n this page I present some samples of my work at Mercer, as well as other resources of an academic nature.
English 380 Class Page
This class is a Special Topics course which I have taught as Web Design for Humanities Students. You can see my syllabus, assignments, and student projects. They produced web sites individually on topics of interest to them, and in groups to create a site for a humanities course which did not already have one.
English 264 Class Page
The Survey of English Literature: Romantics to Moderns class is required of all English majors and also fulfills a General Education literature requirement. My web site for the course includes the syllabus, electronic texts, visual aids (such as maps, paintings, photographs and scans of manuscripts by famous authors) and links.
I have also taught this course during the summer in an online format, with podcasts, blogs and chat sessions, in addition to the website.
First Year Seminar Home Page
Mercer's First Year Seminar (FYS) program is a two semester course —FYS 101 and 102— required of entering students. Besides teaching these courses, I am the designer of the FYS site as well as the Director of the FYS program.
I offer as samples of my scholarship two essays on the understanding of dreams in the nineteenth century and their use in literature. This topic was the focus of my dissertation as well.
The first essay examines Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, an important and often discussed text which not only features a striking dream sequence, but also was (according to the author) inspired by a dream. It is titled “Beyond the Usual Bounds of Reverie”? Another Look at the Dreams in Frankenstein.
The second essay discusses how Victorian theories of real dreams influenced the way Charles Dickens wrote about them in his fiction. It is titled "Revelation, Nonsense or Dyspepsia: Victorian Dream Theories."
At Mercer, I am in my fourth year of service as Director of the First Year Seminar program. For two years I served as Chair of the Honor Council Liaison Committee (which advises and assists the Honor Council's defense of Mercer's Honor Code). I have also served on numerous college and departmental committees, including the General Education, Technology, Scholarship and Senior Comprehensive Exam committees.
My service in the community currently includes membership on the Supreme Court of Georgia's Board to Determine Fitness of Bar Applicants (which certifies all applicants to the practice of law in this state), and previous included the School Council of Miller Middle School, a Core Knowledge magnet. Besides being a member of Northminster Presbyterian Church, I have served as an Elder on the church Session.
View my curriculum vitae as a web page or as a PDF document.
I came to Mercer's Department of English in 1992, after having taught for a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Emory University. At Mercer I have been promoted to Associate Professor and received tenure.
I studied in the graduate program of the Department of English at UNC from 1984 to 1991, earning a M.A. in 1986 and a Ph.D. in 1991.
I graduated from Davidson with an A.B. in 1983, earning honors in English.