Education

• B.A., English, Religion, St. Olaf College, 2004
• M.A.R., Religion and Literature, Yale Divinity School and Yale Institute of Sacred Music, 2011

Dissertation

“The Theology of Humility in Dante’s Commedia”

Research Interests

My research considers intertextual relationships among Scriptural, theological and literary texts and representations of religious thought and experience in literature, particularly in poetry. This includes interpreting authors such as Dante and Hopkins as readers of classical sources, as well as considering such 20th century poetic respondents to Dante as T.S. Eliot and James Merrill. I aim to consider such responses in light of contextual theological attitudes toward art, beauty, and community.

Teaching

• Teaching Assistant, RELG 2660: “Spiritual but not Religious”: Spirituality in America
• Teaching Assistant, RELC 2360: Elements of Christian Thought, University of Virginia, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015
• Teaching Assistant, RELG 2190: Religion and Modern Fiction, University of Virginia, Spring 2014
• College Writing Tutor and Writing Center Coordinator, North Hennepin Community College (Brooklyn Park, MN), 2007-2008

Conference Presentations:

• “Works in Progress: Dante’s Practices of Humility on the Terrace of Pride,” Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Conference, Villanova University, 14-16 October 2016, Philadelphia, PA.
• “Physicality Incarnate: Amy Clampitt and Dante’s Medusa,” American Association of Italian Studies, 22 April 2015, Baton Rouge, LA.
•  “Resurrecting Metaphors: Discourse and Dialogism in Dante’s Comedy,” Le Moyne College Religion and Literature Forum, 2 October 2015, Syracuse, NY.
• “Reader’s Body, Scripture’s Flesh: Ascent in Origen's De Principiis IV and the Prologue to the Commentary on the Song of Songs,” International Conference on Patristic Studies, 14 August 2015, Oxford, UK.
• “A Parataxis of Desire: Literary Features and Theological Implications in Augustine’s Confessions,” Virginia Theology, Ethics and Culture Graduate Colloquium, 28 March 2014, Charlottesville, VA.
• “The Consequence of Vision: Earthly and Heavenly Love in Dante's Commedia,” Yale Dante Symposium, March 27, 2010, New Haven, CT.
• “A Lasting Expression: The Life and Afterlife of Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” co-authored with Ashley Makar and Paul Tipton, supervised by Peter S. Hawkins. Yale Institute of Sacred Music Colloquium, February 2010, New Haven, CT. Awarded Yale Institute of Sacred Music Director’s Prize, 2010.