About

I’m a 19th-century Americanist whose major work has been in two areas: Mark Twain, on the one hand, and the study of 19th century American women writers, on the other. Most recently, though, I have become interested in American imperialism–in 2011 I published God’s Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines, 1898-1902, a study of the role of religious rhetoric in the debates over the annexation of the Philippines. To my surprise (and relief), it’s been well received by historians, on whose turf I had feared to tread. Pedagogically, I’ve thrown myself into U.S. immigrant lit in the last few years, teaching courses that begin with “classic” turn-into-the-20th century texts and then jump to very recent writings–Junot Diaz, Bich Minh Nguyen, and others. The response has been fantastic; many of my students have never traveled outside of their region, and the presentations I have them do in conjunction with the reading brings the world into the classroom. I’m very excited about both these turns in my scholarly and pedagogical life.