My work centers around representations of the other in archaic and early classical Greek poetry. My dissertation, Adoption and Alterity in Pindar, opens up a new, more human vision of Pindar that centers the poet’s praise of heroic male excellence within a broader world populated by teen moms, sympathetic monsters, lonely old people, and most significantly the poet, who I believe identifies himself not with the agentive figures of his clients but with the marginal others populating his myths. In my current project, I continue to pursue a poetics of alterity through studying representations of adolescent femininity, which, I argue, in its indeterminate potency offers a striking image for the ways in which each self contains a myriad of unique and chimeric others. In my constructions of alterity, I make use of the work of Donna Haraway, Emmanuel Levinas, Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, and others. I am also interested in the way that the poetics of alterity in archaic Greek poetry is received in later poetry, particularly in the work of Osip Mandelstam and Derek Walcott. In addition, I am generally fascinated by representations of the stages of female life as seen not only in Greek poetry but in Afghan landays, animé, and teen fantasy.

Much of the poetry I love is written in languages inaccessible to the English-speaking public, and I am passionate about creating thoughtful and beautiful translations to make that material more accessible, as well as teaching my students to hone the art of translation. I hope to produce a version of Pindar’s epinicia and fragments some day, but in the mean time you can find some of my translation work on this website.

I have also worked within the regenerative agriculture movement, laboring in New York State on a non-profit diversified farm and volunteering in the regenerative ag community in Chicago. I believe that having some connection to the soil and to food production is essential for understanding the fullness of human life and therefore I work to bring my students into connection with agriculture and the many social justice issues associated with it through orchestrating volunteer opportunities, reading groups, and more.