Experience Summary
I began teaching as an Instructor and Dean's Fellow in Rhetoric and Composition and in English literature courses while a graduate student at the University of Iowa, consistently earning student praise in end-of-course evaluations. I bring the depth and breadth of full baccalaureate majors in Greek, Latin and British literature to my teaching and research, and am adept at assisting students who have not benefited from exposure to advanced essay composition. I feel I am specifically gifted in empowering my students to work hard at improving their essay skills. It is, after all, the essay that constitutes all college-level discourse, and for this reason it is imperative that college-bound students be well-honed writers of expository prose.
Teaching Style
I have a reputation for making often difficult and recondite literature accessible and appealing, while candidly admitting its rigors. My personal educational philosophy holds that one major obstacle to students' intellectual maturation is their attitude toward difficulty, and I do my best to try and convince them that we ought to welcome such difficulty and that, in doing so, we open ourselves up to the possibility of rapid and dramatic advancement in academic work.