¿ìèÊÓƵ

I joined ¿ìèÊÓƵ in 2002 after a two-year stint as a visiting professor at Indiana University, where I received my Ph.D. in 2000. Like many people, I consider myself a lifelong learner. Probably as a result my teaching has ranged across a fairly wide territory, including classical, medieval, and Early Modern poetry and drama; Irish literature; Chinese and Japanese poetry in translation; historical phenomenology; the history and philosophy of science; archipelagic literature; film studies; science fiction; and creative writing. I’m a naturally curious person, and this shows up in my teaching.

What else might you want to know about me? From 2012 to 2021, I served as Director of the University Honors Program. I received the Most Inspirational Faculty Award from the Graduating Class of 2006 as well as the 2016 Distinguished Faculty Award from the ¿ìèÊÓƵ Alumni Association. Since 2005, I have co-taught the popular Writers’ Workshop in Ireland, most often with Inaugural Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green. I’m a poet and fiction writer as well as a scholar. My most recent poems have appeared in the Welsh journal Scintilla, the English journal The High Window, and the American journal The Madrona Project. My most recent prose book, Metaphysical Shadows: The Persistence of Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, and Marvell in Contemporary Poetry, was published by Lexington Books in early 2022. My first book of poems, Learning to Jump, was published by Wipf & Stock under their Resource Publications imprint in Fall 2023. My second book of poems, Galileo’s Spyglass, was published in Fall of 2025. The next one, Out of Nothing Much, is well on its way. I believe that making is an essential part of a good life. I feel most grounded when I am making something.

I believe that through reading and studying the great voices of world literature, we can discover our own voices, regardless of who we are or where we come from. Every writer is an opportunity; every course, a journey of discovery. My upcoming and most recent courses include the Writers’ Workshop in Ireland (ENGL 3110), Irish Literature (ENGL 3450), John Donne Seminar (ENGL 4310), John Milton Seminar (ENGL 4320), Shakespeare (ENGL 3320), The Renaissance Lyric (ENGL 3350), The Rise of Science (HONR 2300), Encountering British Literatures (ENGL 2010), Medieval English and Continental Literature (HONR 1130), Writers in the Public Sphere (HONR 2150), Mindfulness in Chinese Poetry (UCOR 1400), Artificially Intelligent Futures (UCOR 1400), Ancient Literatures (HONR 1110), and the Sources of Fantasy (ENGL 2910/2010).