My current research focuses on intersections of ecology, ideology, and machines in literature and film. Specifically, my dissertation analyzes an apocalyptic machine topos, focusing on patterns of its transmission, its formal functions, and its ideological and ecological implications. More broadly, my interests include representations of “ecology,” “nature,” and “environment” in literature and film and the interchanges of these concepts; science fiction/cyberpunk; film and film theory; ecocriticism; posthumanism; and Chinese film and culture with an affinity for the poet Han Shan as well as contemporary Shanghai.

I have taught university-level ESL courses in Shanghai, China, First-Year Composition courses at WWU and UCD, Introduction to Literature at UCD, and served as TA for literature and film courses at UCD. Currently I am exploring the uses of blogs and other new media resources in my Intro to Literature courses. My pedagogy, like my research, engages the intersections of literature and technology, and it embodies my commitment to exploring the opportunities and challenges of teaching English in this period of media development.

Courses Taught at UC Davis:
ENL 3: Introduction to Literature
UWP 1: Expository Writing

Teaching Assistant:
ENL 160: Film as Narrative: Cinematic Representations of Poverty in America
ENL 159: Topics in the Novel: The Novel as Narrative of Moral Discovery
ENL 30A: Survey of American Literature (pre-1865)

Publications:

•  “The Uncanny Ecology of Mulholland Drive.” Scope: An Online Journal of Film & TV Studies. 11 (June 2008).

• “Floating Consciousness: The Cinematic Confluence of Ecological Aesthetics in Suzhou River.” Chinese Ecocinema in the Age of Environmental Visibility. Eds. Sheldon Lu and Jiayan Mi. Hong Kong University Press (2009).
• "When Nature Calls; Or, Why Ecological Criticism Needs Althusserian Ideology. Polygraph 22 (2010 forthcoming).
• (with Salma Monani) "Environment." Hollywood's Exploited: Corporate Movies, Public Pedagogy, and Cultural Politics. eds. Ben Fryer, Richard Kahn, Anthony J. Nocella II, and Rich Van Heertum. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (in review).