A seasoned educator and a lifelong learner, Dr. Lawrence brings passion, curiosity, and profound care to every aspect of her work as a teacher and writer. For over thirty years, she has guided her students through the joys and challenges of reading and writing–from the middle schooler struggling to master fundamentals, to the undergraduate crafting his senior thesis, to the retiree tackling Tolstoy for the first time.

Founder of C&Q, Dr. Lawrence earned a BA in Comparative Literature, with a minor in Theater and Dance, from Princeton University, where she won the F. LeMoyne Page Thesis Award for her work on Stendhal and Goethe. After her first post-collegiate job teaching dance and choreography in Europe and Africa, she obtained her PhD in French Literature from New York University, where she defended her dissertation on medieval narrative with honors. 

Dr. Lawrence is the recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award from the University of Chicago, the Outstanding Teacher Award from NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences, and the President’s Service Award from NYU. 

She has taught at Barnard College, Columbia University (English Department); the City University of New York (Department of World Languages and Literature); and New York University (French Department, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program). She has been a Visiting Scholar at both the Ecole Normale Supérieure in France and at New York University.

She taught in both the English and History Departments of Trinity School in New York City for eleven years, culminating in her service as the Head of the English Department (grades 5-12). At Trinity, Dr. Lawrence taught European and global history (grades 9 and 10), and all levels of Upper-School English (grades 9-12). She created several signature seminars, including those dedicated to Personal Narrative, The Arabian Nights, Literature and Revolution (Russia, Cuba, Vietnam), and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (the iconic course that she taught eight years straight). Between semesters, she co-created and co-taught the popular off-campus winter-term course Art World New York: Behind the Scenes. 

Dr. Lawrence has advised countless students on their college applications and has led seminars on the Common Application essay for Trinity’s College Counseling Office. At Trinity, she served in various capacities as faculty mentor to students (including student graduation and chapel speakers), new teachers, and new administrators. She advised student clubs (including Trinity’s student fashion magazine), affinity groups, and service groups. Dr. Lawrence sat on numerous educational committees, including the most recent search committees for Assistant Head of School and for Director of College Counseling, and worked as an interviewer for Trinity’s Office of Admissions (grades 5-12). 

Dr. Lawrence has published two academic books: Recognition: The Poetics of Narrative: Interdisciplinary Studies on Anagnorisis (editor with Philip F. Kennedy, 2009, New York, Peter Lang) and Performing Medieval Narrative (editor with Evelyn Birge Vitz and Nancy Freeman Regalado, 2005, Cambridge, D.S. Brewer).

In addition, she has published a pedagogical journal issue (The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages) and numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and book reviews. At NYU, Dr Lawrence co-founded and co-directed two pedagogical websites devoted to the performance of medieval narrative. She has presented dozens of scholarly papers in the USA and in Europe. She has worked as an outside reader and peer reviewer for American and European academic presses. In addition, she has published as a freelance arts critic (Village Voice, Dance Magazine, Movement Research Performance Journal).

Dr. Lawrence is an avid language learner (French and Old French, German, Latin, Spanish, Russian, and most recently Arabic) and art lover (having sat over a decade on the Advisory Council for the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University). 

For over two decades, she served as a volunteer firefighter in Suffolk County, New York, including three years as Lieutenant, three years as Training Officer for new recruits, and five years as Assistant Chief (the first female chief in the history of her department). 

The mother of three children–two in college and one recent college graduate–she brings to her work the understanding, experience, and empathy of a veteran parent.

Based in SoHo, New York City, and on the North Fork of Long Island, Dr. Lawrence is currently writing her first novel.

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