Q: What would the students be surprised to find out about you?

A: I used to do a bit of rock climbing, and my husband proposed to me on a mountain peak.  (And a bonus for history buffs: I’m descended from Anne Hutchinson.)

Q: What is one of your hidden talents?

A: I’m a super-taster; for example, I can taste bitterness where other people can’t, and once I correctly identified cumin as the secret ingredient in a cafe’s house chai blend.

Q: How do you spend your summer breaks?

A: I typically travel a bit with my family (the destination varies–this summer we went to the Delaware seashore, upstate New York, and Canada), and then I work on various household projects and some type of professional development.

Q: What would your last meal be? 

A: Eggplant Parmigiana from Oliverio’s Ristorante in Morgantown, WV with gelato for dessert.

Q: If you won the lottery and decided to give up teaching, what would you do instead? 

A: Continue researching and writing about 18th-century British literature, and travel with my family.

Q: What’s the best/worst thing about being a teacher?

A: Best: Reading my students’ amazing ideas.

    Worst: Actually grading papers.

Q: If you could take the students on a field trip to anywhere in the world, where would you take them and why?

A: England, so they could experience all the incredible places I visited when I studied there during my sophomore year of college.