Welcome! I’m a full-time Senior Instructor of English at Portland State University in Oregon. My areas of scholarly interest include the intersections of food, medicine, gender and literature; Shakespeare; early modern drama; online learning; composition pedagogy across disciplines; service learning; and public humanities.

My current work focuses on equitable writing assessment in composition pedagogy. I am also a “historical foodie” of sorts, researching the ways in which food and medicine were practiced and experienced. When Falstaff mentions raisins and blackberries in 1 Henry IV, for example, the early modern audience would have had very different experiences of these foods than we have today. That experiential and material difference is rich with opportunity for understanding the play, its cultural context, and, sometimes surprisingly, our own beliefs. I’ve also dabbled in Anglo-Saxon poetry, specifically the magical/medical texts known as the Metrical Charms.

As a public humanist, I believe that the history of the relationship between self, body, and food continues to be interesting and engaging to both academic and public audiences. As a Portlander, I love hiking with my spouse, 12-year-old kiddo, and our Golden Retriever, “Falkor;”  knitting; reading; and drinking tea.