Instructor of Record

Indigeneity across American Literary Cultures, ENGLISH 5SA, writing intensive Indigenous literature and American national culture survey course from the 17th century to the present    

Teaching Assistant

Perspectives on American Identity, AMSTUD 160, undergraduate seminar covering 19th-21st century American identity formations with Judy Richardson

Narrative and Narrative Theory, ENGLISH 161/ COMPLIT 161, undergraduate narrative theory introductory lecture with Ramón Saldívar

Introduction to Modern Literature 1850-Present, ENGLISH 12C, undergraduate lecture surveying 19th-21st century modern literary production with Mark McGurl

Introduction to American Literature and Culture to 1855, AMSTUD 150, undergraduate lecture surveying 17th to 19th century American literature with Judy Richardson

Undergraduate Advising

“On Short Story Character Minorness in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Fiction”  with Sara Simoni; Faculty Advisor: Gavin Jones

“The Scholarly Narrator in Sebald’s Austerlitz” with Feiyang Kuang; Faculty Advisors: Alex Woloch and Nancy Ruttenberg

  • Recipient of David M. Kennedy Prize, which “recognizes the single best honors thesis in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering & applied sciences at Stanford.”

“Notes on Black Privilege: Failure, Fantasy, & Performativity in Negroland with Ian Partman; Faculty Advisor: Michele Elam

“Growth Opportunity,” Interdisciplinary novel with Jared Klegar

“Flannery O’Connor’s Reception” with Peyton Hulsey; Faculty Advisor: Mark McGurl

Other Pedagogy and Mentorship

Graduate Advisor, Stanford English Department

Curriculum Committee, Stanford English Department

First-gen mentor, Stanford First-Gen Low-income Office

Yale and You First-gen Mentor, Yale Admissions Office

Course Writing Fellow, Yale Poorvu Writing Center  

ESL Writing Tutor, Yale Poorvu Writing Center

Undergraduate Writing Partner, Yale Poorvu Writing Center 

Interdisciplinary Program Instructor, Yale Young Global Scholars, I developed curriculum highlighting the utility of the humanities in responding to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. I taught 3 interdisciplinary seminars and breakout discussions with cumulative 200 high school students.

  • “James Baldwin and the (De)Formation of American Identity”
  • “Is that Racist?”
  • “Let’s Go Viral (and Make it Count!)”

Student Evaluation Samples

  • Lydia has been such a kind and devoted mentor, always going farther and beyond in supporting my work. This thesis no doubt would not have had its current form without the professionalism of her guidance throughout the year, which has been at once so measured, sensible, empathetic, and precise. It’s hard to overstate how invaluable Lydia’s generous support has been for a project whose scope and scale were entirely new to me, and how grounding her openness in sharing her experience and metaphors has been during the moments of confusion and turbulence. And Lydia is just as phenomenal as a section lead and lecturer. Any student would feel most fortunate to have her as mentor and an educator.

  • Lydia led workshops in class to help us improve our writing, and I have never had an instructor who gives as thorough feedback as she does. She not only provided a page-long summary of her feedback on every single essay I wrote, but she also provided line-by-line feedback. I wish all instructors took the time to give this amount of feedback!!

  • Lydia is organized, insightful and approachable all at the same time and also combines theory and readings super well! I loved the flow of the class and how it taught us about Indigenous literature very well.

  • I learned a lot about different early American authors from Lydia. She always had captivating insights and questions about the readings. I also learned a great deal about essay writing from her, especially how to ensure that your thesis and topic sentences make sense and connect.

  • Lydia is one of the best TAs I’ve had. She’s warm, personable, diligent, and sharp. She comes to every section highly prepared and facilitates our conversation in such a way that students are empowered to take space and engage with highly complex theoretical ideas, ideas that I would’ve been too intimidated to discuss in another setting. She’s highly responsive to feedback and caters each section to the needs of the students. She also brings ideas to section that I’m really excited to learn about––with Lydia, section is a space where I’m expanding and deepening my learning in new and exciting ways. I think any student would be lucky to work with Lydia.

  • Lydia puts a LOT of effort into how section is planned out every week, the additional context and information and her own interpretations of the readings in addition to the lecture were all very helpful; lydia also provides extremely detailed and useful writing advice; i also just love the way lydia thinks through our texts with very important frameworks of labor & race

  • Lydia is a fantastic TA! I sought out taking English 12C because of her. She is keen on ensuring that all of her students have the best experience possible in her section and in class more generally. I really appreciated her being so accommodating.

  • Lydia really helped me in my close reading with her walkthroughs in class. I really appreciated her sharing her thoughts out loud and kindly pushing back on ideas that were offered from the class but ultimately not founded in evidence. Class felt like a conversation, which helped me feel confident enough to say things I wasn’t sure of.

  • Lydia’s personal attention to all of our writing is something no professor or TA has ever matched in my experience at Stanford. I genuinely feel like I became a better writer in this class, and I’m using a lot of what she taught us in writing my thesis.

  • Approachability: Lydia spoke to us as respected peers and never employed a condescending power dynamic. She was obviously very interested in our thoughts and always gave genuine encouragement when we shared. Feedback: Lydia’s feedback was always honest and from a good place. Even when it was scrutinizing a point, she communicated it in a way that made it obvious she wanted me to grow and was very understandable. Class activities: Lydia asked us what activities we appreciated the most after a few weeks and took that feedback to tailor the rest of the course to focus on those. It made it so that I was never trying to avoid the work or did it begrudgingly. I am happy that I had a say in how I was learning.

  • Section was actually the only reason I was able to learn effectively from this class. Lydia is the best, most hard working TA I have had at Stanford. I always came to section knowing I would understand something I did not before.

  • I really grasped an appreciation for how theory can be more directly applied to helping advocate for a more inclusive reality. I’ve grappled a lot with trying to explain what Lydia put in very clear words. Lydia’s lesson’s clarity helped clear a few problems I’ve been grappling with in my brain about studying English itself.

  • detailed, helpful, actionable feedback — I can’t express how useful her feedback was in moving through this class willingness to ask questions (with us) of the material, to not settle for easy answers, to be inquisitive in the small more lecturelike parts of section, always taught clearly and with passion! always brought something interesting to the table for us to ponder!