Academic History

Ph.D., University of Missouri
M.A., Creighton University
B.A., Rockhurst University
At St. Thomas Since 2003

Expertise/Specialties

African American Literature and Expressive Culture
Folklore and Folkloristics
The Black Arts Movement

Selected Publications

“Talk Like a Man: Internal Dissonance and the Performance of Masculinity in Etheridge Knight’s Poems From Prison.” The Griot: Official Journal of the Southern Conference on African  American Studies 27.2 (2008): 10-23.

"We Are Family: Gender Tensions and the Construction of the Black Family in the Early Poetry of Sonia Sanchez." B.MA: The Sonia Sanchez Literary Review 10.2 (2005).

"Folkloric Representation and Extended Context in the Experimental Ethnography of Zora Neale Hurston." Southern Folklore 57.2 (2000): 119-134.

Selected Presentations

“‘American Has Really Grown Up’: Percival Everett, Barack Obama, and the Illusion of a ‘Post-Racial’ Society.” Midwest Modern Language Association Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2008.

“When is Graffiti Not Really Graffiti?: Ideology and Folk Expression at the Flight 93 Memorial.” American Folklore Society Annual Meeting. Louisville, Kentucky, October 2008.

“Forgivable Blackness: Richard Pryor and the Performance of Black Masculinity.” Midwest Modern Language Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, Illinois, November 2006. 

Professional Activities

Film and Video Review Editor, Journal of American Folklore
MLA Folklore and Literature Discussion Group Executive Committee (2006-2009)

Memberships in Professional Organizations

Modern Language Association
Midwest Modern Language Association
American Folklore Society
International Association for the Study of Popular Music
Southern Conference on African American Studies