My primary field is comparative modernism. Studying the English, Irish, American, and Russian literary traditions, I explore the complex interrelation between literary innovation and history in the turbulent opening decades of the twentieth century. I enjoy teaching a broad range of courses in British and Irish literature, the Western literary tradition, and twentieth-century literature.
I am currently working on a book manuscript entitled “Modernism's Homer: The Odysseys of H.D., James Joyce, Osip Mandelstam, and Ezra Pound” that tracks the presence of the Homeric epic in the sociopolitical and literary projects of international modernist writing. I argue that modernist writers did not adapt the ancient Greek epic to flee from their eras into an idealized classical past; rather, these writers appropriated the Homeric epics to address some of their era’s most pressing concerns, from global warfare and empire to racial hatred, tyranny, and censorship. In responding to these urgent issues, they produced some of the century’s most astonishing art.
My research interests reflect the passion I bring to the classroom for helping students to draw connections between literary texts and sociocultural contexts as we begin to see the literary tradition handed down over the centuries as a living, evolving, contested, and fascinating conversation in which students are invited to participate.
Teaching Fields
- Modernist Literature
- Twentieth-Century Literature
- British and Irish Literature
- The Western Literary Tradition
Office Hours
Fall 2013
- Tuesday - 3:30-5:00
- Thursday - 10:30-12:00
Teaching Schedule
Fall 2013
- HOPR 1953 Tu 9:30-10:45 Cudahy 114
- Honors Program First Year Seminar
- 2710/108 TuTh 2:00-3:15 Wehr 002
- Introduction to Literature: Fiction
- 4480/101 TuTh 12:30-1:45 Wehr 002
- The Modernist Period in British Literature
Research Interests
- Comparative Modernism (British, Irish, American, Russian)
- Reception and Genre Studies
- Irish literature
- Literature and national identity
- Censorship
Selected Publications
- “Coming Home to Joyce.” James Joyce Quarterly 46, no. 2 (Winter 2009): 201-204.
- “‘Cyclops,’ Censorship, and Joyce’s Monster Audiences,” James Joyce Quarterly 48, no. 3 (Spring 2012): 115-134.
Forthcoming Publications
- “1922’s ‘UnUlyssean’ Ulysses: Modernist Visions and Revisions of Homer.”Nostos: Odyssean Identities in Modern Cultures. Eds. Sheila Murnaghan and Hunter Gardner. The Ohio State University Press.
- "'The news in the Odyssey is still news': Ezra Pound, W. H. D. Rouse, and a Modern Odyssey."Modernism/modernity.
Honors/Awards
- Received a Summer Faculty Fellowship 2011, 2013.
- Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, Woodrow Wilson Foundation
English Department
