Education ­­­­­

University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
PhD, English, May 2020
Dissertation: Literary Movement: Dance and Cultural Embodiment in African American Literature

Weber State University, Ogden, UT
MA, English, April 2016
Thesis: Re-Creating the Mother of the Blues: Musical Presence in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
BA, English, Editing Minor, Honors, December 2013

Publications and Exhibitions

Book Chapters

“Reconciling Machismo, Homosexuality, and Rape in Junot Diaz’s ‘Drown.’” Sing, Goddess: Essays on World Literature. Ed. Jarret Keene. W.W. Norton & Co, 2019.

“Preventing Invasion: Stopping the Spread of Quagga Mussels to Bear Lake.” Global Perspectives on Eco-Aesthetics and Eco-Ethics: A Green Critique. Ed. Krishanu Maiti and Soumyadeep Chakraborty. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

Museum Exhibit

Soundscapes: Exploring Anthropophony. Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Las Vegas. 12 Oct – 15 Dec 2018.

Magazine Articles

“Disappearing Beauty: A Glimpse into Earthwork History.” Insight: BYU Honors Magazine, 2013-2014, pp. 14-7. https://issuu.com/c.juneadams/docs/disappearing_beauty/2.

“Ascend into the Alpine.” Stowaway Magazine, Fall 2013, pp. 85. https://issuu.com/byu.zines/docs/webfinalissuu1/4.

Online Publications

“SO! Amplifies: The Blues and Jazz Dance Book Club.” Sounding Out!, 27 May 2019, https://soundstudiesblog.com/2019/05/27/so-amplifies-the-blues-and-jazz-dance-book-club/.

“Blues and Jazz Research for Beginners.” The Blues and Jazz Dance Book Club, 19 Mar 2019, https://bluesjazzbookclub.com/2019/03/19/blues-and-jazz-research-for-beginners/.

“Ogden Utah’s King of Jazz: Joe McQueen.” The Blues and Jazz Dance Book Club, 21 Nov 2017. https://bluesjazzbookclub.com/2017/11/21/ogden-utahs-king-of-jazz-joe-mcqueen/.

“Simple, Dangerous Acts: How Jim Crow Creates Dramatic Tension in Fences.” August Wilson Society Fences Study Guide, June 2017, http://library.howard.edu/ld.php?content_id=33057855.

“’Star Trek’ and the Evolution of ‘The Kiss’ Controversy.” PopMatters, 3 Nov 2016, https://www.popmatters.com/star-trek-and-the-evolution-of-the-kiss-controversy-2495414713.html.

Book Reviews

“Listening to Label: Analyzing the Problematic Function of Origins in Historical Recording.” Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies vol. 18, no. 1, 2018, pp. 71-4. https://doi.org/10.17077/2168-569X.1515.

“Joshua Raulerson, Singularities.” Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, vol. 44.2, no. 121, 2015, pp. 92-3.

Academic Conferences and Talks

Ma Rainey Watch-n-Learn. Northwestern University Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling. 25 Feb 2021.

“Invisible Dancing: Nonverbal Messages in Invisible Man.” Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference 2020, January 2020.

“Combating Imperialism: Contextualizing J.J. Thomas and Froudacity.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) Conference 91, November 2019.

“Exploring Blues Idioms.” Deep Blue Sydney A Blues Workshop Organization, January 2019, Sydney, Australia.

“From Cakewalk to Second Line: Contextualizing Helene and Shadrack through Dance in Sula.” Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) Conference 32, May 2018, Las Vegas, NV.

“Blues and Politics.” bluesSHOUT! A Blues History and Culture Event, April 2018, Chicago, IL.

“Recuérdame: Positive Cultural Representation in Disney Pixar’s Coco.” Far West Popular Culture Association Conference 30, February 2018, Las Vegas, NV.

“August Wilson and the Blues.” Ujimia Blues Foundation, February 2018, Nashville, TN.

“Managing White Guilt: Minstrelsy, Music, and James Agee.” SAMLA 89, November 2017, Atlanta, GA.

“Musical Muse: Learning from Blues Legend B.B. King.” Blues Muse A Blues Cultural Event, October 2017, Philadelphia, PA.

“Blues as Protest Music and its Legacy.” bluesSHOUT! A Blues History and Culture Event, April 2017, Chicago, IL.

“The Evolution of ‘the Kiss’ Controversy: From ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’ to J.J. Abrams.” Far West Popular Culture Association Conference 29, February 2017, Las Vegas, NV.

“Re-Creating the Mother of the Blues: Musical Presence in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” An August Occasion: A National Conference on the Life and Legacy of August Wilson, Oct 2016, Washington DC.

“’You ain’t nothing if you don’t maintain an image’: Voodoo in Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad.” International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) 37, Mar 2016, Orlando, FL.

“Black and White Blues: the Othering of Blues Music through Romantic Racialism.” MELUS Conference 30, Mar 2016, Charleston, SC.

“Fighting a Constitutional Ideology ‘as simple as black and white’: Atticus and the Court.” Southwest English Symposium, Feb 2016, Tempe, AZ.

“Jook Joints and the Devil’s Music: Blues Inflence in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.” SAMLA 87, Nov 2015, Durham, NC.

“Perfect Timing: Apollo’s Justice through Time in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.” Wooden O. Symposium, August 2015, Cedar City, UT.

“Lipwig vs. Bent: Reenacting the Keynes–Hayek Debate in Terry Pratchett’s Making Money.” ICFA 36, Mar 2015, Orlando, FL.

Teaching Experience

2016 – 2020     Graduate Assistant, University of Nevada Las Vegas

Courses Taught, Instructor of Record:
ENG 101: First Year Composition
ENG 102: First Year Composition
ENG 231: World Literature
ENG 451A: American Literature Survey 1

Lecture Courses Co-Taught:
ENG 451A: American Literature Survey 1

2014 – 2016     Graduate Assistant, Weber State University

Courses Taught, Instructor of Record:
ENG 1010: First Year Composition
ENG 2010: First Year Composition

Professional Service and Experience

2021 – Present Client Services Associate, Stratos Wealth Partners

2020-2021 Graduate Admissions Counselor, utah State University

I oversaw the application process from application submission to registration setup. I was the first point of contact between applicants and the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) and mediated communications between SGS applicants and all graduate programs and graduate program coordinators (GPCs) at the university. Working in Recruit, the application system for all USU applications, I processed all new applications, making sure supplementary information is complete and provided to GPCs; upon the graduate committee making a decision on applications, the Graduate Admissions Counselor processes the decisions and sends out decision letters. In addition, I helped maintain and update Recruit by working with the Recruit IT team to complete improvement projects and update systems. Included in these duties was the training of new GPCs in how to use Recruit and giving them the necessary Recruit permissions. Regarding registration, I updated resident status, priority on graduate registration, admission terms including processing deferrals, and student status (e.g. active or withdrawn) for students who had not yet registered for their first semester of school.

2014 – 2020 Administrator, The Blues and Jazz Dance Book Club

As creator and primary organizer, I built this online open-access project, which features reading lists for blues and jazz history, music, and dance; quarterly feature articles offering new scholarship and community spotlights; bi-annual online lectures with scholars and musicians; and a yearly scholarship to help communities learn about black music and dance history. The project is now international, with 735 members and over 3000 yearly hits on the website.

Organized Online Lectures:
Dr. Patrick Maley, “August Wilson and the Blues”
Dr. Jessica Teague, “Jazz Poetry”
Dr. Jennifer Lynn Stoever, “The Sonic Color Line”
Tad Walters, “Delta Blues”
Dr. Fenella Kennedy, “Jazz Dance”
Dr. Kimberly Mack, “Fictional Blues: Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White”

2018 – 2020 Assistant to the Graduate Coordinator, UNLV

In this position, I managed and compiled admissions documents through Salesforce, managed graduate student department communications, created a language test reading sample database project for students and  professors to access, codified social media protocols, and created and ran professional development events for the graduate program.

2019 Co-Organizer, August Wilson Society Colloquium

2018 Volunteer, MELUS Conference 32

2013 – 2015 Production Assistant, Skyline Ventures Productions; SLC, UT

Documentary:
3000 Cups of Tea (dir. Jennifer Jordan)

2012 – 2017     Submissions Reader, Covenant Communications, Inc

2014 – 2015     Associate Editor, Jolly Fish Press

Books Edited:
New Sight by Joe Schneider
Fires of Man (Psionic Earth, #1) by Dan Levinson

2013 Co-Editor, Insight: BYU Honors Magazine

2013 Copyeditor, Stowaway Magazine

2013 Instagram Manager, Stowaway Magazine

2012 – 2013 Submissions Team, BYU Women’s Studies Journal

2012 – 2013 Copyeditor, BYU Women’s Studies Journal

Awards and Grants

2019    English Department Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, UNLV
2019    Southwest Travel Grant Award
2019    Graduate and Professional Student Association Grant, UNLV
2018    English Department Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award Honorable Mention, UNLV
2017    Travel Grant, University of Nevada Las Vegas English Department
2016    Travel Grant, University of Nevada Las Vegas English Department
2016    Director’s Award, Weber State University
2015    Travel Grant, Weber State University English Department
2015    Travel Grant, Weber State University
2014    Travel Grant, Weber State University English Department
2014    Travel Grant, Weber State University
2013    Travel Grant, Brigham Young University Honors Program

Affiliations

MLA
SAMLA
MELUS
August Wilson Society