Teaching
Teaching philosophy
Teaching Humanities Skills: A Pedagogical Philosophy, October 2008.
A three-page description of my teaching philosophy and practice: “I do not ‘teach’ students to think critically; I give them time and encouragement and a new intellectual domain in which to practice thinking critically. I tell stories. I give students tools to help discover information and tools to help them share their discoveries.”
Course blogs and wikis
The Victorian Period, spring 2007
Academic Research Strategies and Contexts, spring 2007
Literary Scandals and Controversies, spring 2007
Bibliography and Methodology (Tuesdays), fall 2006
Bibliography and Methodology (Thursdays), fall 2006
Victorian Poetry and Prose, fall 2006
Course syllabi
The Victorian Period, North Carolina State University, spring 2007.
An undergraduate course on the literature and culture of the Victorian period in which students read a social history of the Victorian period, read the works of Oscar Wilde, and conducted semester-long independent research on a Victorian author of their choice.
Academic Research Strategies and Contexts, North Carolina State University, spring 2005, spring 2006, and spring 2007.
A seminar for Honors undergraduates, created and taught in collaboration with academic librarians, on advanced research skills (e.g., Boolean syntax, citation searching, and bibliographic management) and academic research issues (e.g., the scholarly communication crisis, the Open Access movement, and academic ethics).
Literary Scandals and Controversies, North Carolina State University, spring 2007.
A seminar for Honors undergraduates on literary issues such as plagiarism, forgery, copyright, and censorship in cases such as the Shakespeare authorship debates, the Stephen Glass journalism fabrications, and the Salman Rushdie fatwa.
Victorian Poetry and Critical Prose, North Carolina State University, fall 2006.
A graduate seminar on love poetry of the Victorian period, including works by both Brownings, both Rossettis, Tennyson, Meredith, Hopkins, Arnold, Ruskin, and others.
Bibliography and Methodology, North Carolina State University, fall 2006.
A required course for graduate students in English on advanced literary research methods and professional practices and problems.
History of English Literature II, North Carolina State University, fall 2006.
An undergraduate survey of English literature from 1660 to the present, including poetry, drama, fiction, and literary nonfiction.
Masterpieces of English Literature II: Blake to Woolf, University of Virginia, spring 2000.
A course for non-English majors covering literature of the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern periods.
Advanced Academic Writing: Analyzing Popular Culture, University of Virginia, spring 2000.
An elective course for students wishing to improve their academic prose, with primary texts chosen by the students.
Studies in Poetry, University of Virginia, spring 1999.
A seminar for potential English majors examining techniques of poetry and the work of poets such as Shakespeare, E. B. Browning, Yeats, and Bishop.
Introduction to Composition, University of Virginia, spring 1998, spring 1996, and fall 1995.
A required course for first-year students on the composition of academic prose.
Special Topics in Literature: Growing Up in Fiction, spring 1997.
A course for non-English majors on the Bildungsroman and identity politics, including texts by Dickens, Ralph Ellison, Radclyffe Hall, and others.
History of Literature in English I, II, and III; fall 1996, spring 1998, fall 1998, and fall 1999.
The required survey sequence for English majors on Anglophone literature and its social and cultural contexts in the periods from Beowulf to 1660, from 1660 to 1870, and from 1870 to the present.
