Teaching Experience

I love the brilliance of BYU students, the way literature and the arts stimulate new ways to imagine the world, and the challenge and opportunity to integrate faith and learning in the classroom at a high level. I believe in teaching for the future. That is, I believe that teaching is about inculcating a passion that lasts beyond the classroom and after college and that prepares students to be good citizens committed to making life better for others.

Research

My research focuses on environmental humanities generally and postcolonial ecocriticism, ecotheology, and literature of the Americas more specifically.

Selected Publications

My books include:

• Postslavery Literatures of the Americas (U of Virginia P, 2000)
• New World Poetics (U of Georgia P, 2007)
• Home Waters (memoir, U of Utah P, 2010)
• Postcolonial Ecologies (co-edited, Oxford UP, 2011)
• American Fork (novel, John Hunt Publishing, 2018)
• If Truth Were A Child (essays, Maxwell Institute, 2019)
• The Hope of Nature (essays, Maxwell Institute, 2020)

Service

I believe in community outreach and making scholarship relevant to the larger university community as well local and national communities. I enjoy the challenge to translate theory into practice and academese into public understanding. Students should learn not only how to think but how to act in the world. I strive to model both of these key aspects of a holistic education. I also believe in the benefit of listening and learning across disciplines and communities.

Citizenship assignments

• Coordinator of Latin American Studies (2001-2004)
• Department Chair of Comparative Arts and Letters (2012-2015)
• Associate Dean, College of Humanities (2015-2018)
• Associate Director, Faculty Center (2018-present)
• Provo City Council Member (2018-present)