Preoccupations
My work focuses on contemporary poetry, migration, and genre. My approach to (what is often) the poetry of small spaces is interdisciplinary and transnational wherever possible. Through various mediums and modes, my academic and creative projects all share an interest in articulating the ways in which the shapes of the constructions we live within imply and affect our shifting perceptions of our shifting world.

In writing, creative practice, and digital media, I engage with criticism, students, and public audiences.  I currently have several interrelated projects underway, including: a digital archive of Syrian migration, funded by the British Academy; a collection of interviews with contemporary poets under contract with EUP; the AHRC funded co-organization of a creation of a New YOrk School Studies association; a (volunteer) community engagement project; and a book-length study of the perpetuity of displacement, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (See Current Projects for more). Whether exploring the contours of a contemporary poem's stanza, or the contours of the refugee's reconstructed (in memory) narrative of home, my work is engaged in the greater project of the humanities which qualifies the immeasurablity of everyday life.


          These things are with us every day
          even on beachheads and biers. They
          do have meaning. They’re strong as rocks.

                                       - O'Hara "Today"
 

Occupations

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In no particular order, I have lived, worked, written, organized, edited, researched, studied, and taught throughout the east coast of the USA, the Middle East, and the UK.

I am currently Lecturer of Modern and Contemporary English at the University of Reading, and Diversity and Inclusion Lead for the School of Languages and Literature, championing inclusivity in school curriculum and culture. I am also Principal investigator on the British Academy funded "Lost and Found?: Testimonies of Migration, Resettlement, and Displacement." In 2021, I will be a Leverhulme Research Fellow.