She teaches comparative literature and art history at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Her area of expertise is English, French and Russian art and literature between 1850 and 1920. She is the author of the book, Zinaida Vengerova: In Search of Beauty. A Literary Ambassador between East and West (2004, 2006), which underwent two editions, and of the book Salome: The Image of a Woman Who Never Was (2013), of four books of poetry, the last is In the Garden of Luxembourg (Paris, 2015). She is an editor of number of books on Symbolism as well as the founder and the president of Art, Literature and Music in Symbolism and Decadence (ALMSD -- Research Center on Symbolism).