Kristina earned her BA studying history at the State University of New York, Buffalo before completing an MA in English at UTK where she is a Distinguished Lecturer. She has taught at UT for more than 20 years, covering nearly all 100- and 200-level courses, including most frequently Introduction to Drama and Honors Composition. Her courses have included several unique special topics: Modern Irish Fiction, Literature of the American West, Fiction and Film of the Vietnam War and, most recently, Drama of Revolution – plays about rebellion and resistance.

During that time Kristina has tutored in the Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center, as well as serving as Acting Director for several semesters. In addition to teaching, she has participated in English Department organizational work, such as the Lecturer’s, Composition, and Administrative Committees, overseeing the evaluation of GTAs, and coordinating honors and advanced composition courses.

Of particular interest in her teaching is helping students understand how works of art – such as fiction, film, and theater – provide unique insight into the past from ancient to recent so that so we can re-live moments in history while at the same time re-interpreting their meaning again and again. In this way we can also better understand our current moment in all its complexity and variety by hearing the many voices of authors from ancient Greece, to Renaissance Europe, to 20^th century Africa, to 21^st century America.