I like to this of myself as a “robust generalist,” in that my passion for ecological thinking enables my pedagogical range to continue to make new connections and trace paths of relation -- especially across elongated geographic, temporal, and cultural planes. I am enlivened and inspired by critical theories and pedagogical practices that shift scales, think in systems, and use poetic language as a means of recognizing both continuity and multiplicity. I always approach teaching literature and philosophy with practical concerns and questions. How can reading this work help us to understand our current historical moment? What can we learn from comparative and ancient traditions? How do poetry and literature transmit cultural wisdom and diversify our perspectives? What formal and rhetorical strategies do they employ to transit much wisdom? In a contemporary cultural moment where there is much talk about the "death of the humanities," I resolutely believe in their enduring value. Indeed, as my students and I often come to realize in classroom discussions, the humanities open spaces for intimacy, immediacy, contemplation, empathy, creativity, and social change. As such, literature helps us to become better thinkers, citizens, friends, and people in general. In particular, I draw on curricular designs and pedagogical practices that emphasize interdisciplinarity and are informed by contemplative traditions, ecological thinking, social justice ethics, as well as an exploratory range of literary theories and critical reading approaches.

I am currently a full-time lecturer in the Department of English at SUNY Old Westbury, after serving as a full-time lecturer for four years in the First Year Experience Program. I also served as Interim Director of the Old Westbury Honors College for three semesters during a transitional moment in curriculum and leadership. During this time, I created programming connected to environmental engagement and emotional-social well-being, including a Wellness Retreat, the installation of a Food Justice Garden, and the organization of a First-Year Common Read with the celebrated poet Ross Gay. I continue to explore interdisciplinary collaboration at Old Westbury though the Honors College, the Social and Environmental Justice Institute, and as faculty advisor of the Environmental Sustainability Club.

Courses Taught at SUNY Old Westbury

First Year Experience Program

• Ethics of Experience

Community Action, Leadership, and Learning

• Community Learning Honors (Topic: Gardening, Food Justice, and the Vocation of Care)

• Community Learning (Topic: Mindfulness Initiative)

Department of English

• Environmental Literature

• Survey of World Literature

• European Literature I (Ancient - Renaissance)

• Literature Across Cultures: Theory

• Literature Across Cultures: Analysis

• Survey of British Literature: Beowulf-1800

• The Literature of Peace and Justice (Independent Study)

Courses Taught at Stony Brook University

Interdisciplinary Program in Sustainability Studies

• Critical Analysis and Interpretation in the Environmental Humanities 

• The Literature of Extreme Events

• Personal Responsibility & Sustainability (Independent Study) 

Undergraduate College in Human Development & The Honors College

• Yoga for Academic Wellness

• Permaculture and Regenerative Design

• Eating Mindfully

Department of English

• Environmental Literature 

• Native American Literature 

• World Literature: Ancient to Modern

• Buddhism & Poetry: Meditation, Perception, and the Work of Translation 

• Twentieth Century American Literature: Place, Identity, & History

• Survey of American Literature: 1865-1945

• Literary Analysis and Argumentation

• Introduction to Poetry: American Romantics

• Introduction to Poetry: Poetic Form & World Context

• Introduction to Fiction: Reading like a Writer

• Introduction to Drama

Program in Writing & Rhetoric

• Introductory Writing Workshop

• Intermediate Writing Workshop

To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn. That learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.                                                                      

                                                                                                                           -bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress  

Students from Honors 117: Permaculture and Regenerative Design doing on-site project development, Elija Farm, Spring 2017.