I teach American literature, with emphasis on the early Republic and the history of authorship. I am currently completing an edition of both the novels of Hannah Webster Foster, co-edited with Jennifer Desiderio, under contract with Broadview Press. Other ongoing research interests include women writers of the 1790s-1820s, gendered issues in early writing instruction, and emerging literary criticism just after the Revolution.

In fall 2010 I'm teaching the following courses:

English 1091, Language and Composition (Honors)

English 2205, Introduction to Literary Studies, and

English 4950, Literary History

I'm also serving as the faculty mentor for a collaborative research project with a group of English majors: Kim Hunter-Perkins, an M.A. student who will hold a Provost's Research Assistantship during 2010-2011 to support the project, graduate student John Klyczek, and undergraduate Jacob Smith. We'll be mining the EIU archives to learn about the early history of instruction in English at our own institution, following a number of lines of inquiry related to institutional history of English studies.