Education, Employment, and Research
Education
2012
PhD in English with Graduate Certificate in Gender Studies. University of Southern California.
Dissertation: Deviant Futures: Queer Temporality and the Cultural Politics of Science Fiction.
Directed by J. Jack Halberstam.
Committee members Karen Tongson, Kara Keeling, Tara McPherson, Alice Gambrell.
Exam fields: Queer Theory; New Media Studies; Utopia and Modernity.
2005
MA with Distinction in Sexual Dissidence and Cultural Change. University of Sussex.
Thesis: “Science Fiction in Queer Space/Time: Samuel R. Delany and the Futures of Desire.”
Supervisor: Alan Sinfield.
2003
MA (Hons), First Class in English Language and Literature. University of Edinburgh.
With International Exchange Year, University of California at Berkeley, 2001-2.
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Academic Employment
Associate Professor, Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (tenured). Core Faculty in Design Cultures and Creativity. Affiliate Faculty in American Studies, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. University of Maryland, College Park. 2019-
Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies/LGBT Studies (tenure track). Core Faculty in Design Cultures and Creativity. Affiliate Faculty in American Studies. University of Maryland, College Park. 2014-2019.
Assistant Professor of English, Doctoral Program in Literature and Criticism (tenure track). Affiliated Faculty in Women’s Studies. Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 2012-2014.
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Research Areas
Queer theory and queer of color critique; feminist knowledge production; critical race and gender analysis; cultural studies; new media; speculative fiction in literature, film, and television; internet and fan cultures; remix video; technology studies; digital humanities.
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Works in Progress
Queer Geek Politics: Digital Social Justice and Media Fandom. Book project on queer and feminist fan cultures’ online intersections with race, gender, and disability justice movements.
Slash: M/M Fan Fiction and the Politics of Fantasy. With Kristina Busse. Book project exploring the cultural politics of homoerotic online fan fiction from a queer and feminist perspective.
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Fellowships and Funding
Research and Scholarship Award, Graduate School, University of Maryland College Park. Awarded 2017 for leave in Fall 2018.
Subvention Award for Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility. College of Arts and Humanities, University of Maryland College Park. 2017.
Conference Award for Transformative Digital Humanities Conference. College of Arts and Humanities, University of Maryland College Park. 2015.
Travel Grant to HASTAC Conference 2011: Digital Scholarly Communication. University of Michigan. Dec 1-3, 2011. Supported by the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Dissertation Completion Fellowship. University of Southern California. 2011-12.
Summer Research Fellowship. Department of English, University of Southern California. 2011.
HASTAC Scholar, 2010-11 and 2011-12. Fellow in the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory sponsored by Duke University, the MacArthur Foundation, and the University of California Humanities Research Institute. http://hastac.org/scholars.
College Merit Fellowship. Department of English, University of Southern California. 2006-7 and 2009-10.
Diana Meehan Fellowship in Feminism and Communication. Center for Feminist Research, University of Southern California. Fall 2009.
Center for Feminist Research Travel Grant. University of Southern California. Spring 2008.
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Awards and Recognition
Finalist, 2019 Locus Awards, Non-Fiction Category for Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility
Faculty Scholarship Recognition by Council of Trustees, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2014.
Nominated for PhD Achievement Award, University of Southern California Graduate School. 2012.
Science Fiction Foundation Graduate Essay Prize: Highly Commended for “Worlds Beyond Binaries? Feminism and Duality in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Worlds of the Ekumen.” 2004.