April D. Best

Environmental Humanities & Poetry Scholar and Phd student in English

Scholar, researcher, writer

Poetry and the environment

April D. Best Is a PhD student in the Department of English at Michigan State University. She Is working towards a certificate In Global Studies and Women and Gender Studies. She currently co-coordinates the Intersectional Environmental Feminisms Research Workshop and is on the Association of English Graduate Students board.


She received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelors of Education from York University in Toronto, Ontario where she majored in English and and minored in French. Her master’s degree in literature is from Grand Valley State University where she wrote her thesis on the role of the river in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones.


Teaching experience

Fall 2023 - IAH 207

Gothic Literature

Graduate Teaching Assistant | Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Arch

Spring 2023 - IAH 202

Europe and the World

Graduate Teaching Assistant | Supervisor: Dr. Salah Hassan

Fall 2022 - IAH 207

Afrofuturism

Graduate Teaching Assistant | Supervisor: Dr. Julian Chambliss

2020-2021 - ENG 113

Expository Writing

Instructor of Record

2010-2011 - ELA

Eighth grade English Language Arts

Instructor of Record

2009-2010 - French

High school

Instructor of Record

Research

The impact of palm oil on the environment

A project born out of a COIL collaboration with students in Indonesia researching the environmental impact of palm oil harvesting and farming.

Representations of the environment in poetry

This work remains in seed form through the formation of comprehensive exams reading list.


River as border in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones



A thesis investigating the role of the river as a space of geographical. linguistic, social, and experiential demarcation.


Papers and publications

Mutating Modes of the “Human” in W. E. B. DuBois’s “The Comet”

Presented at the Modernist Studies Association Conference in Brooklyn, New York

October 2023

Race and Mobility in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Presented at the Michigan College English Association Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan

October 2013

“The Veil of Water: The River in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones”

Presented at the Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language, and Media in DeKalb, Illinois

March 2012

“Mr. Guizac: Savior and Judge in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘The Displaced Person’”

Presented at Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature in Grand Rapids, Michigan

March 2012

Curriculum Vitae


EDUCATION

2013 - Grand Valley State University Master of Arts in English

2009 - York University Bachelor of Arts, English & French Bachelor of Education


AWARDS

Fall 2022 - Global Studies Graduate Student Recruitment Fellowship

Spring 2013 - Most Outstanding Student Award

Spring 2013 - Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award Nominee, Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools


FELLOWSHIPS AND FUNDING

Summer 2023 - College of Arts and Letters Summer Support Fellowship

Spring 2023 - COLA Fellowship

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Best, April D. “Mutating Modes of the ‘Human’ in W. E. B. DuBois’s ‘The Comet’.” Modernist Studies Association Conference, Brooklyn, 2023.


Best, April D. “Race and Mobility in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Michigan College English Association Conference, Grand Valley State University, 2013.


Best, April D. “Mr. Guizac: Savior and Judge in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘The Displaced Person’.” Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, Calvin University, 2013.


Best, April D. “The Veil of Water: The River in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones.” Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language, and Media, Northern Illinois University, 2012.


EMPLOYMENT

August 2022 – Present: Michigan State University

Graduate Teaching Assistant


August 2020 – December 2021: Hope College

Adjunct Professor


June 2013 – February 2020: Freelance

Content Writer, Editor


September 2011 – May 2013: GVSU, English Department

Assistant Editor, Graduate Assistant


September 2009 – August 2011: Grand Rapids Public Schools

High School French Teacher, 8th Grade ELA Teacher






April D. Best

Wells Hall

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

bestapri@msu.edu