My research and teaching fit together like happy cogs in a machine. I often design courses around materials that bring together matters of technology, culture, history, and ecology as this constellation of issues urgently demands our attention and contemplation. In literature-based courses, I emphasize core close reading and formal analysis reading skills in class, but I also encourage students to bring aesthetics into contact with contexts. My teaching experience ranges from university-level ESL courses at East China Normal University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, both in Shanghai, China, First-Year Composition courses at Western Washington University and UC Davis, Introduction to Literature at UC Davis, and this year I will be teaching an early American Literature survey, an EcoMedia seminar, and an Environment and Literature Course here at Luther.

Currently I am exploring the uses of blogs and other digital media resources to teach various courses. The blog for the Fall 2011 American Literature survey is called “American-Litter-a-Terre” and it has links to each of the students' individual blogs where they post regular short responses and other assignments. My pedagogy, like my research, engages the intersections of literature and technology, and it embodies my commitment to exploring the opportunities and challenges to the production and future of literature as well as English instruction in this era of digital media development.