education
1998-present The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Masters of Arts degree conferred in Comparative Literature; April, 2000.
- Graduate certificate conferred in Women’s Studies; April 2006.
2007 National Dance Institute New York, New York
- Completed teacher training program for teaching Jaques D’Amboise’s innovative dance program in public schools.
- Apprenticed under the Associate Artistic Director in various school programs.
1992-1996 Amherst College Amherst, Massachusetts
- Bachelors of Arts degree conferred in English and French, May 1996.
1995 Université IV Paris—Sorbonne Paris, France
- Courses in Art History, French and Francophone Literature.
teaching experience
2007-present The Churchill School New York, New York
Assistant English Teacher
- Instruct a creative writing workshop for 6 high school students, with a focus on skill building through creativity.
- Instruct vocabulary and grammar on a weekly basis to 36 students.
- Perform administrative duties for head teacher of 10th grade students with learning disabilities, including writing tests, lesson plans, maintaining attendance and grade book.
2004- present Langua Tutor/ Global L.T. New York, New York
French Tutor
- Provide beginner – through – advanced intermediate French instruction for corporate clients at their workplace.
- Devise and instruct a curriculum suited to clients’ needs and competency.
2005-2006 Children’s Theater Company/ LEAP New York, New York
Dance Resident
- Oversaw all aspects of planning and instructing a rigorous dance curriculum for 25 Junior High School Students.
- Taught culture and character building through the instruction of dances from a variety of cultures.
2004-2005 Perfect Score Tutoring Brooklyn, New York
English Tutor & Staff Developer
- Assisted Junior High School students in developing reading, writing, and vocabulary skills through a self-designed curriculum in weekly one-on-one sessions.
- Developed staff through training and mentoring.
2000-2001 / 2003-2004 The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan
Teaching Assistant & Instructor
- As an assistant for Dr. Santiago Colás’ course, “Reading to Live,” directed two discussion sessions of 22 students that elucidated the concepts being instructed.
- As an instructor of my own course, entitled “American’t Ourstory: Performing Perspectives on Race,” designed and structured a rigorous syllabus for an intermediate-to advanced level undergraduate course which was counted toward the Race & Ethnicity requirement.
- My class was filmed and my students and I were interviewed for a documentary by the Provost’s Office on the University’s theme semester, “Brown vs. the Board of Education: Fulfilling the Promise.”
- Prepared lessons, instructed, graded, led discussions and facilitated learning for 17 students.
- As the instructor for a 1st year English composition course entitled “Performing One’s Subjectivity,” instructed two classes of 18-25 students.
1996 Desisto School Stockbridge, Massachusetts
English Teacher
- Taught World Literature, 12th Grade English, and 9th Grade Language and Literature at a school for emotionally disturbed teens.
languages
Fluency in French; near fluency in Portuguese; proficiency in Spanish; knowledge of Italian.
fellowships & awards
2004 Foreign Language Area Study Grant from the U.S. Government for Portuguese Language Study.
2004 “Global Turns and Gender Returns” Program Award to attend the International Workshop on Gender and Visuality at the University of Western Cap in South Africa; one of three students selected to accompany three faculty members from the University of Michigan.
2004 Center for African & African American Studies Research Grant from the University of Michigan.
2003 Program in Comparative Literature Research Grant from the University of Michigan.
2003 Rackham Discretionary Grant from the University of Michigan.
2002 Office of Multi-Cultural Initiatives Research Grant from the University of Michigan.
2002 Center for the Education of Women Research Grant from the University of Michigan.
2000 Rackham Merit Fellowship from the University of Michigan.
2000 Rackham Summer Institute Fellowship from the University of Michigan.
2000 Center for African & African-American Studies Research Grant from the University of Michigan.
1999 Summer Language Training Grant from the University of Michigan.
1998 Program Fellowship, Program in Comparative Literature, from the University of Michigan.
memberships & affiliations
- Brown Bag Lecture Series Coordinator, 2003-2004
- Certified in Multicultural Classroom Facilitation, 2004
- International Comparative Literature Association, 2004
- American Comparative Literature Association, 2004
- Modern Languages Association, 2004
- Society for Utopian Studies, 2004
- Michigan Feminist Studies Journal, Editor, 1999
research
Dissertation:
Chair: Dr. Frieda Ekotto
research & teaching interests
Theory and Lived Practice; Community and Coalition Studies; Zen/Eastern Literature and Theory; Identity Construction; 20th Century Latin American and Caribbean Literature and Film; African Literature; Racial & Cultural Theory of the African Diaspora; Feminist Theory; Music and Dance in Popular Culture; Postmodern Theory; New Age Literature; Performance Theory; Multi-Media Performance.
related coursework
Latin American & Caribbean Literature and Culture; Francophone Literature:
Proseminar in Latin American & Caribbean Studies; Luso-Brazilian Literature; Hispanic Literature of the 19th and 20th Centuries; Créolité and Hybridity; African & Caribbean Literture; Spanish Language; Portuguese Language; French Language; Independent Research.
African Literature and Culture:
African Rituals; Myth, Ritual and Iconography in Western Africa; Congolese Dance; West African Dance & Drumming; African & Caribbean Literature; Aesthetics of Primitivism; Independent Research.
Feminist Methodology & Theory:
Feminist Studies on Women of Color; Approaches to Feminist Practice; Feminist Theory; Feminist Studies on Gender; Gender in Visual Arts; Independent Research.
research projects
2004 Wrote, Narrated, Choreographed, and Produced “My Crystal Stair Life: Black Ascent on Social Ladders,” a multimedia performance piece exploring the conflation of race and class in literary depictions of the African-American Experience.
2003 Independent project in Bahia, Brazil, researching the relationship between national identity, community formation, and individual identity at Comunidade das Rodas and Lothlorien, two intentional communities in Chapada Diamantina.
2002 Project working on-site in Cuba with Congolese filmmaker Mweze Ngangura on documentary “L’Appel Des Orishas” (“The Call of the Gods”).
2002 Project working on-site in Shutesbury, Massachusetts at an intentional community, studying communal education and culture.
2000 Project working on-site in Guinea Bissau with Guinean filmmaker Flora Gomes on his musical comedy, “Nha Fala” (“Our Voice, Our Destiny”).
1999 Constructed an interactive website on Black masculinity, entitled “Re-membering and Dismembering Black Masculinity: D’Angelo’s Body as (Web)Site of Mixed Messages”.
conference presentations
“Coming of Age in Guinea Bissau: The Filmmaking of Flora Gomes”
-- Second Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association, Boston, Massachusetts, May 2004.
-- “Who’s a Woman? Who Wants to be One?” Panel of American Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 2004.
-- “Rethinking Globalization from an African Perspective” Conference, Sponsored by the Berkeley-Stanford Joint Center for African Studies, Berkeley, California, April 2002.
“Meet Me at the Crossroads: Examining the Cuban Mulata Through a Postmodern, Mestiza Lens”
-- Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars Annual Conference, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, April 2004.
-- “Hair, Color, and Bone: The Persistence of Race into the 21st Century” Conference, Sponsored by Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, September 2002.
-- Ninth Annual Graduate and Professional Symposium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literature, Language and Culture, Tucson, Arizona, February 2000.
-- Comparative Literature Intra-Student Faculty Forum, Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 1999.
“I Am: Musings on Being”
--Comparative Literature Intra-Student Faculty Forum, Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 2003.
“Community and Language in America”
-- The International Conference: “Lanugage- Communication- Culture,” Sponsored by the “English in the World: New Directions” Team at the University of Evora, and the English Culture Studies Group at the University of Lisbon, Evora, Portugal, November 2002.
-- 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies, Orlando, Florida, October 2002.
“Arizona” [A Short Story]
-- Comparative Literature Intra-Student Faculty Forum, Ann Arbor, February 2002.
-- Writing by Degrees, The Annual National Graduate Creative Writing Conference, Sponsored by Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York, November 2001.
“Le Mot-Trou: Configuring the Womb as a Durassian Stage in Yeux Bleus, Cheveux Noirs”
-- Southwest/ Texas American Public Culture Association Annual Conference, Albuqurque, New Mexico, March 2001.
“Re-membering and Dis-membering Black Masculinity: D’Angelo’s Body as a (Web)site of Mixed Messages”
-- Comparative Literature Intra-Student Faculty Forum, Ann Arbor, Michigan, February 2001.
“Cornel West’s ‘Nihilism’ and Classism in the African-American Community: A Feminist Perspective of the Problem”
-- “Image of the 20th Century in Literature, Media, and Society” Conference, Sponsored by the Society for the Inderdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, Colorado Springs, Colorado, March 2000.
“Staying Alive vs. Staying True in the Workplace: My Career(s) as They Relate to my Feminist Practice”
--“Practicing in 3-D: Juggling Multiple Identities” Conference, Sponsored by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan, March 2000.
publications, performances & displays
2007 Two poems published online in The Verse Marauder, a creative writing journal.
2007 Song, “Je T’Aime,” written , recoded and released on Armand Van Helden’s “Ghettoblaster” CD on Southern Fried.
2006 A series of poems entitled “Letters to Carrie” published in What They Don’t Teach You In Medical School: An Incoming Medical Student’s Guide to Maintaining Humanity, Jonel Daphnis, ed.
2004 Facilitated the Ann Arbor Community Television Network’s televised discussion of the book chosen for the 2004 “Ann Arbor & Ypsi Reads” Program, Beverly Tatum’s “Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” And Other Conversations on Race.
2004 One digital photographic study chosen by the ArtRide jury for exhibition on 82 Ann Arbor public buses.
2003 Three multi-media photographic studies chosen by the Amherst Public Art Commission jury for exhibition in the Amherst Town Hall.
2003 French and English poems published in Anneta nepo- a multilingual poetry review, issue 2.
2003 Three poems published online on the Poor Mojo's Almanac(k) website.
2002 Song, “Caged Bird,” selected for compilation album by the Coalition for Independent Artists of Ann Arbor.
2001 Fiction Story, “Arizona,” published in The Missing Object, Brown University’s creative writing journal.
