Exchange with Aristotle University

In May 2016 I participated in a faculty exchange with Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Thessaloniki, Greece. The following are class and public presentations that were part of this visit.

Thanks to the graduate American Studies program and the School of Arts and Humanities at Stockton University and to Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, especially Dr. Tatiani Rapatzikou, for this opportunity.


Course: Lit. 5-125C: Workshop in Critical Writing: Poetry

May 11 Retelling Myths – Poems and Paintings

May 18: Critical and Creative Responses to Print and Digital Poetry


Course: Transformations of Contemporary Gothic

Robinson’s Housekeeping

Morrison’s Beloved


Problematics Seminar Research Presentation, 18 May 2016, 7-9pm

Desiring Natures: Extreme Adventure and the Environment

Abstract: The Jia Tsuo La Pass in Tibet—17,226 feet—marks the highest I have traveled without actually leaving the ground. Amazingly, I was still over 10,000 feet short of the highest point on earth. However, the American in me was not surprised that you could ride a tour bus to the top of the pass. At the peak of my Tibetan travels I reflected on what desires pushed me to catch a glimpse of Everest via an adventurous, if not necessarily sustainable, tour. I wondered if Jon Krakauer had not been one of the climbers to summit, survive, and tell the tale, would I have found myself experiencing my own modified extreme adventure? The attempt to understand the desires related to fanatical, risky acts like climbing to 29,028 feet and their environmental impact lies at the heart of these extreme adventure stories and my current research that defines and examines this extreme edge of American nature writing. My presentation will have two parts: first I will briefly describe the distinctive generic contours of these perilous outdoor adventure tales—what I term “adrenaline narratives”—and then I will consider how they promote and hinder ecological sustainability and the resulting insights they provide into what Lawrence Buell calls the “American environmental imagination.”


Creative Thinking and Writing Workshop, Transparent Windows Club, Aristotle University, 13 May, 18.00-20.00

Sustainability Studies and American Literature and Culture


Multimodal Group Presentation and Discussion

Technologies of Feminist Pedagogy