About
I teach a wide range of courses at IU South Bend, from freshman writing and ESL to British Literature. My training and passion are for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British Literature in particular. I like to learn about the changing lifestyles, material environments, and modes of reading and storytelling that characterize previous centuries. My hope is that students will learn to become aware of their own cultural environments, and become better readers and storytellers in the process, by reflecting on historical beliefs and practices that still very much inform our society.
These interests also inform my ongoing research, which explores the history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels alongside the history of media and infrastructure. Through my research, I like to question various assumptions about how we read, think, and learn today. I have written on authors ranging from Henry Fielding to Arthur Conan Doyle, and my articles so far have appeared in ELH, NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, and PMLA. I am currently completing a book project on transportation and the history of the novel.