She earned her Ph.D. in literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her book, African, Native, and Jewish American Literature and the Reshaping of Modernism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), focuses on intercultural constructions of modernity in early twentieth century novels by ethnic American writers. She has also published on Mourning Dove’s novel Cogewea (1927) and on Native American feminist criticism. Her research and teaching interests include multicultural literatures, diaspora and migration, and transcultural studies. At UM-Flint, she is also the Director of Women’s and Gender Studies and the co-founder of the Faculty Mentoring Program, a campus-wide initiative to retain UM-Flint faculty.