Published: Jan 25th, 2017
I’ve recently assumed an administrative position that involves mentoring over 100 graduate teaching assistants. They include new and seasoned instructors. They include MFA and PhD students who teach a range… Read More
Published: Sep 25th, 2016
This week I taught Linton Kwesi Johnson again in my PostPunk Cultures seminar on the British 1980s. (I also teach him in Modern British Poetry). Each time I return to… Read More
Published: Aug 20th, 2016
Here’s a conversation starter I tried out for new TA Orientation, co-sponsored by UF English and the University Writing Program. Feel free to play along! Whichever teaching persona you are–or most decidedly… Read More
Published: May 29th, 2016
Imagine arranging your students in vertical rather than horizontal space. Imagine them traversing the tower stairs in iambic rhythm, working the meter into muscle memory. Imagine composing a carillon piece from sonnet forms,… Read More
Published: May 8th, 2016
I’m back from a mind-expanding conference at McGill University, “Portals, Gates: The Classics in Modernist Translation,” co-organized by Miranda Hickman (English) and Lynn Kozak (History and Classical Studies). The conference… Read More
Published: Apr 6th, 2016
I’m teaching The Bell Jar this week in my “Desperate Domesticity” class on the American 1950s. And what strikes me this time around is English major Esther Greenwood’s adventures in physics and… Read More
Published: Mar 13th, 2016
Now that Downton Abbey has aired its final episode in the U.S., I can finally air a pet theory of mine: Lady Edith was surely inspired by the legendary Dame Edith… Read More
Published: Feb 20th, 2016
In the wake of Mad Men, mid-century American advertising seems to open portals to a domestic past that stands still. Nuclear families gather round Carousel slide projectors that never advance.… Read More
Published: Jan 22nd, 2016
I’m teaching my “Desperate Domesticity” course on the American 1950s, nicknamed “From Cheever to Beaver” by a former student. And I find myself thinking about cookbooks and gender performance as I… Read More
Published: Dec 19th, 2015
If you could make a cocktail from the lyrics to American university Alma Mater songs, you’d shake one part praise hymn with one part lofty love poem–and one part Mother’s Day Card.… Read More