Profile

I am a professor of English, Disability Studies, and Comics Studies at the University of Oregon and the artistic director of Perfect Circle Theater, which brings together college students with community members with intellectual and developmental disabilities to hear each other’s stories and turn those stories into plays. I am the author of the Choice-award winning book HandiLand: The Crippest Place on Earth (University of Michigan Press, 2019). I received the 2023 UO Faculty Excellence in Universal Design Award and the 2018 LILAC Award from the Lane Independent Living Alliance for my disability advocacy. As the creator and founding director of the University of Oregon Disability Studies Minor, I designed its degree curriculum and several core classes. 

My research focuses on the entrance of people with disabilities into public space as represented in comics, popular literature, and civic discourse. I focus on the interactions of race, class, gender and nationality with disability. My future research projects will expand my reach as a public intellectual. For instance, my next book will be a history in comics form of ableism and anti-ableism in the United States for children and young adults, with the goal of sharing disability studies knowledge with K-12 students and readers. 

Community-building sits at the heart of my work. My community-based education initiatives include not only Perfect Circle Theater but also teaching for the Inside Out Prison Education Program, directing the Disability Studies Minor Fieldwork Program, and founding and directing the UO Literacy Initiative. I have built partnerships with disability community organizations like Mobility International USA, MindFreedom International, Lane Independent Living Alliance, DanceAbility International, OSLP Arts and Culture, and Hilyard Adaptive Recreation. 

My classroom teaching asks students to enact their knowledge not only through conventional college essays and discussion but also through roleplaying, drawing comics, memoir, and activism. In universal design in learning, I aim to create spaces that welcome people before they get there while remaining flexible and making changes in the face of unanticipated needs. 

Classes I teach: 

• English 205: Fantasy 
• English 240: Introduction to Disability Studies
• English 386: Bodies in Comics 
• English 410: Perfect Circle Theater 
• English 660: Race and Disability in American Literature and Cultur