Co-Coordinator, Black Studies Program, Allegheny College, 2007 - Present

Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, Allegheny College, 2006 - 2007

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Education
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Ph.D., English. December 2006, Stony Brook University, New York
Examination fields: African American Literature, Black Feminism, The Migratory Subject

B.A., English. May 1999, City College, New York, New York
Minor: African American Studies

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Works in Progress
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Defining the Diva: Figurations and Performance, manuscript.

Refusing to 'Write Black': Caribbean Descended Black British Writers
Imagining Whiteness for submission to Callaloo.

Romancing the Text: Oprah Winfrey Presents Their Eyes Were Watching God for submission to CLA Journal.

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Teaching and Research Interests
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19th and 20th century African American literature and literature of the
African Diaspora with particular interest in women's texts in these two areas. Black feminism, Post-Colonialism, Diva theory.

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Teaching Experience
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Literature

Study in a Major Author, English 313
Allegheny College- Fall 2007

Growing Up Girl, English 200
Allegheny College- Fall 2007

Passing in America, English 322
Allegheny College- Spring 2007

The Changing Same: Reading Black Women, English 200
Allegheny College- Fall 2006

Women and Literature: Exploring the Mother-Daughter Relationship in the African Diaspora, English 211
Allegheny College- Fall 2006

The Girls Dem Suga': Reading Women Across the African Diaspora, English 322
Allegheny College- Spring 2006

Contemporary Black Women's Literature, English 372/AFH 390
Stony Brook University- Summer Session I 2005

African American Literature Survey, English 274 (2 )
Stony Brook University- Summer Session I 2005, Summer Session I 2004

Africana Studies: Great Books of the Black Experience, AFH 206 (2)
Stony Brook University- Fall 2004, Summer Session II 2004

Wild Women: Representations of Women in Literature and Film, English 192
Stony Brook University- Spring 2004

Defining the Diva, English 192.
Stony Brook University- Fall 2002

Composition and Rhetoric

Diva Stance, FS 102 (2)
Allegheny College- Spring 2007

Freshman English, WRT 102 (5)
Stony Brook University- Fall 2004, Summer Session II 2001, Spring 2000,Fall 2000, Fall 1999

Developmental Writing, AIM/EOP 101
Stony Brook University- Fall 2001

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Conferences
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"Sci-Fi Mammy?: Examining P.D. James' Children of Men. ACA/PCA Annual Conference, April 4 - 8, 2007. (Boston)

"Meeting at the Movies: Teaching Oprah Winfrey Presents Their Eyes
Were Watching God". Race and Pedagogy National Conference,
University of Puget Sound September 14-16, 2006. (Washington)

"A Woman's Concerns: Janie Crawford as a Political Voice". National
Association of African American Studies. February 13-18, 2006. (Louisiana)

"Outing Woman Love: The Color Purple from Book to Screen".
African Literature Association, University of Colorado at Boulder.
April 6 - 9, 2005. (Colorado)

"Authentic Blackness: A Harlem Renaissance Notion". Temples of
Tomorrow, Rhode Island College, May 7 - 8, 2004. (Rhode Island)

"Revisioning Halle Berry or How Hollywood Reshaped the Tragic
Mulatta". Chair and participant. African Literature Association, University of Wisconsin at Madison April 14 - 18, 2004. (Wisconsin)

"Valuing Identity: 'Blackness' as Commodity in Nella Larsen's Quicksand". Transfronterismo. MELUS, University of Texas at San Antonio March 10 - 13, 2004. (Texas)

"Rethinking Caribbean British Writers." Rethinking African
Diasporic Literature. Stony Brook University,
October 11 - 13, 2001. (New York)

"Refusing to 'Write Black': Caribbean Descended Black British
Writers Imagining Whiteness." University of Nottingham,
April 12 - 14, 2001. (Morocco)

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Lectures
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"Girl 6: Examining Spike Lee's Motives" Public Lecture. Allegheny College, February 28, 2007.

"Empowerment thorough Unity". Keynote speaker for Black History Month closing ceremony at Allegheny College, February 27, 2007.

"Revising Janie: Divas in the Male Gaze". Public lecture. Allegheny
College, April 24, 2006.

"Along Side Tar Baby". Invited lecturer for Toni Morrison's Tar Baby,
English 313: Study in Major Authors- Toni Morrison. Allegheny College,
March 2, 2006.

"Lost in Translation: Black Women's Texts on Film". Public lecture. Allegheny College, February 22, 2006.

"Not White and Not Black". Invited lecturer for Michelle Cliff's
Abeng, English 368: Caribbean/American Cross Cultural Connections,
Stony Brook University, April 4, 2005.

"The Philadelphia Negro inside Tar Baby". Invited lecturer for Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, English 368: Caribbean/American Cross Cultural Connections, Stony Brook University, February 20, 2005.

"Reconstructing History by Re-writing the Self". Invited lecturer for
Michelle Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven, English 368: Caribbean/American Cross Cultural Connections, Stony Brook University, November 11, 2004.

"Coming from a place of Life and Debt?". Invited lecturer for Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. English 368: Caribbean/American Cross Cultural Connections, Stony Brook University, November 23, 2004.

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Senior Projects
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Director, Senior Thesis, Drew Peterson, "The City of Toni Morrison", Fall 2006

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Awards and Honors
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W. Burghardt Turner Dissertation Fellowship, Stony Brook University, 2006

Visiting Scholar, Department of English, Allegheny College, 2005 - 2006

Africana Studies Library Research and Publication Grant, Stony Brook University, 2005

W. Burghardt Turner Award for Academic Excellence, Stony Brook University, 2005

W. Burghardt Turner Summer Research Grant, Summer 2001, 2003, 2004-(declined)

W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship, Stony Brook University 2000-2005

Teaching Assistantship, Stony Brook University, 1999-2005

Tuition Scholarship, Stony Brook University 1999-2005

Dean's List, City College

Golden Key Member, City College

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Organizations & Professional Affiliations
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African Literature Association (ALA)
Modern Language Association of America (MLA)
The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. (MELUS)

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Academic Service
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Invited Member, Search Committee for Director of Diversity,
Allegheny College, 2007
Invited Member, Dream Team, Allegheny College, 2006 -2007
Invited Member, Search Committee for Diversity Scholar,
Allegheny College, 2006
Co-Leader, The Circle, Allegheny College,
2005- present
Elected Member, University Task Force for Improving Image, Spirit
and Pride, Stony Brook, 2005
Elected Member, Search Committee for African-Americanist
Hire, Stony Brook, 2004 - 2005
Academic Liaison, W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship,
Stony Brook , 2001- 2004

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References
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Floris Cash, Associate Professor, Chair of Africana Studies Department, Stony Brook University

E. Anthony Hurley, Associate Professor, Stony Brook University

E. Ann Kaplan, Professor, Stony Brook University

Mounira Morris, Associate Dean of Diversity, Earlham College

Laura Quinn, Professor, Coordinator of Black Studies Minor, Allegheny College

Susan Scheckel, Associate Professor, Stony Brook University

Olufemi Vaughan, Professor, Associate Provost, Stony Brook University