She teaches courses in American Literature, Gay and Lesbian Literatures, The South and Sexuality, and Literary Criticism. She's published essays and reviews reflecting her interdisciplinary expertise in literary criticism and gender and sexuality studies Study the South, Feminist Formations, and The Journal of Homosexuality. Dr. Cantrell has been awarded research grants at Cornell University, Duke University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She co-edited Out of the Closet, Into the Archives: Researching Sexual Histories (SUNY Press's Queer Politics and Cultures series, 2015), a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for LGBT Anthology.