Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
PhD in Comparative Literature,
University of California, Irvine, CA, December 2021. Major Field of Study: 20th C. Hemispheric Literature.
Emphases in Critical Theory and Latin American Studies.
Dissertation
Title: “Bird Freedom: Lumpen Dreams and the Long Picaresque.” The dissertation examines the ways in which the picaresque novel has acted as an apparatus of capture for those living outside the enclosures of wage labor and the home. At the same time, it takes the picaresque as the genre of the lumpenproletariat and a chronicle of the making of new forms of life.
Committee: Gabriele Schwab (chair), Adriana Johnson, Annie McClanahan, and Jane O. Newman.
MA in Comparative Literature,
San Francisco State University, CA, May 2015.
MSW in Clinical Social Work,
Columbia University, New York, NY, June 2004. Clinical CV available upon request.
BA with Honors in English and World Literature,
Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, May 1998.
TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
Areas of research specialization include early modern Spanish literature, the picaresque novel, comparative poetics in 19th and 20th C. Hemispheric literature, horror and the American Gothic, critical theory, and psychoanalysis.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Visiting Assistant Professor of English,
Department of English and World Literature, Pitzer College, Fall 2021 – Summer 2022. Independently developed course syllabi, lectures, and curricula. Taught weekly 3-hour seminars and held regular weekly office hours.
ENGL 70: Horror and the American Gothic (Fall 2021)
ENGL 71: Poetics of the Border (Spring 2022)
ENGL 99: Desire and Love in Modern and Contemporary World Literature (Spring and Summer 2022)
ENGL 161: Cities of Night (Fall 2021)
ENGL 198: Rogue Tales: the Picaresque Novel (Spring 2022)
Instructor,
University of California, Irvine
Taught and developed new curriculum, held regular office hours, and evaluated exams and essays.
Writing and Rhetoric 39B: American Gothic (Spring, Winter, and Fall 2017 – 2021)
Teaching Assistant,
University of California, Irvine
Led discussion sections, evaluated exams and essays, and held weekly office hours.
Comparative Literature 10: Pirates (Spring 2019)
European Studies 10: Origins of Modernity (Fall 2018)
Graduate Teaching Associate,
San Francisco State University
Solely responsible for curriculum development, teaching, and final evaluations.
Comparative Literature 210: Literature and Desire (Fall 2014)
Teacher of English as a Second Language,
92nd St. Y
Taught and developed curricula for beginning and intermediate English.
Beginning English (Spring 2002 – Fall 2006) Intermediate English I (Spring 2002 – Fall 2006)
Lecturer,
University of Latvia, Riga
Taught and developed curriculum for Beginning Spanish aimed at Russian and Latvian speakers. Held regular office hours and language labs.
Beginning Spanish (Spring 2002)
Lecturer,
Stockholm School of Economics in Riga
Solely responsible for curricula development, teaching, and evaluations. Held regular office hours and language labs.
Academic English I and II (Fall and Spring 2001 – 2002)
English for Business and Economics (Spring 2002)
Creative Writing (Fall and Spring 2001 – 2002).
Teacher and Teacher Trainer,
United States Peace Corps in Liepaja, Latvia, 1999 – 2001.
Independently developed curricula and syllabi for English for 8th – 12th grades and English teacher training courses.
PUBLICATIONS
The Journal of Early Modern Cultural Studies (provisionally accepted), “Taming the Vogelfrei Subject: the Poiesis of the Picaresque”
South Atlantic Quarterly, “Sex Work, Service Work, and the ‘Prostitute Imaginary’.” Co-written with Annie McClanahan.
Portals: A Journal in Comparative Literature, “Of Statesmen and Guerrilleros: Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Roque Dalton’s Divergent Poetics of Revolution”
CONFERENCES, PRESENTATIONS, AND INVITED SPEAKING
Gathering: Autonomies in Practice (invited speaker),
“Radical Psychoanalysis and the Refusal of Disposable Life”, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, March 30, 2023.
Latin American Studies Association (presenter),
“How to Live in the Ruins: Estamira and Disposable Life”, San Francisco, CA, May 5, 2022.
Racial Capitalism and Crisis (invited speaker),
“Feminized Labor, Sex Work and Precarity”, University of Pittsburgh, March 11, 2021.
Humanities Education and Research Association (presenter),
“The Evolving Poetics of Madness: Pushkin, Machado, and Plath.” Washington, D.C., February 28, 2014.
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, Summer 2021
University of California, Irvine
Hayman Fellowship, 2020 – 2021
University of California, Irvine and the New Center for Psychoanalysis
Dean’s Fellowship, 2016 – 2017 and 2019 – 2020
University of California, Irvine
Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, 2015 – 2016
San Francisco State University
Graduate Recognition Award in Comparative Literature, Spring 2015
San Francisco State University
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Modern Literature Association
Latin American Studies Association
UC and New Center for Psychoanalysis Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Consortium
National Association of Social Workers