I came to Arizona State after teaching at Dana College, a small liberal arts school of only 600 students. In other words, I went from one of the smallest colleges in the nation to the largest. I've also taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
In my scholarship, I study contemporary American fiction and the environment. I've written about such authors as Thomas Pynchon, Richard Powers and Jonathan Franzen, detailing how they dramatize the intersection of language and the natural world. I've also written about the environmental narratives that, intentionally or not, pervade Walt Disney World.
At Arizona State, I primarily teach English Composition. I have an autodidactic interest in urban planning which underpins my composition classes where we study elements of the Phoenix metropolitan area while learning to write.
