Research Statement

My research interests are five-fold: 1) modernist literature and children’s literature; 2) creative writing and creative writing pedagogy; 3) graphic narratives and visual literacy; 4) media and communication; 5) rhetorical writing composition and research.

In my research and personal creative writing, I examine the representation of trauma. My Ph.D. dissertation investigates suicide and representation in narrative. I use Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze as theoretical frameworks, and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway for narrative comparison. I wrote the critical commentary in conjunction with my novel, Talitha Koum. When Talitha is ten, her Pa commits suicide, and she turns to the stars to make sense of the world. The novel’s themes intersect with the exploration of time/physics, family suicide and trauma, and the evolution of identity.

My creative work often intersects with other disciplines. For instance, my first novella, The Lives of Atoms, explores love at the quantum level. Using an understanding of physics, particularly the interaction of bosons and protons, I tell the journey of a couple as their lives develop together, first through dating, marriage, having a child, old age, and death. The novella was published by Nixes Mate in 2018 and was nominated for the Massachusetts Book Awards in 2018. My novel, Talitha Koum, returns to these scientific themes to examine depression and suicide within a family living in rural Pennsylvania. 

Furthermore, as a creative writer, I have merged my interests with my background in teaching writing composition (rhetoric) and research. I use creative techniques, such as journaling and writing reflections to teach students to become more self-aware of their writing abilities. The combination of these two approaches has steadily enhanced the depth and level of my teaching from semester to semester. I believe that the divide between writing composition and creative writing, and literary disciplines are beginning to erode and that the future of writing programs will depend on an instructor who can teach with a combined approach of rhetoric and creative writing. 

Finally, as a visual artist, I pair my creative writing with visual studies, such as graphic narratives and digital storytelling. My first digital publication, published in 2017, was “Mermaids of the Charles River” (vousenprie.com). The digital story explored the intersection of text and moving imagery in storytelling. Since then, I have delivered, and written papers for the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), and my forthcoming book (November 2023) on sexual violence against women and representation within graphic novels will intersect with my research background on the representation of trauma in narrative. Because of my background in visual communication, I teach my composition courses infused with visual literacy elements. I believe teaching students how to understand better visual information is necessary in this visually-saturated 21st-century world. 

I am a writer with an M.F.A., and with these five research interests — modernist literature and children’s literature; creative writing; graphic novels and visual literacy; media and communication; and composition — I will bring a broad range of interests to the department. I merge not only creative writing with writing composition, but I also straddle the line of interdisciplinary studies of graphic novels, which combines the study of art and literature.