In my classroom, I help my students build comfort and confidence in their reading abilities, their interpretation skills, and in themselves as learners. I have taught for seven years at the University of Iowa, where I have been the instructor of record for Rhetoric and General Education in Literature (GEL), a teaching assistant in Foundations of the English Major, and a tutor in the writing center. Before coming to Iowa, I received my Teaching English in a Foreign Language Certificate in Prague and taught English Language Learning (ELL) online to groups and individuals across the world. I create confidence in my students by creating connections between their lives and the texts, emphasizing the validity and quality of their interpretations, and using flexible policies that ensure my students can bring as much of themselves as possible to the classroom. I have worked with a variety of non-mainstream students and structure my class to engage with a variety of interpretations and worldviews.
Courses Taught
ENGL 1200: Interpretation of Literature: Shakespeare’s The Lion King | 2026
This course tackles questions of adaptation and interpretation by examining a variety of adaptations and retellings in conversation with the Shakespeare plays that inspired them. Students will cultivate a better understanding of Shakespeare and the purpose of adaptations, write some of our own, and interrogate their cultural significance in the past, present, and future.
ENGL 1200: Interpretation of Literature: Gender | 2026
This course aims to help students think deeply about gender, and about transness in particular. It’s an opportunity to consider literary strategies for depicting concepts and experiences that are hard to talk about. We’re going to look at gender across a variety of genres and consider how our reading of these literary representations of gender affects our understanding of the reality of gender, and transness especially, in twenty-first century America, as well as how our discussions of that reality affect our literary reading.
ENGL 1200: Interpretation of Literature: Medieval Monsters | 2025
This course highlights monstrosity in medieval literature. Rather than provide concrete definitions to help undergraduate students identify the monsters from the non-monsters, students cultivate a nuanced understanding of monstrosity to see that it’s more than just black and white thinking. The central concern of the course is the act of interpretation, as students use and refine their reading and writing skills.
ENGL 1200: Interpretation of Literature: Medieval Fantasies | 2024
In this course, undergraduate students examine how the medieval period proves William Faulkner’s assertion that “The Past is never dead. It’s not even past,” to be true. Students read medieval literature to provide a foundation for discussing how issues of gender, sexuality, religion, and class compare with their conceptions in contemporary society. The central concern of the course is the act of interpretation, as students use and refine their reading and writing skills.
ENGL 1200: Interpretation of Literature: Adaptations | 2023
This course focuses primarily on “ways of reading,” asking undergraduate students to become aware of themselves as readers, to learn how to deal with different kinds of texts, and to understand how texts exist within larger historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. The central concern of the course is the act of interpretation, as students use and refine their reading and writing skills to respond critically and sensitively to literary texts.
RHET 1030: Rhetoric | 2021-2023
Rhetoric teaches undergraduate students the essential skills of advanced learning and higher education. In rhetoric classes, students learn to think logically, discover wrong or weak arguments, build a good case on a controversial topic, and overcome the all-too-common fear of speaking in public so that they can deliver crisp and well-prepared speeches.
Teaching Documents
Lesson Plans
Teaching Observations
