Curriculum Vitae

Manuscripts in Submission

• “Aphoristic Transcendentalism: Open-Ended Writing and the Emegence of Empiricism” (under review, American Literary History).

• “Anesthetic Reading: Ether, Nitrous Oxide, and Nineteenth-Century Interpretation” (under review, PMLA).

• “‘A Penumbra of Vagueness’: Reading Du Bois’s ‘Double-Consciousness’ Aphoristically” (under review, African American Review).

Digital Projects

• ChatHDT: Small language model (SLM) trained on the 1906 edition of The Journal of Henry David Thoreau. Project constructs a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) for pedagogical use, allowing students to converse with Thoreau’s Journal. In partnership with Tumaini Ussiri (Humanities Digital Workshop, Washington University in St. Louis). Under development.

Papers Presented

• “Science and Small Forms: Franklin and the Early American Aphorism” (Society of Early Americanists panel), Modern Language Association, Toronto, Canada, January 8–11, 2026.

• “‘Science is very near us’: Dickinson and the Poetics of Science” (Margaret Fuller Society panel), Modern Language Association, Toronto, Canada, January 8–11, 2026.

• “An Ecology in Letters: Plant-Thinking in Dickinson’s Correspondence,” Emily Dickinson International Society, Taipei, Taiwan, June 19–22, 2025.

• “Twain’s ‘Mental Telegraphy’ and the Limits of Psychological Research,” Modern Language Association, New Orleans, LA, January 9–12, 2025.

• “Aphoristic Re-Readings: Emerson, Nietzsche, and the Affordances of Short Forms,” American Studies Association of Turkey, Izmir, Turkey, October 23–25, 2024.

• “William James’s Anesthetic Reading: Open-ended Interpretation on Nitrous Oxide” (Henry James Society panel), American Literature Association, Chicago, IL, May 23–26, 2024.

• “Aphoristic Science: Poetry, Empiricism, and Short Forms in Nineteenth-Century Ecology,” International Conference of Three Societies on Literature and Science (British Society for Literature and Science; European Society for Literature, Science and the Arts; Commission on Science and Literature), Birmingham, UK, April 10–12, 2024.

• “Endlessly Rereading Thoreau’s Journalistic Fragments,” C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, Pasadena, CA, March 14–16, 2024.

• “Feeling Thoreau’s Radicle Empiricism” (Henry David Thoreau Society panel), Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA, January 4–7, 2024.

• “Thoreau’s Sudelbücher: His Journal as ‘Waste-Book’,” British Association of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, Bristol, UK, December 1–2, 2023.

• “Journalistic Ecology: ‘Radicle Empiricism’ in Thoreau’s Journal Manuscript,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Portland, OR, July 9–12, 2023.

• “Du Bois in Berlin, Du Bois in Atlanta: The Affect of Exile in The Souls of Black Folk” (Margaret Fuller Society panel), Modern Language Association, San Francisco, CA, January 5–8, 2023.

• “‘Two Stories Tangled Together’: The Double Brain, Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins,” International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies, Elmira, NY, August 4–6, 2022.

• “‘Can you render my Pencil?’: Dickinson's Aphoristic Prose and Affective Experience,” Emily Dickinson International Society, Seville, Spain, July 12–14, 2022.

• “Aphoristic Emerson and the German Aphorismus” (Ralph Waldo Emerson Society panel), Thoreau Annual Gathering, Concord, MA, July 6–10, 2022.

• “‘A Penumbra of Vagueness’: W. E. B. Du Bois's Aphoristic Reconstructions in The Souls of Black Folk,” C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, Coral Gables, FL, March 31–April 2, 2022.

• “Thoreau’s Arboreal Encounters: A Transatlantic Re-Vision,” British Association for American Studies, virtual due to COVID-19, April 7–11, 2021.

• “Thoreau’s Radicle Empiricism: Arboreal Encounters and the Posthuman Forest,” European Society for Literature, Science & the Arts, Bergen, Norway, March 4–5, 2021.

• “Thinking Like a Tree: Human Cognition and Speculative Forest Thinking,” European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment, Granada, Spain, 2020 (canceled due to COVID-19).

• “‘These Brainless, Stationary Trunks Are Protecting Each Other’: Speculative Forest Thinking in the Anthropocene,” European Society for Literature, Science & the Arts, Katowice, Poland, June 17–20, 2020.

• “‘Experience Is Forever in Motion’: The Divided Brain and Experimental Thinking,” Society for Literature, Science & the Arts, Irvine, CA, November 7–9, 2019.

• ​“Crossing the Border between Reason and Intoxication: William James on Nitrous Oxide,” Crossing the Borders of Creation and Critique Conference, St. Louis, MO, March 1, 2019.

• “Literature as ‘Out of Mind’ Experience,” Society for Literature, Science & the Arts, Toronto, Canada, November 15–18, 2018.

• “‘Creatures of Habit’: The Role of Habits in Short Story Character Creation,” American Literature Association Symposium, Savannah, GA, October 20–22, 2016.

• “‘A Collective Murmur Goes Up from Us’: Vicarious Trauma as Motivation in The Handmaid's Tale,” American Literature Association, Boston, MA, May 20–24, 2015.

• “William James Visits Roderick Usher: Literature as Translation of American Psychology,” Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, Wheaton, IL, March 20–21, 2014.

• “‘Give Me My Leg!’: The Point of Tension in O’Connor’s ‘Good Country People,’” Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, Louisville, KY, February 21–23, 2013.

• “‘The World Will Burn Green’: Survival of Morality in Grendel,” Michigan College English Association, Grand Rapids, MI, October 26, 2012.

Freie Universität Berlin

• Genealogy of the Human Mind: Tracing Intelligence Discourses from Locke to Neoliberalism (MA Seminar, co-taught with Maxi Albrecht, Winter 2021–22)

Washington University in St. Louis, Teaching Assistant

• Morality and Markets (TA for Abram Van Engen and Peter Baumgarden, Spring 2020)

• Making it New: Emerson and the American Renaissance, 1836-1860 (TA for Robert Milder, Fall 2019)

Jackson College, Corrections Education Program (taught in state prisons)

• World Literature (Summer 2017)

• Cultural Connections (Fall 2016, Winter 2017, Summer 2017)

• Poetry and Drama (Winter 2016, Winter 2017)

Michigan State University, Teaching Assistant

• Michigan: The Life and Times of Where You Are (TA for Edward Watts, Winter 2015)

• “Race” and “Culture” in U.S. Literature and Film (TA for Scott Michaelsen, Fall 2014)

• Popular Culture in Global Perspective (TA for David Stowe, Winter 2014)

• The Literature and Culture of Sports (TA for Stephen Arch, Fall 2013)

Writing & Composition Courses, Sole Instructor

• Writing 1: Technology & Selfhood (Fall 2020)

• College Composition I (Fall 2019)

• College Composition II (Fall 2019, Spring 2020)

• Technical and Business Writing (Fall 2017)

• Introduction to College Writing (Winter 2016, Fall 2016)

• Writing Experience I (Fall 2015, Winter 2016, Summer 2016, Fall 2016)

• Writing Experience II (Fall 2015, Winter 2016, Summer 2017)

• Composition (Fall 2015, Fall 2016)

• Advanced Composition (Fall 2015, Winter 2016, Fall 2016, Winter 2017)

• Professional Writing (Summer 2016, Fall 2016)

• College Writing (Fall 2016)

International

• American Studies Association of Turkey (ASAT)

• British Association of Nineteenth-Century Americanists (BrANCA)

• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien (German Association for American Studies, DGfA)

• ​European Society for Literature, Science & the Arts (SLSAeu)