Education

Ph.D. in English, University of Alberta, 2006-2011. Dissertation: Not India: In Which Alejo Carpentier and Zora Neale Hurston Finally Discover America. Supervisor: Michael O’Driscoll. External examiners: Richard Young and Timothy Brennan (University of Minnesota).

M.A. in English, Humboldt State University, 2006. MA Thesis: Forgive Me for Staining this Sacred Land with My Blood: Nikkei Writing from the United States, Canada, and Peru. Supervisor: Barbara Brinson Curiel.

B.A. cum laude in English, Humboldt State University, 2003.

Certificate Program in Short Story Writing, La Escuela de Escritura, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain, Spring 2018

School of Criticism and Theory, Cornell University, Summer 2010. Seminars with Timothy Brennan, Katherine Hayles, Saidiya Hartmann, Michael Warner, Jonathan Culler, and Stanley Fish.

Literature Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2001-2002.

Gamelan Studies with Made Puja and Ketut Koyok in Gunung Petulu, Bali, Indonesia, 1992.

Performing-Artist-in-the-Schools Certification, Teachers College. Columbia University, 1986.

Private music studies with Americole Biasini, Fred Braverman, Jerome Callet, Vince Penzarella, Eph Resnick, Roy Stevens, and Bobby Woodlen.