About
I’m a scholar in Composition-Rhetoric currently working as an Assistant Professor of Black, Race and Ethnic Studies in the English department at Queensborough Community College, CUNY.
I study Black literacy movements in the Southern United States. My research areas include Composition-Rhetoric and Writing Studies, Critical Pedagogy, and African American Studies.
I earned a Ph.D in Composition-Rhetoric in the Department of English at CUNY Graduate Center, where I also received an M.Phil in the same field. I also hold an M.A. in Africana Studies and a B.A. (Hons.) in English from the State University of New York at Albany. Before my current appointment, I was a Teaching and Learning Fellow at CUNY’s Graduate Center.
My work has appeared in The St. John’s University Humanities Review, the Journal of African American Studies, and Visible Pedagogy. For the 2024-2025 academic year, I will be a Social Practice CUNY Faculty Fellow. I also serve as coordinator of the Black, Race and Ethnic Studies concentration at Queensborough Community College, CUNY and am a member of the editorial board for The Journal of Feminist Modernist Studies.
See my faculty profile here.
Research & Writing
About
My academic work is focused on developing pedagogies that confront the carceral nature of the educational space. Centering the practices of Black rhetors and literacy workers in the mid-20th century is important to the development of this work as well, as these teachers made significant contributions to what we understand now to be critical pedagogy. My research necessarily informs my teaching practice and vice-versa. The synergy of this dynamic inspires me to continue thoughtfully contributing to both endeavors and serves as a reminder that we can, as scholars, truly merge both theory and practice.
Lateral pedagogy
In my research, I explore how we as instructors, scholars, and educators can acknowledge the contributions of Black rhetors and teachers by continuing to develop supportive pedagogies that allow students to contribute to the life of the classroom in expansive ways. My future research specifically aims to examine how the literacy work of organizers and educators inform social justice pedagogies that are relevant to the academy and beyond. One of my short-term research goals is to develop a monograph on how Ella Baker’s theory of organizing can inspire political and scholastic pedagogies rooted in care and rhizomatic leadership.
My major interest as an instructor is rooted in examining the conditions we create in the classroom space—how we make room for our students as learners and creators and how we might actively move away from correctional pedagogical imperatives that often embed themselves in our learning communities.
I often incorporate ritual-work and reflective activities in the classroom to assess and examine how we, students, writers and teachers, are showing up and what we are in the midst of developing as producers of knowledge.