Research & Teaching

Both my research and teaching are guided by questions about the relationship between aesthetics and politics: how do artworks come to count as political, in the dual sense of 1) being named as “political” and 2) shifting our perception of reality in ways that (have the potential to) effect political change? My area of expertise is US queer and transgender cinema, and my scholarship and pedagogy are focused on the study of film through transgender, queer, feminist, critical race, and psychoanalytic theoretical lenses. I have a particular interest in and commitment to studying contemporary and historical film & video made by (rather than simply “about”) transgender and queer people, with my recent work examining how biopolitical and neoliberal discourses on freedom and autonomy shape the production and reception of trans and queer art. Visit my Academia.edu page or view my CV for details.

edited book

• TransNarratives: Scholarly and Creative Works on Transgender Experience (with co-editor Kristi Carter), Canadian Scholars & Women’s Press, 2021.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• “Representing Queer Identity after Same-Sex Marriage: Biopolitical Revisionism in Todd Haynes’ Carol.” Literature/Film Quarterly. Vol. 48, No. 3.

• “Whose (Meta)modernism?: Metamodernism, Race, and the Politics of Failure.” Journal of Modern Literature. Vol. 41, No. 3.

• “Melodrama, Masochism, and Biopolitical Encounters in The Fosters.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video. Vol 34, No. 7.

• “Biopolitical Masochism in Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present.” Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies. Vol. 32, No. 1.

selected conference presentations

• “The Politics of Self-Declaration in Recent Irish Transgender Cinema.” European Studies Conference, University of Nebraska-Omaha, 2022.

• “Teaching Deconstruction Today: Deconstruction in a Social Justice-Oriented Classroom.” Derrida Today Conference. Washington, D.C., 2022.

• “Queer Body Politic: Autonomy, Subjectivity, and the Re-imagining of Community.” Politics and Narratives of the Body International Colloquium. Paris, France, Virtual, 2021.

• “Queers with Kids: Biopolitics after Same-Sex Marriage.” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting. University of California-Los Angeles, 2018.

• “Narratives of Queer Criminality after Obergefell: Todd Haynes’ Carol.” Louisville Conference on Literature & Culture since 1900. University of Louisville, 2017.

courses taught

• Intro to Gender & Sexuality in Film

• Queer Directors in the US

• Intro to Film History

• Language of Cinema

• Advanced Seminar in Critical & Literary Theory: “Queering the Family”

• Intro to Poetry (seminar & workshop)