EDUCATION 

Ph.D., Fordham University, Department of English. Modern American Literature specialization.

• Dissertation: “Aura, Ambivalence, and Allure: The Portuguese in Modern American Literary Spaces.” Argues that modern American understandings of national identity and self emerged in relation to changing depictions of the Portuguese. Authors treated include Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Edith Wharton, T. S. Eliot, Charles Olson, Joyce Carol Oates, and Elizabeth Bishop. While early twentieth-century American literature depicts Lusos as ignorant and swarthy figures, mid- and late twentieth-century texts dramatize the necessity of a Portuguese presence in catalyzing romantic visions of the self. Drawing especially on the ambiguous status of the Portuguese as both ‘white’ and ‘other,’ writers used Portuguese surrogates to explore various forms of personal and identificatory transformation and renewal. 

M. Phil., Fordham University, Department of English. Summa cum laude. American Literature Concentration. Minors in The Poetry of Whitman & Dickinson and Modern British Poetry of War & Trauma.

M.A., Fordham University, Department of English. Summa cum laude. Creative Thesis, Poetry. Literary focus on the life and works of T. S. Eliot.

B.A., Sacred Heart University, Department of English. Summa cum laude. Major: English Literature and Creative Writing. Minor in Religious Studies & Honors Studies. Awarded the Gold Medal of Excellence in English.

Other Experiences

—Freelance Professional Publications Writer, Website Content Writer, and Editor

 —Freelance editor, copyeditor, proofreader and beta-reader for various authors and presses.

—High School Teaching Experience Mentor & Facilitator for Graduate Students of English

—Coordinator, Annual Writers Festival for Students & Mentors, Greenwich, CT, 2012-Present.

 —Editorial Assistant, Thieme Publishers, New York, NY, 2006-2007.

 —Writing Intern and Press & Speaker Coordinator, The Women’s Images: Inside and Out Committee, The Esteemed Woman Foundation, Fairfield, CT, 2004-2005.

Scholarship & Professional Experiences

PROFESSIONAL SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS / SERVICE

—Invited Speaker, “Earth Day Poetry,” US Embassy Ljubljana, International Event Online, 2021.

—Invited Speaker, “Fordham University Career Paths in Education,” Fordham University, NYC, 2020. 

—Invited Speaker, “Inspiring a Love of Reading in a Digital Age” (2017) and Sacred Heart School Book Fair, Greenwich, CT, 2017 and 2018.

—Moderator, A Talk with Historian, Author, and Television Writer Alexander Rose, author of Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring (now turned into AMC’s television series TURN: Washington’s Spies) and Men of War: The American Soldier in Combat at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima, Sacred Heart Greenwich, CT, 2015.

 —Invited Speaker, Portuguese Immigrant Experience, Whaling, and Poems of the 38th Voyage of the Charles W. Morgan, Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America & The Sea, Mystic, CT, 2015

—Invited Speaker, Senior Seminar Panel, “What Makes a Strong 21st-Century Woman?,” Sacred Heart Greenwich, CT, 2015.

—Invited Speaker, Professional Placement & Development: Alternative Careers for English Ph.Ds., Fordham University, 2013.

 —Graduate Student Representative, 20th-Century American Search Committee, Fordham University, 2011-2012.

 —Invited Speaker & Performer, Fordham University and Poets & Writers Inc.’s Poets Out Loud, with Patricia Spears Jones and Edward Torres, September 2011.

 —Mentor, English Department Teaching Practicum, Fordham University, 2011.

 —Invited Speaker, Fordham University Graduate Teaching Practicum, September 2011 and February 2010.

 —Invited Instructor, Student Writing Workshop, “Literature and Society” course, Fordham University, 2009.

 —Department Representative, Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), Fordham University Press & English Department, 2006-2008. 

 —Organizer, Graduate Student Writers Group, Fordham University, 2005-2008.

WORKSHOPS, CONFERENCES, & COLLABORATIONS

—Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking Workshop, "Whose Dream? The Great Gatsby and Between the World and Me, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, Red Hook, New York, September 29, 2017.

—The Home School, interdisciplinary experimenting and collaboration with Poetry focus, Miami, FL, January 2016.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

—“Pseudo-Luso Space: Joyce Carol Oates and the Portuguese Pretense,” Reflections on Lusophone Literatures and Cultures, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), New Brunswick, NJ, April 2011.

—“Swarthy-Skinned Lusos and Land-Skinning Americans: Images of ‘Dirt’ and ‘Dirtiness’ in Californian Novels,” Dirt, The New York Metro American Studies Association (NYMASA), St. John’s University, New York, NY, December 2010.

 —“Swarthy Swarms and Survivalist Sabes: The Portuguese in Norris, Steinbeck, and London’s Californian ‘Spaces,’” English Department Graduate Symposium, Fordham University, Bronx, NY, May 2010.

 —“Waxen Idols, and Other Poems,” Sex, Death, and Boredom, Fordham University, New York, NY, February 2010.

 —“Swarthy Swarms and Drunken Dagos: The Portuguese in Frank Norris’ The Octopus and John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat,” American Literature Association Symposium on American Fiction 1890 to the Present, Savannah, GA, October 2009.

 —“The Ghostly Smudge: The Visibility of the Invisible in Forrest Gander and Sally Mann’s ‘Late Summer Entry,’” Evolution and Innovation, Fordham University, New York, NY, October 2008.

—Moderator, “Poetic Rewritings,” Evolution and Innovation, Fordham University, New York, NY, October 2008.

—“‘To put a voice inside’; Women’s Self-Exploration and Union in Poems of Pregnancy,” Why Study Women’s Poetry?, St. Francis College, Brooklyn, NY, April 2008.

 —“The ‘talking voice that runs on’: Wandering and Paper-Hoarding in Stevie Smith’s Novel on Yellow Paper,” Sifting Through Lies: Toward an Aesthetic Impunity, Stony Brook at Manhattan, New York, NY, February 2008.

 —“The Children in the Corner: The Child Figure in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot,” Writing into the Profession: Enacting and Exploring Roles of the English Scholar, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, September 2007.

PEDAGOGICAL WRITING

 —“Dwelling in Possibilities:  Communication, Lateral Thinking and National Poetry Month,” LitBits, The Macmillan Community, featured guest blogger, April 5, 2019.

—“Listening, Lyrics, and Legitimizing Literature: The Great Gatsby Playlist Project,” LitBits, The Macmillan Community, featured guest blogger, February 21, 2018.