Education
Ph.D., English, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2024
Dissertation: “Multidimensional Kinships: Black and Indigenous Environmental Thought”
Graduate Certificate, Multicultural and Transnational Literatures, East Carolina University, 2015
M.A., English, concentration in Creative Writing (Poetry), East Carolina University, 2012
B.A., English, Ohio University, 2009
Specializations: Native American/Indigenous literature, African American literature, Appalachian studies, Environmental Justice and Nature Writing, Ecocriticism and Ecopoetics
Awards and Recognition
2024. Chapbook Disposable received an honorable mention in Sheila-Na-Gig Editions’ First Chapbook Contest.
2024. Poem “Blue Ghosts,” nominated by Moss Puppy Magazine for a Best of the Net Award.
2024 Recipient, High Country Humanities Travel Fund Award.
2023. Recipient, Keith Cushman Graduate Prize for Scholarly Publications for “The Politics of Recognition and the Power of Place in Lumbee Women’s Poetry.”
2023. Finalist, WCU College of Arts & Sciences Teaching Award.
2020. Attendee, Summer PhD Residency Program, National Humanities Center.
2019. Faculty Favorite, WCU Student-Athlete Nominated (Football) Award.
2019. Poem “The Mighty Ohio” was a finalist in the Still: The Journal poetry contest.
2019. Recipient, UNCG Fowler-Feather Scholarship for Graduate Summer Study.
2018. Faculty Favorite, WCU Student-Athlete Nominated (Volleyball) Award.
2017. Poem “In A Sleepy Little County” was a finalist in the Still: The Journal poetry contest.
Scholarly Publications and Research
Edited Volumes
2023. Co-edited with Laura Wright. Appalachian Ecocriticism and the Paradox of Place. University of Georgia Press. [305-page volume; 16 essays; co-authored introduction; authored chapter on Robert Gipe (listed below)]
2019. Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene (editor). West Virginia University Press. [360-page collection; authored 14-page introduction and creative nonfiction piece (listed below)]
Special Issues
2022. Co-edited with Z. Zane McNeill. Special Issue of the Journal of Appalachian Studies: Speculative Fabulation: Queering Appalachian Futurisms [co-authored introduction; authored two book reviews and one “community note” (listed below)]
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2025. “Another Anthropocene: Climate Change, the Anthropocene, and Coastal Indigenous Poetry,” special issue of American Literatures on Living and Dying in the Anthropocene: Responses in Contemporary Literature from the Western Hemisphere. Ed. Brian Railsback, vol. 5, no. 2, 2025, pp. 66-86.
2025. “‘We are one ecology’: How Indigenous Pacific Islander Poetics Map Anthropogenic Climate Change,” special issue of Comparative American Studies: An International Journal on “Wild Possibility”: American Literatures, Climate Change, and Hope in the Anthropocene. Eds. Wendy McMahon and Rebecca Tillett, vol. 21, no. 3-4, 2025, pp. 217-230.
2024. “Water As Memory, Water as Kin: A Hydrological Analysis of Hogan’s Solar Storms and Trethewey’s Beyond Katrina,” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment.
2023. “The Politics of Recognition and the Power of Place in Lumbee Women’s Poetry,” special issue of North Carolina Literary Review on Native American Literature of North Carolina. Ed. Kirstin Squint, vol. 32, pp. 88-105.
2020. “Blue Balls: Masculinity and Hypothermia in the Short Stories of Ron Rash,” special issue of The Journal of Short Story in English on the short stories of Ron Rash. Eds. Frédérique Spill and Randall Wilhelm, vol. 74, pp. 123-136.
2019. “‘Wildness Was Nothing to Admire’: African American Environmental Thought and the Importance of Place in Stephanie Powell Watts’ No One is Coming to Save Us,” special issue of North Carolina Literary Review on North Carolina African American literature, Ed. Margaret Bauer, vol. 28, pp. 19-31.
Book Chapters
2024. “Unsilencing Indigeneity: Appalachian Studies, Appalachian Ecologies, and the Continuation of Settler Colonialism,” Deviant Hollers: Queering Appalachian Econormative Ecologies for a Sustainable Future, Eds. Zane McNeill and Rebecca Scott, UP of Kentucky, pp. 79-104.
2023. “Dreaming a Decolonized Climate: Indigenous Technologies and Relations of Class and Kinship in Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves,” Cli-fi and Class: Socioeconomic Justice in Contemporary American Climate Fiction. Eds. Debra Rosenthal and Jason de Lara Molesky. U of Virginia P, pp. 63-78.
2023. “An Ecofeminist Reading of Trampoline as Insight into Appalachian Oppression,” Appalachian Ecocriticism and the Paradox of Place. Eds. Laura Wright and Jessica Cory). U of Georgia P, pp. 129-144.
2021. Co-authored with John McHone. “A Tale of Two Pities: Life in a Dual NTTF Household,” Speaking Up, Speaking Out: Lived Experiences of Non-Tenure Track Faculty in Writing Studies. Eds. Rachel Sanchez, Meg McGuire, and Jessica Edwards. Utah State UP, pp. 119-130.
Non-Peer Reviewed Scholarly Journal Contributions
2022. “Taking PRIDE in One’s Community: How Local Rural Pride Events Nurture Queer Futurity, An Interview with Travis A. Rountree,” Journal of Appalachian Studies, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 88-96. Community note.
Book Reviews and Interviews
2025. “‘SPICE-ing’ Things Up: An Interview with Carla Ramsdell,” As the Crow Flies: An Open-Access Expansion of Appalachian Journal.
2025. “Unearthing Our Ancestors: An Interview with Jeremy B. Jones,” Reckon Review.
2025. Rev. of Girlhood x A Haunting by Jessica Rae Bergamino, RHINO.
2025. Rev. of Kings of Coweetsee and The Woman with the Stone Knife, both by Dale Neal, North Carolina Literary Review.
2024. Rev. of Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Appalachian Journal.
2024. Rev. of The Night the Rain Had Nowhere to Go by William Woolfitt, Change Seven.
2024. Rev. of In Plena Vita—The Full Life: Collected poems of Timothy Russell edited by Marc Harshman and Larry Smith, Appalachian Journal.
2024. Rev. of The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative by Gregg Hecimovich, North Carolina Literary Review.
2023. Rev. of Primer by Dan Beachy-Smith and Kylan Rice, Annulet: A Journal of Poetics.
2023. Rev. of Down Here We Come Up by Sara Johnson Allen, Tupelo Quarterly.
2023. Rev. of Night Wing over Metropolitan Area by John Hoppenthaler, Kestrel.
2023. Rev. of The Best of the Adirondack Tales by W. H. H. Murray, H-Net.
2023. Rev. of Appalachian Pastoral: Mountain Excursions, Aesthetic Visions, and The Antebellum Travel Narrative by Michael S. Martin, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE).
2023. Rev. of As Is by Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Still: The Journal.
2023. Rev. of Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility by Laura Anna Reeve, Change Seven.
2022. Rev. of Hillbilly Madonna by Sara Moore Wagner, Still: The Journal.
2022. Rev. of Y’all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia by Z. Zane McNeill, Journal of Appalachian Studies.
2022. Rev. of The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels, Journal of Appalachian Studies.
2021. Rev. of Magnolia Canopy Otherworld by Erin Carlyle, Tinderbox Poetry Journal.
2021. Rev. of Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz, The Carolina Quarterly.
2021. Rev. of A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t be Seen by Kari Gunter-Seymour, Still: The Journal.
2019. Rev. of Anthropocene Blues by John Lane, Goose.
2019. Rev. of WWJD and Other Poems by Savannah Sipple, Appalachian Heritage (now Appalachian Review).
2019. Rev. of Shale Play: Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields by Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Steven Rubin, Appalachian Heritage (now Appalachian Review).
2018. Rev. of The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash, Appalachian Heritage (now Appalachian Review).
Digital Humanities
2020. ed., “A Small River or Creek” by Quale-U-Quah, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/a-small-river-or-creek/
2020. ed., “At Home with Nature” by Charles A. Eastman, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/at-home-with-nature/
2020. ed., “Battle of the Owls” by Joseph M. Poepoe, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/battle-of-the-owls/
2020. ed., “First Efforts at Rhyming” by “Two Little Indian Girls,” in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/first-efforts-at-rhyming/
2020. ed., “How Morning Star Lost Her Fish” by Mabel Powers, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/how-morning-star-lost-her-fish/
2020. ed., “Our Young Folks” by The Indian, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/our-young-folks/
2020. ed., “Playing and Haying” by Eugene Dutton, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/playing-and-haying/
2020. ed., “Stars” by Ga-Yu-Ga, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/stars/
2020. ed., “The Eating of the Poi,” traditional Hawaiian song, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/the-eating-of-the-poi/
2020. ed., “The Indian Girl” by Zitkála-Šá, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/the-indian-girl/
2020. ed., “The Raven and The Fish Hawk” by Chief William Shelton, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/the-raven-and-the-fish-hawk/
2020. ed., “Tradition of the Crows” by Louis George, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/tradition-of-the-crows/
2020. ed., “Ye Old Council House” by Eagle Eye Thompson, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/ye-old-council-house/
2020. ed., “Zunian Lullaby” transcribed and harmonized by Carlos Troyer, in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/zunian-lullaby/
2020. “Cherokee Female Seminary,” “Dutton, Eugene,” “Eastman, Charles Alexander,” “George, Louis,” “Poepoe, Joseph Mokuohai,” “Powers, Mabel,” Shelton, Chief William,” “Troyer, Carlos,” “Zitkála-Šá,” Author Biographies in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing, 1824-1923, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster/author-biographies/
Creative Publications
Poetry
“Easter Sunday,” Northern Appalachia Review, forthcoming
“Bartram described them as mountains piled upon mountains,” Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, forthcoming
“Crawdads Guide Me Home,” Tributaria, edited by Sherry Cook Stanforth, Richard Hague, and Michael Thompson, forthcoming
2025. “Because we lack a fence,” The Red Branch Review.
2025. “Spared,” Had I a Dove: Appalachian Poets on the Helene Floods, edited by Hilda Downer.
2025. “My Father Loves Joni Mitchell,” Sheila-Na-Gig online.
2025. “Ode to the Pill Bug,” Poetry in Plain Sight, North Carolina Poetry Society.
2025. “No Word for Blue,” Humana Obscura Anthology.
2025. “Borage,” Humana Obscura Anthology.
2025. “Power Dynamic, May 2023,” Women Speak, vol. 10, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2024. “Sealess,” Untelling.
2024. “Lullaby in Lane Three,” Women Speak, vol. 9: 15th Anniversary Volume, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2024. “Bad Track,” Women Speak, vol. 9: 15th Anniversary Volume, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2023. “Mothman Attends the Nelsonville Music Festival," Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel.
2023. “Autumn on the Tuckasegee River,” Appalachian Review,
2023. “Blue Ghosts,” Moss Puppy Magazine.
2023. “Before Recycling the Beer Bottles at Night’s End,” MIDLVLMAG.
2023. “Hunting Season,” Literary Heist.
2023. “Of Flowers,” Heron Tree.
2023. “Lagerstroemia indica,” Green Ink Poetry.
2023. "The Smell of Memory," Appalachian Places.
2023. "Ode to the Autumn Daffodil," Appalachian Places.
2023. "Forked Tongue," Appalachian Places.
2023. “Memories of a Cocktail Waitress Circa 2005,” The Whisky Blot.
2023. “Ohio Landscape Poem without xxxx,” Change Seven.
2023. “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Sestina,” The Anthology of Appalachian Writers.
2023. “Why I Cannot Can,” The Anthology of Appalachian Writers.
2023. “Paper Mill Pantoum,” Still: The Journal.
2023. “13 Miles South of Louisa, KY,” Still: The Journal.
2023. “Atlantic Coast in the Endtimes,” Still: The Journal.
2022. “The Hocking, My Mother,” AvantAppal(achia).
2022. “Clotheslines: A Haiku Series,” AvantAppal(achia).
2022. "Farmer’s Market: A Ghazal," Women Speak, vol. 8, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2022. "The Land After Time: A Sestina," Women Speak, vol. 8, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2022. “The Year We Didn’t Send Leaves,” Northern Appalachia Review.
2022. “Life in the Time of Covid: A Stresstina,” Northern Appalachia Review.
2022. “The Mighty Ohio” (reprinted), I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices, edited by Kari-Gunter-Seymour.
2021. “Image of My Estranged Grandfather at 94,” Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel.
2020. “Sky Burial,” North Dakota Quarterly.
2020. “The Mighty Ohio,” North Dakota Quarterly.
2020. “You Always Lose at HORSE,” Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel.
2020. “Do you hear that? They’re replying.,” Still: The Journal.
2020. “Just beyond the hill, forage:,” Still: The Journal.
2020. “Forsaken,” Still: The Journal.
2020. “Tanya Berry called them the signs of evil,” Women Speak, vol. 5, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2020. “My Husband’s Reaction to the Power Company Trimming a Nearby Tree: A Failed Haiku,” Women Speak, vol. 5, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2019. “Elegy for the Original Burrito Buggy,” Essentially Athens, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2019. “Flash Flood Warning, Haywood County,” they will keep speaking the night, ed. Rob Budde.
2019. “Eulogy for a Forest,” Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel.
2019. “Awkward Social Anxiety Poem,” Coffee Poems, edited by Lorraine Healy.
2019. “Part of the Problem” (reprinted), Women Speak, 10th anniversary collection, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2018. “On the Naming of Rivers,” Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel.
2017. “Part of the Problem,” Women Speak, vol. 3, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour.
2014. “After the Ice Storm,” Sprout.
2014. “Carcinoma sounds like a village in Italy,” ellipsis...
2014. “Philosophy, Frozen,” ellipsis...
2014. “Long Ride Home,” Bohemia.
2013. “Paradelle for Catholic Guilt,” Menacing Hedge.
2013. “Dreaming, Poorly Executed,” Menacing Hedge.
2013. “Saying Farewell to South Carolina,” Menacing Hedge.
2013. “My dear, I am bleeding,” Menacing Hedge.
2012. “How I Explain to My Mother that She Should Not Eat the Sweet Tarts in the Freezer Because They’re Blotted with LSD,” Emerge.
2012. “Eleventh Step of Grieving,” A Poetry Congeries.
2012. “Upright,” WTF: What the Fiction.
Creative Nonfiction
2023. “When A Saunter Starts to Taunt Her: Exploring the Outdoors with Disabilities,” special issue of The Goose on “Moving on Land,” edited by Ariel Gordon and Tanis MacDonald.
2023. "'You Can’t Go Home Again': COVID, Cancer, and 23 North," To Write the World: An Anthology of SE Ohio Writers, edited by Wesley R. Bishop, Belmont County Library and North Meridian Press joint publication.
2023. “Cornbread, Piss, and Figs: An Essay on Grief and Home,” Reckon Review.
2019. “Uprooted,” Mountains Piled upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene, edited by Jessica Cory, WVU Press.
Public-Facing Writing
2024. “Progesterone Hypersensitivity: How Pregnancy Can Make You Allergic to Your Own Hormones,” Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine.
Conference Presentations and Invited Talks
Invited
2025. “Managing Submissions: Providing Literary Criticism to Your Peers,” North Carolina College Media Association Spring Conference, Appalachian State University.
2024. “Ecologies of Place and Resilience,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) Spotlight, virtual event.
2024. “Helping Students with Severe Mental Health Challenges,” Rhetoric and Composition Institute hosted by the English Dept., Appalachian State University.
2022. “Poetry Forms, Their Craft, and Their Uses,” virtual visit to undergraduate poetry workshop taught by Austin Hart (Dept. of English), Shaw University.
2022. “Appalachian Literature’s Global Connections,” virtual visit to undergraduate course titled “Regional and Ethnic Literature” taught by Dr. Sudakar Jamkhandi (Dept. of English), Bluefield State College.
2021. “Microcosms of Appalachia,” undergraduate biology/ecology study abroad students from UNC-Chapel Hill taught by instructors Brent Martin, John Lane, and Lilly Knoepp, Highlands Biological Station Study Abroad Program, Highlands, NC.
2021. “A Balancing Act: Navigating Writing, Teaching, and Scholarship,” virtual visit to graduate course titled “Creative Writing as a Profession” taught by John Hoppenthaler (Dept. of English), East Carolina University.
2020. “Appalachian Literature’s Global Connections,” virtual visit to undergraduate course titled “Regional and Ethnic Literature” taught by Dr. Sudakar Jamkhandi (Dept. of English), Bluefield State College.
2020. “Appalachian Environmental Writing,” virtual visit to a graduate course titled “Climate Change Science and Art” taught by Dr. Katherine Martin (Dept. of Forestry and Natural Resources), North Carolina State University.
2019. “Gothic Realism in Charles Dodd White’s Short Fiction,” Emory & Henry Literary Festival.
2019. “Voices of the Mountains” reading and event, Bluefield State College.
2014. “Nature and Environmental Poetry,” 6th-12th grade students taught by instructor Kevin Dublin, Duke Young Writer’s Camp.
2011. “An Introduction to Reading and Interpreting Poetry,” 12th grade AP English course taught by Brandon Paul, Northside High School.
Juried
2025. “How Cherokee Stories of the Great Smoky Mountains Unsettle Settler Atmospherics,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, University of Maryland at College Park.
2025. “Getting Published in Appalachian Studies” (roundtable); “Reading of the Women of Appalachia Project,” Appalachian Studies Association, Tennessee Tech University.
2024. “Environmental Kinship and Community Recognition in Lumbee Literature,” American Studies Association, Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor.
2024. “How Can Appalachian Journal Support Trans-Mountainous Connections?” International Mountain Studies Conference, Appalachian State University. *Proposal accepted, but conference cancelled due to Hurricane Helene damage
2024. “Environmental Kinship and Community Recognition in Lumbee Literature,” Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures, virtual conference.
2024. “Moving (in the) Mountains: Disability and the Evolution of Place,” Appalachian Studies Association, Western Carolina University.
2024. “Expansive Environmentalism in the 19th century: Sarah Winnemucca, Hannah Crafts, and Tesseracting Planes,” Southeastern Association of Cultural Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
2024. “Dreaming a Decolonized Climate: Indigenous Technologies and Relations of Class and Kinship in Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves,” Modern Language Association, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, and Loews Philadelphia.
2023. “Natasha Trethewey and Being Native to Coastal Mississippi,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center.
2023. “Engaging TEK in Appalachia,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment/Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences joint conference, virtual presentation, event held in Portland, OR.
2023. “Doing Scholarship on the Non-Tenure Track,” Hills and Hollers Non-Tenure Track conference, virtual conference hosted by West Virginia University.
2023. “The Politics of Recognition and the Power of Place in Lumbee Women’s Poetry,” Southeast Native Studies Conference, University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
2023. “Reading the Archive for Early Indigenous Children’s Literature,” New Directions in Indigenous Book History, Virtual symposium hosted by the Bibliographical Society of America and Rare Book School’s Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB).
2023. “The Importance of Including Indigenous Literature in Appalachian Studies;” “Reading from I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing,” Appalachian Studies Association, Ohio University.
2023. “August Wilson's Place in Affrilachian and Appalachian Literature,” August Wilson Society, August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
2023. “The Politics of Recognition and the Power of Place in Lumbee Women’s Poetry,” Southeastern Association of Cultural Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
2022. “Recovering Native American Children’s Nature Writing,” Digital Humanities Collaborative of North Carolina, virtual presentation, event held in Charlotte, NC.
2021. “Home is What You Make It: Remapping, Spatial Sovereignty, and Sense of Place in Lehua Taitano’s A Bell Made of Stones,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, virtual conference.
2021. “Queerness in Appalachian Lit: Interviews;” “Reading from Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, vol. 23,” Appalachian Studies Association, virtual conference.
2020. “Fighting Homogenization and Queer Representation in Appalachian Literature,” Appalachian Studies Association, University of Kentucky. *Proposal accepted, but conference cancelled due to COVID-19.
2019. “Tommy Pico’s Questioning of ‘Traditional Indianness’,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta.
2019. “The Frozen Deaths of Ron Rash;” “Reading from Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, vol. 21,” University of North Carolina at Asheville.
2018. “Environmental Thought and the Importance of Place in Stephanie Powell Watts’s No One Is Coming to Save Us,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Sheraton Birmingham; Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.
2018. “Robert Gipe’s Trampoline and Appalachian Ecofeminism,” Appalachian Studies Association, Millennium Hotel, Cincinnati, OH.
2017. “Seeking the Supernatural in South American Lit,” Pop Culture Association/American Studies Association joint conference, San Diego, CA.
2017. “Mindfulness in Language” (co-presented with Carrie Murray, Pitt Community College), North Carolina Teaching and Learning Association, Asheville, NC.
2017. “Merging Appalachia and Ecocriticism: The Examination of a Subgenre,” Appalachian Studies Association, Virginia Tech.
2015. “From Gatewood to Davis: How Technology Changes the Way We Write About the Appalachian Trail,” Humanities Education Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
2011. “Here, And/Or There: Having Two Writing Centers on Campus, ”Southeastern Writing Center Association, Bryant Conference Center, Tuscaloosa, AL.
2011. “Buried Imagery: Poems from a Burial Ground,” English Graduate Student Organization Conference, East Carolina University.
Selected Conference and Panel Administration
2025. Chair, “Plants and Trees” panel, Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, University of Maryland at College Park.
2024. Chair, “Appalachian Environmental Creative Nonfiction” panel, Appalachian Studies Association, Western Carolina University.
2023. Chair, “Appalachian Writing Communities” panel, Rooted in the Mountains annual symposium, Western Carolina University.
2023. Moderator, “Lost and Found in Indigenous America” panel, Greensboro Bound Literary Festival, Greensboro, NC.
2022. Chair, “Appalachian Mental Health Reflected in Literature” panel, Rooted in the Mountains annual symposium, Western Carolina University.
2021. Chair, “Queer Appalachian Literature” panel, Appalachian Studies Association, virtual event.
2019. Chair, “Reading from Mountains Piled upon Mountains” panel, Appalachian Studies Association, University of North Carolina at Asheville.
2018. Chair, “Eco-Centered Modes and Frameworks of Appalachian Literature” panel, Appalachian Studies Association, Millennium Hotel, Cincinnati, OH.
Academic Appointments and Teaching Experience
Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
2024-Present. Editor, Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review.
2024-Present. Graduate affiliate faculty, Appalachian Studies program.
2024-Present. Affiliate faculty, English Department.
2023-2024. English Lecturer.
Courses taught:
Introduction to Writing Across the Curriculum
African American Literature
World Literature (taught as Global Indigenous Literature)
Diversity in Appalachia
Teaching Apprenticeship
Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
2023. English Associate Instructor.
2020-2023. English Instructor.
2016-2020. English Lecturer.
Courses taught:
Writing and Rhetoric
Writing and Civic Life
University Studies
Literature and the Environment
Studies in Professional Writing (taught as Environmental and Nature Writing)
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
2019-2021. Copyeditor, School of Nursing.
Pitt Community College, Winterville, NC
2014-2016. Writing Center Coordinator.
Beaufort County Community College, Washington, NC
2014. Writing Center Assistant Director and Lead Tutor.
2014. Adjunct English Instructor.
Courses taught:
Writing and Inquiry
Miller-Motte College, Greenville, NC
2014. Adjunct General Education/English Instructor.
Courses taught:
Composition I
Edgecombe Community College, Tarboro, NC
2013-2014. Adjunct English Instructor.
Courses taught:
Writing and Inquiry
Professional Research and Reporting
Developmental Reading and English, Level 4
Craven Community College, New Bern, NC
2013-2014. Adjunct English Instructor.
Courses taught:
Writing and Inquiry
Writing and Research in the Disciplines
Professional Research and Reporting
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
2011-2012. Graduate Teaching Assistant
2010-2012. University Writing Center Consultant
2010-2011. First-Year Writing Studio Consultant
Courses taught:
Foundations of College Writing
Composition
Americorps, Chillicothe, OH
2007-2008. GED Course Instructor/Intern with Ross County Children’s Services
Service and Leadership
Academic Service
Appalachian State University
Department and Program
FT RC Gen-Ed Faculty at large, RC Gen-Ed Program Committee
Cold Mountain Review Committee
Moderator, Capstone Day
Appalachian Studies Scholarship Committee
University
AppState MHFA Committee
Guest speaker (invited), High Country Humanities event, “Portraying Indigenous Peoples: Educator, Cast and Crew Workshop”
Support Facilitator, Western North Carolina Research for Resilience and Recovery (WNC R3) Workshop
Western Carolina University
Department
Member, DEI and Writing Pedagogy Working Group,
Member, English Studies Department NTTF Collegiate Review Committee
Assessor, WRCS Assessment Committee
Member, ENGL 202 Outcome Revision Working Group
Ink selection committee (served three nonconsecutive years)
Member, Joyner Fund Committee
Member, DCRD Revision Team
Member, Antiracist Writing Pedagogy Working Group
Member, ENGL 101 Outcome Revisions & Textbook Selection Working Group
ENGL 202 Textbook Selection Committee
Mentor, English Graduate Student Mentorship Program
College
Moderator, 2018 Graduate Research Symposium
University
Assessor, Liberal Studies Assessment
Virtual Academic Success Coach
Member, Rooted in the Mountains Symposium Planning Committee
Panelist, Student Athletic Association
Panelist, First Generation College Student Celebration
First Generation Student Advocate
Mentor, MAPS Mentoring Program
Pitt Community College
Tutorial and Academic Success Center Advisory Council
Volunteer Procter, Early College High School
East Carolina University
Discussion leader/panel facilitator (invited), Showing of The Lesser Blessed followed by discussion, Dr. Jessica Bardill, event organizer
English Graduate Student Organization Vice President
English Graduate Student Organization Treasurer
Community Service
Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, Ars Poetica Exhibit, Blowing Rock, NC
Poetry Judge
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine Poetry Competition, Lewisburg, WV
Poetry Competition Judge
Greensboro Bound Literary Festival, Greensboro, NC
Member, Author Selection Committee
Asheville Farmstead School, Candler, NC
Secretary, Board of Directors
Member, Board of Directors
Eppes Middle School, Greenville, NC
Volunteer, “Poetry on Demand” table, Art and Literature Night hosted by Pitt County PAGE
Service to the Profession
Mentor, American Studies Association’s Environmental Justice Caucus
First Reader, CNF, Reckon Review
Manuscript Reviewer
Article Reviewer
Comparative American Studies: An International Journal
Trainings and Certifications
2023. Updated First Gen Student Advocate Training.
2021. Instructor Training, Mental Health First Aid.
2021. Step UP! Bystander Intervention.
2020. Bi+ Certified (additional certification through SafeZone).
2020. UNC Coaching Skills Seminar.
2020. Teaching Online with Impact (updated).
2019. Teaching Online with Impact (pilot).
2017. GreenZone Certification.
2017. SafeZone Certification.
Professional Memberships
Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
Appalachian Studies Association
American Studies Association
North Carolina Writers’ Network
Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures
Alternate ROOTS
Council of Editors of Learned Journals