Analyzing cultural documents from antebellum newspaper articles and medical texts to contemporary cancer blogs and zombie films, her classes challenge students to interrogate the cultural constructions of health, illness, and disability. In courses like Going Viral: Epidemics in American History, Literature, and Culture, Professor Waples integrates historical, literary-analytical, and sociological methods to explore the ways in which epidemic disease events have shaped American ideas of citizenship and social belonging. A dark humor enthusiast, she also loves to teach first-year writing in classes like Apocalyptic Comedy.