Professor of English
Office
Learning Resource Center (LRC), 308: take the elevators to the 3rd floor.
Education
Ph.D. (English), University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A. (English), University of Windsor, Canada
Awards
Nickel and Nails "Instructor of the Year" Award 2007-2008, EOPS Ventura College
"Favorite Teacher" Award 2014, Ventura College Women's basketball (sophomore players)
About
I've been teaching in higher education -- at community colleges and universities -- for over twenty-five years, beginning my career as a teacher at a community college in 1995 in my Canadian hometown, and yes, Canada is where I was born. I got married to a Canadian in 1997 and moved with my husband to the U.S. in 1998 to pursue a Ph.D. in English Literature at UCSB after having completed a B.A. in English (Creative Writing emphasis) and an M.A. in English (Cultural Studies emphasis) at the University of Windsor. I started teaching at Oxnard College and Ventura College in 2005 as soon as I received my green card and thus permission to work outside the confines of my F-1/I-90 status as an international student. On a more personal note, we've been rescuing dogs since moving to California, whether as fosters or adoptees, and have been raising our daughter since July, 2010. While juggling research, reading, parenting, and teaching, I also write creatively every morning (see some publications below).
Publications
First Runner-Up in the T.S. Eliot Poetry Contest for "Hollowed Ground" inspired by "The Hollow Men" (August, 2023) https://www.winglessdreamer.com/portfolio-1/t.s.-eliot-poetry-contest-winners%3A-capturing-the-essence-of-war-and-beyond
"S in Segments" (December, 2022) (https://www.2river.org/2RView/27_2/poems/lall.html
"The Fruit Basket" (Issue 6, 2006) http://www.desilit.org/magazine/issues/2010/issue6/humor/6_sumita.php
"'Subverting the Taste Buds of America': Transnational Political Agency in Bharati Mukherjee's Novels Wife (1975) and Jasmine (1989)" published in Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Feminist Scholarship, Theory, and Aesthetics 16.1 (2004)
Pronouns
she/her