The first-year courses I regularly teach are “Wellesley and the World” and "What's in a Name? Investigating What We Call People, Places, and Things." I also currently team-teach an advanced writing seminar for seniors in the McNair Scholars Program. One of my goals in teaching is to help students to see writing, research, and scholarly argument not as ends in themselves but as an important way for us to engage with others. I aim to cultivate a supportive, inclusive classroom in which students develop their voice and feel confident that they have the tools to use it effectively. I design my courses so that students can make active connections between the lessons of the classrom and the world beyond it.

I've explored how poets perceive the possibilities and the limitations of other types of boundary-crossings in my book,Why Write Poetry? Modern Poets Defending Their Art(Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007). In it, I examine the ways in which poets perceive the role of poetry in the broader culture, looking at how they defend its value within their poems and simultaneously question whether this defense is resonating outside them. I continue to be interested in the expression and uses of poetry in today's society.

I'm also interested in developing tools and practices to help students write with clarity, purpose, and an alertness to their audience, and to help educational institutions effectively support and promote their students' writing. In recent years, I have travelled to Japan and China to teach writing and to advise on best practices for teaching and supporting college writers. In the U.S., I have led writing workshops for high school students, undergraduates, and graduate students, as well as for college faculty in the humanities and in the sciences.

I came to Wellesley in 2007. Before that, I taught in the Writing Program at Harvard, and in the English Department at Wake Forest University.

Beyond campus, I enjoy food, sports, and travel, the latter especially when it involves activities related to food or sports.