Ph.D., Columbia University, English and Comparative Literature, 2007
Teaching Information I taught at Hunter College, Dartmouth College, Columbia University, and Barnard College before coming to CSUSB. I’ve taught classes on topics ranging from classical literature to women’s studies, with a focus on fantastic literature (in all senses of the term). The relationship between ambiguity and interpretation lies at the core of my approach to conveying the joy of literature: it is my firm conviction that there is no one true way to read a text, and I am deeply committed to teaching students to trust their instincts in that regard. My classes consist of an even blend of close reading, class debate, and detailed criticism. I eschew anachronistic readings of texts, and encourage my students to do likewise, by understanding the context within which each piece is created. I specialize in children’s and young adult literature, and will be offering a graduate seminar on fairy tale retellings in Spring 2008.
Professional Interests
Victorian literature, fairy tales and the fantastic, women’s studies, revision, children’s literature and young adult literature.
Recent and forthcoming publications:
“The Significant Other” (Cabinet des F é e s , Vol. 1, No. 2, forthcoming).
Entries on "Baba Yaga" and various contemporary authors (Encyclopedia of Folklore and Fairy Tales, ed. Don Haase, Greenwood Press, forthcoming, 2008).
Entries on "Fairy Tales and Folklore" and "Victorian Literature" (Encyclopedia of Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Robin Reid, Greenwood Press (forthcoming, 2007).
"The Commodification of the Fairy Tale" (Cabinet des F é e s , Vol. 1, No. 1, 2006).
"Market Shares: Voodoo Economics and the Goblin Market" (Realms of Fantasy, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2005).
"The Mother of All Witches: Baba Yaga and Brume in Patricia McKillip’s In the Forest of Serre" (Extrapolation, Volume 46, No. 1, 2005).
"Reaping the Whirlwind: An Introduction” and “Let’s Go! Borderlands: The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of the Interstitial Arts Movement” (The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts: Special Issue on the Hybridization of Genre, Volume 15, No. 3, 2004).
"Conventionalism and Utopianism in the Commodification of Rossetti's Goblin Market" (Extrapolation. Vol. 45, No. 1, 2004).
"Donkeyskin, Deerskin, Allerleirauh: The Reality of the Fairy Tale” (Realms of Fantasy, Vol. 8, No. 5, 2002).
Additional information:
I recently completed my dissertation, Fantastic Émigrés: Translation and Acculturation of the Fairy Tale in a Literary Diaspora, at Columbia University. My reviews have appeared in Marvels & Tales: The Journal of Fairy Tale Studies and in the New York Review of Science Fiction, and I have been published at the Endicott Studio for the Mythic Arts, in Realms of Fantasy magazine, and in a selection of academic journals. I’ve guest-edited issues of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts and Extrapolations, and I am the Academic Editor of Cabinet des Fees. Hobbies include chess, pool, silversmithing, and passionately silly arguments about literary theory.
