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Research Philosophy Coming from a generalist background, my research takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining elements from various areas to provide new perspectives in analysis. The focus of my research generally looks at our relationship to nature. Whether it be through the analysis of Southwestern Louisiana woodcarvings, the introspective poetry of Wordsworth, the gothic wilderness of Hawthorne, or the “nature strikes back” cinema of the 1970s, the way we imagine and interact with nature provides insight to the human condition. Although I am fascinated by this notion, my research is not limited to such analysis. As a folklorist, I study human interaction and the “everyday” lives of people. Following linguist Allen Read’s definition, folklorists “can take unpromising, trivial details, and organize them into an orderly body of material, and from them derive significant findings in the interpretation of human life.” This model serves as a basis for the ethnographic structure of many of my classes, but also provides a framework for the analysis of social roles and gender/identity studies. Literary Research Looking to nineteenth-century issues in the development of both American and British notions of identity and gender, I rely heavily on the poetry, short stories, novels, and art to interpret the zeitgeist of the culture. During this century, political, social, environmental, and religious questions prevailed. This was especially true in such literary voices as Poe, Twain, Bryant, Dickens, the Brownings, Keats, and the Rossettis. Due to my training and interests, I take these voices and compare them with the art and folklore of the time to make connections and create new perspectives on the analysis of the two growing nations. Folklore Research Inspired by my undergraduate enthusiasm for Sociology, I am excited by the lives people live and how they express themselves through stories, folk objects, foodways, music, and ritual. Like literature, the analysis of these genres reveal how people interact and what is important to them. Melville provided a defining picture of whaling life in Moby Dick. However, there need not be an iconic villain/monster to make the life of a crawfish farmer or tattoo artist interesting. As Romantic Nationalism of the nineteenth century proposed, the identity of a culture is determined by its working class and not by its elite. Employing the structural and aesthetic approaches, my scholarship attempts to define these ethnographic roles and their significance in the national culture. Currently, I am working in conjunction with Jim Delahoussaye to co-author an ethnography of the Myette Point houseboat community that once existed along the banks of the Atchafalya River. Pedagogy Although I have earned a generalist degree in folklore, literature, and film, I am a classroom teacher. Therefore, my research necessarily includes pedagogy. I am always looking of ways to improve on techniques, classroom structures, approaches, and grading practices. In the First-year composition classroom, students are at a pivotal stage in their secondary education. I feel that a solid connection between a teacher and student is critical at this point, and I have found that journals strengthen this connection and affirm the validity of each individual student by encouraging their developing ideas, philosophies, and voices. Film The horror film has been an identifiable and influential genre since the early stages of cinema. Gothic classics like Nosferatu and Frankenstein have provided iconic images for the Western world. These movies entertain and haunt us. Their images reveal the darker side of humanity, and their morality exemplifies their culture, just as the folktales collected by the Grimms brothers did two centuries ago. However, if we compare the horror films of America to European counterparts, we see a difference in aesthetics and emphasis. I explore this emphasis by looking at the development of the genre and its major directors on the two continents. Artistic giants such as James Whale, Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, Mario Bava, Dario Argento, and Lucio Fulci have always provoked our fears and expressed our anxieties. I take a closer look at how they do so, and why audiences are so enthralled by their visions. Poetry My poetry has become a synthesis between two schools: formal and free verse. As an undergraduate, I was trained as a formalist poet under the tutelage of Lewis Turco. I enjoyed the challenges of writing in verse and was awarded with my first published poem. Gaining confidence and momentum with other publications, I enrolled in an MFA program for poetry and was shell-shocked by the immense popularity of free verse. Out of desperation and the instruction of Lou Asekoff and Allen Ginsberg, I adopted the writing style of my peers and educators, all the while retaining my formalist training. The result has been a unique blending of the two philosophies, one that will evolve as I continue to write and publish poetry.
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