My dissertation, Poetry in Crisis: Lyric, Dialectic, Ecology, examines the transformation of lyric poetry under the environmental crisis conditions of the 20th and 21st centuries. The project considers work by innovative poets for whom lyric is always also the dialectical process of the coming into being of history. In it, I ask: how to understand the evolution of this process under the material conditions of the last 100 years, a time of unprecedented violation of both body and environment? While reading lyric of the last century as intertwined with such forms as the collage, serial, and long poem, my dissertation 1) upsets traditional notions of what constitutes lyric, 2) remaps a tradition of “nature poetry” writing, one outside the traditional canon, and 3) crystallizes both the promises and pitfalls of dialectical thought for reading and writing ecolyric, both historically and today.

My research and writing explore intersections between lyric poetry, dialectical thought, and ecology. I have taught courses on poetry and politics; ecocriticism; energy, labor, and environment; and representations of animals and animality. I have published critical work in such journals as ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Evental Aesthetics, and Jacket2. I am also the author of two chapbooks, The Middle (Omnidawn, 2013) and Second Story of Your Body (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2011). This past year, I organized the 2013 Conference on Ecopoetics, which was held in February in Berkeley.


Education

• M.A., University of California, Davis, CA
  
• M.F.A., Saint Mary's College of California, Moraga, CA
  

• B.S., Drake University, Des Moines, IA
  

• "Imagining Ecopoetics: An Interview with Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Evelyn Reilly, and Jonathan Skinner." ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 19.4 (fall 2012).
• "(Rescuing) Hegel's Magical Thinking." Evental Aesthetics 1.1 (winter 2012).

 Other

• A special issue of The Volta on "trash," co-edited/curated with Laura Mullen (forthcoming October 2013).
  

• A "commentary" series, "Field Notes from the 2013 Conference on Ecopoetics," co-authored with Gillian Osborne and Margaret Ronda, Jacket2 (March-May 2013).
• Reviews of contemporary poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in The Volta and ecopoetics 8.

 Poetry

• A chapbook, The Middle (Omnidawn, 2013).
  
• A chapbook, Second Story of Your Body (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2011). 
• Poems and poetics are forthcoming or have appeared in Little Red Leaves, Mrs. Maybe, RealPoetik, Evening Will Come, eccolinguistics, Zoland Poetry, Word for/ Word, NOÖ, Spinning Jenny, cold-drill, The Portland Review, The 2River View, Flyway Literary Journal and elsewhere.

• Fall 2012-Present: Instructor, English, UC Davis.
            English 3: "Introduction to Literature: Ecocritical Approaches to Literature and Environment"
            English 3H [honors]: "Introduction to Literature: Animals and Animality"
  
• Fall 2011-Summer 2012: Lecturer, American Studies, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, Germany.
            Written English I and II: "Contemporary American Englishes"
            Advanced Academic Writing I: "Writing About 21st Century Film, Literature, and Art"
            American Cultural Studies II: "Energy, Labor, and Environment, 20th Century-Present"
            American Cultural Studies III: "Poetry and Politics, 20th Century-Present"
  
• Fall 2009-Spring 2011: Instructor, University Writing Program, UC Davis.
  

• Fall 2008-Spring 2009: Teaching Assistant, English, UC Davis.
  

• Fall 2007-Spring 2008: Teaching Assistant, English, Saint Mary’s College of California.
  
  

• Summer 2013: UC Davis Environments and Societies Initiative Summer Research Fellowship.
  
• Summer 2013: UC Davis Department of English Dissertation Fellowship.
• Spring 2013: UC Davis Department of English Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship.
• Spring 2013: UC Davis Humanities Institute Summer Research Stipend (compensation for participation in the cross-disciplinary spring 2013 Faculty Research Seminar).
  
• Fall 2012: Winner of the 2012 Omnidawn Poetry Chapbook Contest.
  
• Spring 2012: UC Davis Department of English Dissertation Fellowship.
  
• Spring 2012: Bonn University Summer School in German Philosophy Travel and Lodging Award.
  
• Summer 2011: The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) Graduate Student Scholarly Paper in Ecocriticism Award, Honorable Mention—“The Ecopoetics of Emergency.”
• Spring 2011: UC Davis Department of English Summer Fellowship.
• Fall 2010: UC Davis Department of English David Noel Miller Scholarship Essay Prize for the Best English Graduate Student Essay—"(Rescuing) Hegel's Magical Thinking."
• Spring 2010: UC Davis Department of English Summer Fellowship.
• Winter 2010: UC Davis Graduate Program in Critical Theory Fellowship for the Cornell School of Criticism and Theory (SCT) Summer Session 2010.

• Winter 2010: UC Davis English Department Matching Fellowship for the Cornell SCT Summer Session 2010.

• Spring 2009: UC Davis Department of English Summer Fellowship.

• Fall 2007: St. Mary's College Alice Bagby Scholarship for Excellence in Poetry.

• Fall 2006: St. Mary's College Jim Townsend Scholarship for Excellence in Creative Writing.

• "An Ecopoetics of the Limit: Myung Mi Kim's Penury," to be presented as part of the panel "Thinking the End: Apocalypse, Extinction, and Anti-futurity in 21st Century Poetry," co-organized for The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) Biennial Conference, Lawrence, Kansas, May 28-June 1, 2013.
  
• "Bodies at Risk in Mei-mei Berssenbrugge and Claudia Rankine," presented as part of the panel "Emergency, Ethics, Ecopoetics: 21st Century Ecopoetry's Efficacies," co-organized for the 2013 Conference on Ecopoetics, University of California, Berkeley, Feb. 22-24, 2013.
• "The Political Stakes of the Ontological Turn," presented at the Bonn University Summer School in German Philosophy, Bonn, Germany, July 2-13, 2012.
  
• “The Ecopoetics of Emergency,” presented at The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) Biennial Conference, Bloomington, Indiana, June 21-26, 2011.
• "Radical Water: The Hydro-lyric Forms and Practices of Brenda Hillman," presented at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan. 13-16, 2010.

• Spring 2013: Participant in the UC Davis Humanities Institute cross-disciplinary Faculty Research Seminar (theme: “trash”).
• Winter 2012-Winter 2013: Organizer of the 2013 Conference on Ecopoetics, University of California, Berkeley, Feb. 22-24, 2013.
• Summer 2012: Participant in the Bonn University Summer School in German Philosophy, “The Ontological Turn in Contemporary Philosophy," Bonn, Germany, July 2-13, 2012.
• Winter 2011: Visiting Scholar, Geography of Hope Conference: "Reflections on Water," Point Reyes Station, California, March 18-20.
  

• Summer 2010: Participant in the Cornell School of Criticism and Theory Summer Session "Antigone in Context(s): Humanism and the Political Stakes of the Ethical Turn," Ithaca, New York.
  

• Spring 2013: Graduate Student Organizer for the UC Davis Critical Theory Reading Group.
• Spring 2011: Graduate Student Organizer for the UC Davis Critical Theory Reading Group.
• Fall 2010-Spring 2011: Member of the UC Davis English Department Undergraduate Honors and Awards Selection Committee.
  
• 2006-2007: Poetry Editor, Mary Magazine, Saint Mary’s College of California.

• 2002-2003: Editor in Chief, Periphery Literary Journal, Drake University.

• 2002-2003: Member of Drake University Department of English Student Advisory Board.

• 2011-Present: Member of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE).
  
• 2009-Present: Member of the Modern Language Association.

• 2007-Present: Member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.