Department of English Language & Literature

Education

• Ph.D., Indiana University

Interests and Expertise

I found my way to the United States as a foreign student on a one-year scholarship to attend Indiana University. Like so many other foreigners coming to this country, I stayed on. I completed my doctorate in 1989 and began working for EMU soon after. In 1999, I became an American citizen. Despite having lived in America for many years, I've retained a distinct German accent. There are no doubt other things "German" about me, including research projects that frequently take me back to the country in which I was born and raised. My recent scholarly interests include modern poetry and poetics; theories of gesture and embodiment; ecotheory and criticism. In addition, since the fall of 2015, I have been editor of JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory, which is produced by EMU's English Department. I continue to think and write about the poetry of T. S. Eliot and Muriel Rukeyser and developed, with the help of students, the Muriel Rukeyser: A Living Archive Website.

Courses

• Litr 450 T. S. Eliot
• Litr 450 Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
• Litr 470 Studies in Poetry
• Litr 443 Women and Literature
• Litr 490 Senior Seminar
• Litr 592 Women and the Long Poem
• Litr 570 Studies in Twentieth-Century American Poetry
• Litr 511 Literary Criticism

Publications and Presentations

Books and Journals

• Editor. Muriel Rukeyser. A Special Issue of JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory. 43.4 (Fall 2013).
• Co-editor, with Shyamal Bagchee. The International Reception of T. S. Eliot. London and New York: Continuum Press, 2007.

Articles

• "'Wanting more from Mr. Eliot': Muriel Rukeyser, T. S. Eliot, and the Uses of Poetry." Textual Practice 32.7 (2018).

• “Prufrock’s Gestures.” The T. S. Eliot Studies Annual 2 (2018): 25-35.2.2. 

• "Understanding Understanding: Interdisciplinary Articulation for Instruction and Assessment." With William Douglas Baker. Language Arts Journal of Michigan 31.1 (2015): 28–36.
• "T.S. Eliot, Jean Epstein, and the Physiology of Modern Poetry." T. S. Eliot and the French Influence. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015. 112–128.
• "Exploring Challenges and Opportunities of an Interdisciplinary, Dialogic and Reflexive Approach to Teaching Literature in Higher Education." With
• William Douglas Baker. Pedagogies: An International Journal 10.1 (2015): 38–53.
• "Muriel Rukeyser's Presumptions." JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory 43.4 (Fall 2013): 247–257.
• "The Hollow Men." A Companion to T. S. Eliot. Ed. David Chinitz. London: Blackwell, 2009.
• With Alec Marsh, "Pound and Eliot." American Literary Scholarship. Ed. Gary Scharnhorst. Durham: Duke UP, 2007.
• "Remodernizing T. S. Eliot: Eva Hesse and Das Wüste Land." The International Reception of T. S. Eliot, ed. Elisabeth Däumer and Shyamal Bagchee. London and New York: Continuum Press, 2007.