Faculty and Staff

Dr. Andrea Gazzaniga, Chair

GH 504B
859-572-5619
gazzanigaa1@nku.edu

Education: PhD (2004), MA English (2001), Cornell University; BA, English (1995), Wellesley College.

Teaching and Research Interests: Victorian poetry; fin-de-siècle; women writers; material culture; Victorian novel; British Romanticism; detective fiction; cinema studies; film genres including the Western and Film Noir; Alfred Hitchcock.

Statement: Works in progress include a book project on Michael Field and the Shared Sublime and transcribing Michael Field’s 1907 diary manuscript for the Victorian Lives and Letters Consortium digital archive.

Publications on literary studies:

 “This Close Room”: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Proximal Poetics in Sonnets from the Portuguese;” Victorian Poetry 54.1 (2016): 67-92.

“Collaborative Space and the Poetics of Enclosure in Michael Field’s Underneath the Bough.” Victorians Institute Journal 42 (2014): 145-79.

“Crowded Parlors and Dark Defiles: Space and Male Appropriation in Meredith’s Modern Love,” Kentucky Philological Review 29 (2014): 9-22.

Publications on cinema studies:

 “From Whore to Madonna: Reassessing Jill in Once Upon a Time in the West,” Love in Western Film and Television, ed. Sue Matheson (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013): 53-69.

Dr. John Alberti

GH 414
859-572-5578
alberti@nku.edu
Website

Education: PhD (1989), MA (1984) English, University of California, Los Angeles; BA (1981), English, Magna cum laude, University of Southern California.

Teaching and Research Interests: Cinema Studies; Composition/Rhetoric; American Literature; Literary Criticism; Popular Culture and Media Studies.

Statement: Current projects include work on gender in American cinema and television; writing in the digital age; and the movie adaptations of the Harry Potter series.

Books as author:

The Killing (TV Milestones Series). Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2017.

Screen Ages: A Survey of American Cinema.  NY and London: Routledge, 2014.

Masculinity in the Contemporary Romantic Comedy:  Gender as Genre.  NY and London: Routledge Research, 2013.

Text Messaging: Reading and Writing about Popular Culture.  NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2009.

The Working Life: Readings on Work, Labor, and Career. New York: Pearson Longman, 2003.

Books as editor: 

Transforming Harry: The Adaptation of Harry Potter in the Transmedia Age. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2018. With P. Andrew Miller.

Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibilities of Oppositional Culture. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2003.

The Canon in the Classroom: Pedagogical Implications of Canon Revision in American Literature. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995.

Instructor's Guide for The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 2nd-5th eds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Also for The Concise Edition. 1st ed.

Dr. Janel Bloch

GH 467
859-572-7957
blochj1@nku.edu

Education: PhD, Iowa State University; Master of Technical & Scientific Communication, Miami University; MBA, Indiana University; Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Accounting), University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Teaching and Research Interests: Workplace communication, especially as it relates to organizational change, leadership, and policies; editing; proposal writing; scholarship of teaching and learning; scholarship of application

Other Experience: Have CPA certificate; worked as a tax analyst for a multinational corporation

Interests: My interests are transdisciplinary. Most of my current work relates to the scholarship of teaching & learning; my recent publications appear in Business & Professional Communication Quarterly & Journal of Management Education. I am currently working on a project related to organizational change and strategic planning, which will likely relate back to my dissertation, which focused on communications in mergers & acquisitions.

Nancy Bowers

GH 432
859-572-7723
bowersn1@nku.edu

Education: MA (2004) Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Communication, Iowa State University; BA (1986) Secondary English Education, Buena Vista University; Certificate (1981) Dental Assisting, Iowa Central Community College.

Teaching and Research Interests: Writing transfer and learning/brain learning theory and practice – connecting past learning/experiences with present and new writing situations to create effective and efficient messages for any situation. Rhetorical strategies used with writing strategies in the work place including but not limited to language choice and sentence/paragraph structure, patterns of organization; Visual rhetoric – visuals and document design; Delivery modes and user/audience experience (UX).

Awards: Teaching Excellence Award, 2004, Iowa State University; Excellence in Teaching Award, 2012, Greater Consortium of Cincinnati Colleges and Universities (GCCCU); Michael C. C. Adams and Susan S. Adams Outstanding Non Tenure Track Faculty Award, 2012, Northern Kentucky University.

What I Do: I engage and guide students in the thinking and practice of writing for any situation – in the work place or in life - so that they can realize their potential with written communication. I use my thesis [how content – text, visual, layout and design - created presence and identification for users on corporate websites] and my further research to explore best practices for creating concise and effective messages for the work place. With technology constantly changing, I explore how foundational practices with writing impact message delivery using various delivery modes today. I also mentor students in internships to create portfolios that demonstrate their English skills used in job situations.

Dr. Thomas Bowers

GH 412
859-572-1533
bowerst1@nku.edu

Education: PhD (2005), Iowa State University, MA (1999) University of South Carolina, BA (1997) Cleveland State University, English.

Teaching/Research Interests: I teach courses in technical writing, business writing, web writing, and rhetoric. My teaching approach mirrors my approach to writing, which can be defined as a mix of experimentation, analysis, and plenty of practice. Writing is always an opportunity to experiment and to consider the possibility of something new, whether it be in terms of style, ideas, or form. Writing also presents the opportunity to thoughtfully analyze the ideas of ourselves and others, a process that also lends itself to creativity and experimentation.

In my research and writing, I am drawn to the spaces of the unfamiliar, the experimental, and of disorder, spaces often labeled as heterotopia. My interest in these spaces rests in the way they offer new ways of understanding and acting, and my particular focus is not just on the language practices but also the material objects and the human and nonhuman performances that occur within these spaces. My work in this area can be found in my recent book, Environmentalism and Contemporary Heterotopia: Novel Encounters with Waste and in Environmental Communication, Southern Communication Journal, Space and Culture, and other academic journals. 

Kristi Brock

GH 410
(859) 572-5894  
brockkr@nku.edu

Bio

Education: MA in English, University of Cincinnati; (2001); BA in Journalism, Northern Kentucky University

Teaching/Research Interests: Composition and Rhetoric Theory and Pedagogy; gothic literature; women’s literature; African-American literature; nonfiction    

History: My first career was in print journalism, where I worked as a reporter for weekly newspapers and as a freelance writer for The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Cincinnati Business Courier, The Kentucky Post, and The Recorder Newspapers. I received a writing award from the Kentucky Press Association early in my career.

Recognition: I am humbled and encouraged to be nominated many times by senior NKU students for impacting their academic and personal development. Also, I was pleased to be named a Presidential Ambassador Spark Honoree.

Classroom Pedagogy: I have a student-centered teaching philosophy focused on collaboration. I believe that students learn from their peers and that I learn from my interactions with students. I facilitate this connection in the classroom through peer revision, group projects, and the freedom of students to choose their topics. In addition, I want my students to recognize how important good writing is in all their disciplines and have the necessary research skills to be successful in writing in their careers. UCLA Graduate School of Education professor and author of Lives on the Boundary, Mike Rose, dramatically influenced my teaching. “Teaching is really about collaborating with someone on their development,” Rose said in a podcast in 2019.

Lindsey Caldwell Thomas

GH 422
859-572-5413
caldwelll@nku.edu

Education: English (Composition and Rhetoric); Professional Certificate in Composition and Rhetoric (2011), Northern Kentucky University; BA (2002) English, Northern Kentucky University

Teaching/Research Interests: Composition and Rhetoric Theory and Pedagogy; Rhetorical Theory and Pedagogy; Writing in Preparation for the Workplace; Writing in the Workplace; Collaborative Learning

What I Do:  My main (and favorite!) area of focus is helping freshmen students to attain the writing skills they need to be successful throughout their college careers and beyond.  I lead a student-centered classroom and love watching students work collaboratively to improve writing skills and lead classroom discussions. Beyond freshmen writing, I work with students to improve their critical reading and research skills.

What I Like:  My favorite part of teaching is watching students grasp lessons as well as observing the progress they make as writers. Engaging and challenging students in classroom discussions are some of the ways in which I do this. It’s often during these discussions when students (and I) learn best. I love to learn, so teaching in the world of higher education helps satisfy that thirst for knowledge.

Beyond my career, I am married and have three beautiful children, all of whom are in different age groups.  This year my oldest is in college, my middle child is in middle school, and my youngest is in elementary school, which makes for a challenging but fun schedule. I enjoy spending time with my family, reading, and exploring places I have never been to before. 

Dr. Jonathan S. Cullick

GH 510
859-572-5280
cullickj@nku.edu

Education: PhD, English (1997), University of Kentucky; MA, English (1990), Marquette University; BA, English–Secondary Education (1986), University of Houston.

Teaching and Research Interests: Composition Theory and Pedagogy; English Education; American Literature and Literature of the American South; Bible as Literature.

Awards:

2019 KCTE College Teacher of the Year

Publications:

Writing in the Disciplines: Advice and Models. With Tom Jehn and Jane Rosenzweig. Textbook Supplement. 2nd edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, Forthcoming 2010.

Religion in the Twenty-First Century: A Longman Topics Reader. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009.

Making History: The Biographical Narratives of Robert Penn Warren. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2000.

Articles on William Faulkner, Walker Percy, Robert Penn Warren, and other Southern & American writers and topics have appeared in Southern Quarterly; Studies in Popular Culture; Mississippi Quarterly; Studies in American Fiction; Border States: Journal of the Kentucky-Tennessee American Studies Association; Southern Literary Journal; American Literary Realism; Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism; American Notes and Queries; Filson Quarterly; Kentucky Historical Society Register; Journal of Southern History; Cyclopedia of World Authors, Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper, and the Modern Language Association series on National Public Radio What's the Word.

Dr. Donelle Dreese

GH 442
859-572-6148
dreesed1@nku.edu

Education: PhD (1999), MA (1995), English, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; BA, Music Composition and Voice (1992), Susquehanna University.

Teaching and Research Interests: Environmental Literature, Multicultural Literature, Young Adult Literature, Ecocriticism, Flash Fiction, and Poetry.

Statement: "Literature is one of the few kinds of writing in the world that does not tell you what to buy, want, see, be, or believe.  It's more like a conversation, raising new questions and moving you to answer them for yourself." ~Barbara Kingsolver

Publications:

Sophrosyne.  Hemet, CA:  Aldrich Press, 2015.

Deep River Burning.  Salt Lake: WiDo Publishing, 2014.

America's Natural Places: East and Northeast.  Greenwood Press, 2010.

Looking for a Sunday Afternoon.  Columbus: Pudding House Publications, 2010.

A Wild Turn.  Georgetown, KY:  Finishing Line Press, 2008.

Ecocriticism: Creating Self and Place in Environmental and American Indian Literatures. New York: Peter Lang, 2002.

Poetry and Fiction published in literary journals including ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment; Blue Lyra Review; Conclave: A Journal of Character; Louisville Review; Journal of Microliterature; Quiddity International; Diverse Voices Quarterly; Gadfly; and Appalachian Heritage.

Articles in The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy; Interdisciplinary Literary Studies; Studies in American Indian Literatures; Making Connections: A Journal for Teachers of Culturally Diverse Literatures.

Dr. Steven J. Gores

GH 526
859-572-5511
gores@nku.edu
Website

Education: PhD (1991), MA (1986), English; BS (1985), French and English, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Teaching and Research Interests: Eighteenth-century Drama and Novel; Visual Arts and Literature; Critical Theory.

Statement: Works in progress include various articles and projects related to the eighteenth-century British writer Sophia Lee and her circle.

Publications: 
Psychological Spaces: Verbal/Visual Readings of British Culture, 1750-1820. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2000.

Articles in Selected Papers from Nimbus 2003: A Harry Potter Symposium; Encyclopedia of British Women Writers; Studies in English Literature; Yearbook of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Fine Arts.

Dr. Barclay Green

GH 525
859-572-1522
greenba@nku.edu

Education: PhD (2000), MA (1995), English, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; BA magna cum laude, Philosophy (1990), Washington College.

Teaching and Research Interests: Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century British Literature; Shakespeare; Critical Theory.

Publications:
Book Article in "A Defence of Ryme." Renaissance Historicisms. Newark, DE: U of Delaware P.

Article in Tudor England: An Encyclopedia; Kritikon Litterarum

Article entitled "Quantitative Verse, Bookselling, and Thomas Campion’s Observations in the Art of English Poesie" in The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 61.1 (2007): 11-34.

Dr. Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman

GH 512
859-572-5484
hindmanj1@nku.edu

Website

Education:  PhD (2013), English, University of North Texas; MFA (2009), Creative Nonfiction Writing, Columbia University; BA (2003), Middle Eastern Studies, Creative Writing, Columbia University.

Teaching & Research Interests:  Creative Nonfiction Writing, Memoir, Personal Essay, Narrative Medicine

Dr. Parmita Kapadia

GH 434
859-572-5656
kapadiap@nku.edu

Education: PhD (1997), MA (1993), English, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; BA (1989), English and Economics, Rutgers University.

Teaching and Research Interests: Post-Colonial Literatures; Asian-American Literature; Indian-English Literature; Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature; Nineteenth-Century British Fiction; Contemporary Drama; Composition

Publications: Articles in South Asian Review; The UpStart Crow: A Shakespeare Journal; Tudor England: An Encyclopedia.

Dr. Tonya Krouse

GH 506
859-572-1524
krouset@nku.edu

Education: PhD (2004), English and American Literature, Brandeis University; MA (1997), English, University of Illinois-Chicago; BA cum laude (1996), English, Kent State University.

Teaching and Research Interests: British and Anglophone Literature after 1900; Periodization and the Canon; Critical Theory; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Authors including D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf,            James Joyce, Doris Lessing, Zadie Smith, and Jonathan Franzen.

Statement: Works in progress include two book projects:  Deviant Domesticities and Female Creativity: Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, and    Zadie Smith; and an as yet untitled comparative investigation of the major works of D.H. Lawrence and Jonathan Franzen.

Publications:
The Opposite of Desire: Sex and Pleasure in the Modernist Novel.  Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.

Articles in Journal of Modern Literature, Doris Lessing Studies and The Virginia Woolf Miscellany.

Book chapters in The Golden Notebook after Fifty; Doris Lessing: Interrogating the Times; Analyzing Mad Men: Critical Essays on the Television Series; Launching Fanny Hill: Essays on the Novel and Its Influence; Virginia Woolf and Her Influences.

Ms. Kelly Ritter (MFA)

GH 523
859-572-1353
moffettk1@nku.edu
Website

Education: MFA (2004), MA  (2001), West Virginia University

Teaching and Research Interests: Poetry and Creative Writing

Publications:

Poetry Collections:

Dog Year (forthcoming from Salmon Poetry), Just After (chapbook forthcoming from Angels Flight Books), Bird Blind (Tebot Bach), A Thousand Wings (Salmon Poetry), Waiting for a Warm Body to Fill It (Cinnamon Press), Ghost Act (dancing girl press)

Included in Three Anthologies:

New Writing: An Anthology of Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Drama; The Giant Book of Poetry; and Even the Daybreak: 35 Years of Salmon Poetry

Sample of Awards:

Fulbright Scholar Award for 2019-2020 to Romania, Five Grant Awards from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, NKU Outstanding Junior Faculty Member Award, Teacher of the Year Award from Sigma Tau Delta, Pushcart Nominations, Teacher of the Year Award at Kentucky Wesleyan College

Journals:

Poems published in many journals, including but not limited to Rattle, Colorado Review, Laurel Review, Barrelhouse Magazine, MidAmerican Review, Cutbank, Cincinnati Review, Louisville Review, Prism Review, Tar River Poetry, Hubbub, Versal, Envoi, Reconfigurations, New Writing: The International Journal for the Theory and Practice of Creative Writing, Review Americana, Phoebe.

Dr. James O'Bannon

GH 524
obannonj1@nku.edu

Dr. Tamara O'Callaghan

GH 535
859-572-6977
ocallaghant@nku.edu
Website

Education: PhD Medieval Studies (1995), MA English (1988), BA (Hons.) English (1986), University of Toronto.

Teaching Interests: Medieval literature, including courses on Geoffrey Chaucer, Arthurian legend, Middle English literature, and Old English and Old Norse literature; history of the English language; introductory linguistics; graphic novel; critical theory; introduction to English Studies; digital humanities; and interdisciplinary approaches to the humanities and technology.

Research Interests: Middle English, Medieval French, and Medieval Latin literature of England and Northern France, most notably the works of John Gower and Benoît de Sainte-Maure; depictions of science in medieval texts; medieval manuscript studies; XR (extended reality) applications in the humanities; book technology and the reading brain.

Statement: My current research focuses on medieval manuscript design and reading practices as well as on AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) texts and narratives. I am the co-director of The Augmented Palimpsest Project, a digital humanities tool that explores how the medium of AR can be used in teaching medieval literature. This project has been funded by an NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant (2014-2016).

Publications: Textbook: Krouse, Tonya, and Tamara F. O’Callaghan. Introducing English Studies. Bloomsbury, 2020.Selected articles and book chapters: O’Callaghan, Tamara F., and Andrea R. Harbin. “Truly Immersive Worlds? The Pedagogical Implications of Extended Reality.” The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, Special Issue on The Potential of Extended Reality (XR): Teaching & Learning in Virtual Spaces, Issue 17, 2020.O’Callaghan, Tamara F. “Exploring the History of a Word/Phrase.” Teaching the History of the English Language. Eds. Chris Palmer and Colette Moore. MLA Publications, 2019. 334-36.Harbin, Andrea R., and Tamara F. O’Callaghan. “Augmenting Chaucer: Augmented Reality and Medieval Texts.” Digital Medieval Literature and Culture (Routledge Literature Handbook series). Eds. Jen Boyle and Helen J. Burgess. Routledge, 2017. 63-81.Harbin, Andrea R., and Tamara F. O’Callaghan. “Text and the Sensorium: The Augmented Palimpsest as an Augmented Reality Text.” The Digital Arts and Humanities. Eds. Charles Travis and Alexander von Lünen. Berlin: Springer Publishing LLC, 2016. 169-86.O’Callaghan, Tamara F. "The 15 Stars, Stones and Herbs: Book VII of the Confessio Amantis and its Afterlife.” John Gower Trilingual Poet: Language, Translation and Tradition. Ed. Elisabeth Dutton, John Hines, and R.F. Yeager. Oxford: D.S. Brewer, 2010. 139-56.

Dr. Rachel Robinson-Zetzer, Writing Instruction Program Director

GH 504A
robinsonzr1@nku.edu

GH 529
859-572-5513
wallacer@nku.edu

Education: PhD (1972), MA (1967), English, Columbia University; BA (1966), English, Whitman College.

Teaching and Research Interests: Melville and the Arts, Dickinson and James, Douglass and Melville, Exploring the Arts, Women’s Basketball.

Statement: Works in progress include Herman Melville's Print Collection Reconstructed: An Illustrated Catalog. Curator of numerous exhibitions, catalogs, and catalog essays. Editorial Board member: Leviathan. Founding member: Melville Society Cultural Project, New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Publications:
Douglass and Melville: Anchored Together in Neighborly Style. New Bedford, MA: Spinner Publications, 2005.

Frank Stella's Moby-Dick: Words and Shapes. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2001.

Melville and Turner: Spheres of Love and Fright. Athens, GA: U of Georgia P, 1992.

Emily Bronte and Beethoven: Romantic Equilibrium in Fiction and Music. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1986.

Jane Austen and Mozart: Classical Equilibrium in Fiction and Music. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1983.

A Century of Music-Making: The Lives of Josef and Rosina Lhevinne. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1976.

Articles in New Art Examiner; The Print Collector's Newsletter; Art Press; Melville Society Extracts; Turner Studies; Nineteenth-Century Contexts; Sky-Hawk; Mediterranean Perspectives; South Atlantic Review; Essays in Arts and Sciences; Melville Society Extracts; Harvard Library Bulletin; Leviathan; Freedom Studies Chronicle; American Literature; Journal of the Early Republic; Piano Quarterly; Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology (with Joan Ferrante); Essay Exchange; Ars Lyrica; Interdisciplinary Humanities; Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin; American Scholar; English Studies; Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism; Clavier; Bronte Society Transactions; Blackwood's Magazine.

Book Articles in Aspects of Melville: Creative Responses to Herman Melville's Writing; Savage Eye: Melville and the Visual Arts; Oxford Companion to J. M. W. Turner; Blackwell Companion to Herman Melville; The Flood-Gates of the Wonder-World: A Moby-Dick Pictorial; Unpainted to the Last: Essays on Moby-Dick; Approaches to Teaching Moby-Dick; Teaching Literature and the Other Arts; literature and Music: Essays on Form; Yearbook of General and Comparative Literature.

Dr. Gary Walton

GH 457
859-572-5418
waltong@nku.edu
Website

Education: PhD (1991), MPh (1985), English, The George Washington University; MFA (1982), University of South Dakota; BA (1981), English, Northern Kentucky University.

Teaching and Research Interests: Modern and post-modern fiction; creative writing.

Statement: Works in progress include a novel.

Publications: 
Articles in Encyclopedia of American Poetry; The Journal of Kentucky Studies.

Book chapters in Critical Survey of Long Fiction; Issues and Identities in Literature; Kentucky Philological Review; Arkansas Review.

Numerous works of fiction and poetry.

Dr. Christopher Wilkey

Director of Graduate Studies

GH 527
859-572-5111
wilkeyc@nku.edu

Education: PhD (2003), English (Composition & Rhetoric), Wayne State University; MA (1996) English, University of Dayton; BA (1993), English, Northern Arizona State University.

Teaching and Research Interests: Composition theory, community literacy, rhetorical theory, critical ethnography, cultural studies.

Statement: My primary contributions to the Rhetoric and Writing Studies Program in the Department of English center on exploring how writing might be used as a tool for cultural critique and advancing activist causes in the interest of social justice. Much of my teaching places front and center the ways in which academic and public writing intersect with the work of community activism and social justice movements more generally. In particular, I set out to co-design community-based writing opportunities and activist research projects alongside neighborhood people and workers invested in the work of social justice. My community engagement work is done in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, where I partner with a number of Over-the-Rhine community organizations on projects related to literacy education and rhetoric. I am co-founder of the Over-the-Rhine Community Writing Collaborative, a partnership between Peaslee Neighborhood Center in Over-the-Rhine and NKU’s Department of English. While housed at Peaslee, the Collaborative promotes writing activities that honor and celebrate the voices of Over-the-Rhine residents and workers that have often been denied a space in public discourse and policy-making.

Publications: My community-based scholarship includes articles in Reflections: A Journal of Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing, and Service Learning and Literacy in Composition Studies. I am co-editor of a collection of essays, Texts of Consequence: Composing Social Activism for the Classroom and Community by Hampton Press.

Dr. Natalie Williams

GH 461
859-572-6548
williamsn10@nku.edu

Dr. Kristine Yohe

GH 508
859-572-5509
yohe@nku.edu

Kristine Yohe is a professor of English at Northern Kentucky University, where she has taught since 1997 and where her teaching and scholarship focus on Black American literature, especially Toni Morrison, Frank X Walker, and the Affrilachian Poets collective. She received her BA in English from Emory University and her MA and PhD, specializing in African American literature, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2005, she served as director for the Toni Morrison Society Fourth Biennial Conference, held in greater Cincinnati and at NKU, in conjunction with Morrison’s Margaret Garner opera. Kris is currently serving as a board member for the Toni Morrison Society and for the Harriet Beecher Stowe House.

Her publications include essays on history in Morrison’s Beloved, as well as chapters in two books about Margaret Garner. Her article about Walker’s Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers was published in Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters in Fall 2024. Kris’s book, Reckoning with the Past: The Historical Poetry of Frank X Walker, was published by the University Press of Kentucky in January 2026. In addition, she is coediting, with Zanice Bond of Tuskegee University, the forthcoming book Teaching Affrilachia: Cultivating Community and Culture, also with the University Press of Kentucky.