Research

I believe personal stories have the power to clap back against dominant, often universalizing narratives. Using the tools of literary criticism and gender studies, I examine autobiographical narratives of women in the hemispheric Americas, focusing on forms and genres that are not typically recognized as “high art,” including memoir, biopics, social media, and more.

My dissertation, “Documenting the Stars: Autotheory and the Language of Celebrity in the Americas,” explores the power of pop culture and possibilities and limits of autotheory as a feminist form by analyzing three films that feature, to borrow a phrase from Nathalie Léger’s Suite for Barbara Loden, “a woman telling her own story through that of another woman.” I argue that each filmmaker uses the figure of a celebrity woman to challenge conventional perceptions of American women’s experiences.

My recent article, “Dreaming Edifices: Interactive Auto/Biography and New Narrative Architectures in Helena Solberg’s Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business,” featured in the refereed journal a/b Autobiography Studies, is adapted from one of my dissertation chapters and offers a glimpse into my research approach.

Curricular Design

The political power of personal stories likewise informs my approach to curricular design. In my role as a project manager with Prison Journalism Project, my work as project editor for the textbook, A Prison Writer’s Guide of Media Writing, is aimed at providing incarcerated journalists with the tools to participate in public conversations about policies that directly impact them.

Teaching

I ask students to draw upon their own experiences to contextualize course concepts within broader social and political landscapes. For example, in my social justice course, students begin and end the quarter with reflections on how their individual experiences intersect with dominant national narratives. In the final project for my cultural studies course, “I Heard a Rumor: Narratives of American Gossip and Scandal,” students creatively engage a historical or contemporary public scandal of their choice to consider how even fabricated “gossipy” exchanges can reveal social truths. I view these cultural artifacts as windows into broader societal attitudes and dynamics. Rather than dismissing such interests as trivial, I embrace them as integral components of cultural and intellectual inquiry that offer valuable insights into American attitudes surrounding class, race, gender, and beyond.

Tutoring