateness of Roman ruins, and the icy loneliness of the sea. We will also consider what these representations of the landscape can teach us about how the Anglo-Saxons connected with the natural world.

The History of the English Language
Teaching Fellow for Daniel Donoghue (Fall 2014)
  • Everyone who uses English has experienced its idiosyncrasies. Why is pronunciation at odds with spelling? Why so many irregular verbs? What happened to “thou”? What did Shakespeare sound like? How do we know? What about the current stature of English as a world language? This course addresses such questions as it surveys the long history of the language. While the topic is fascinating on its own, a historical knowledge of English gives critical and creative writers more command over the medium of their craft; it also sharpens reading skills. Lectures will be supplemented by exercises from the course website.

Introduction to Old English: The Literature of Spiritual Warfare
Teaching Fellow for Laura Wang (Fall 2014)
  • An introduction to the deeply religious, yet turbulent culture of Anglo-Saxon England, where the tension between new Christian belief and deeply engrained warrior culture produced works of provocative prose and astonishing poetry. We will first learn the fundamentals of Old English, which requires study as a foreign language. As we gain facility with the language, we will translate biblical narratives, sermons, and religious poems: some of them cautiously literal in their treatment of scripture, others fascinatingly hybrid. Ultimately, we will gain a sense of the development of English prose, and read some of the greatest poems in the English language.
  • Guest Workshop: “Reading Medieval Manuscripts”​
The Breakthrough Collaborative, Norfolk, VA
(Summer Session, 2006–2009)
  • Intensive summer coursework for motivated students from under-resourced Norfolk public schools, 70% of whom will be the first in their families to go to college. Fellows complete over 100 hours of teaching and mentorship training, including 75 hours of lead classroom experience.
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