Education

  • Ph. D., M.A. Indiana University, Bloomington
  • B.A., B.S. State University of New York, Buffalo

Areas of Expertise

  • Disability Studies in Drama and Art
  • Modern and Contemporary Drama
  • Visual and Cultural Studies
  • Graphic Medicine
  • American Studies

Background

I specialize in 20th- and 21st-century dramatic literature and disability studies. My teaching interests include modern and contemporary drama and disability in drama, literature, and visual culture.

I have published over two dozen articles on drama, disability, and representation in sources including LegacyContemporary Theatre Review, the National Women's Studies Association JournalGendering DisabilityThe Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, and Disability Studies Quarterly. I was an American Association of University Women American Postdoctoral Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on Disability Studies Fellow, National Humanities Center Jesse Ball DuPont Summer Seminar Fellow, Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow, IES Faculty Development Seminar Fellow, and a seminar leader for the Charlotte Teacher's Institute (CTI). In 2017-2018, I was a Davidson College Boswell Family Faculty Fellow.

I have served on the executive board of the Society for Disability Studies and the MLA Executive Committee of the Division on Disability Studies. My current book project traces the representation of disability on the 21st-century commercial stage. You may view examples of my scholarly work on disability in art (PDF) and disability in American drama (PDF).

I work as a curator of disability art, and am currently collaborating with Jessica Cooley ‘05 on an online and in-person exhibition at the Ford Foundation Gallery: Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA.  I have co-curated three disability-related visual arts exhibitions in the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College: RE/FORMATIONS: Disability, Women, and Sculpture, STARING, and Re/Presenting HIV/AIDS. I lecture frequently on the topic of disability and representation at conferences and universities worldwide.

Teaching

  • ENG 110 Introduction to Literature: Graphic Medicine
  • ENG 220 Literary Analysis
  • ENG 261 Modern Drama
  • BIO 263/ENG 285 Representation of HIV/AIDS
  • ENG 288 Contemporary American Multicultural Drama
  • ENG 388 Contemporary Drama
  • ENG 271 and 494 Disability in Literature and Art
  • ENG 374 Picturing Disability
  • WRI 101 Claiming Disability; Pandemics; Democracy's Bodies; Writing About Drama; Extraordinary Bodies
  • Seminars: Disability in Literature and Art; Contemporary American Feminism and Theater; Early American Drama; Disability in American Drama; Contemporary Drama