I graduated from Williams College in 2007. I then received a Watson Fellowship, and traveled to Romania, Hungary, the Ukraine, and Morocco, collecting oral narratives from women in minority groups. Upon returning to the U.S., I began the PhD program in Comparative Literature at Northwestern University, with a focus in early 20th-century Latin American literature. I just finished my doctorate in December of 2014.During my time at Northwestern, I taught a variety of language and literature courses in both English and Spanish. I was also able to travel extensively: I studied and conducted research in Berlin, Paris, London, Sao Paulo, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires, where I lived for nearly three years. I love teaching and talking about anything to do with words--whether that means literature, reading comprehension, writing skills, grammar, or simply building vocabularies. I have a relaxed and approachable manner, and encourage my students to cultivate their own distinct intellectual style and to relate their studies to other kinds of interests. In my experience, students are most successful when they combine test-taking strategies with an authentic curiosity and an ability to enjoy what they are doing (even for standardized tests!). Learning and teaching always go hand in hand, and so when I am not teaching, I try to spend my time learning something new: I love reading, especially long novels, I have practiced yoga for six years, and lately I am interested in silent-era cinema, the history of medicine, and learning how to play my brand-new pineapple ukulele.

Travel (especially Latin America and Eastern Europe), yoga, reading long novels, writing short novels, silent films, learning about alternative medicine, ukulele