The study of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century British literature has been the focus of my scholarship for the past 35 years. The first focus of my research—canonical British romantic poetry—resulted in my book Romantic Androgyny: The Women Within (1990). My second book, Gothic Feminism: The Professionalization of Gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontës (1998), looks at the gothic novels of a variety of women writers. My third book, Gothic Riffs: Secularizing the Uncanny in the European Imaginary, 1780-1820 (2010), won the Allan Lloyd Smith award from the International Gothic Association. It examines gothic chapbooks, ballads, operas, and melodramas as a means by which the European imaginary negotiated the anxieties implicit in what Charles Taylor has called “ambivalent secularization.” My fourth book, “The Gothic Ideology: Religious Hysteria and Anti-Catholicism in Popular British Fiction, 1780-1880” will be published by the University of Wales Press in 2014. It examines the representations of the nun, the monk, the Inquisition, and the ruined abbey in gothic chapbooks and popular novels, all of which were employed to promulgate an ideology of anti-Catholicism as the Catholic Emancipation Bill and the reinstatement of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850 were being debated.
The chapbooks that I have digitized for my new research are now available at an online site called "The Gothic Archive":
http://epublications.marquette.edu/english_gothic/
The other area of my research focuses on women writers, and includes publications on Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, feminism, women of color, and women and creativity. Writing and research are, luckily for me, both my vocation and my avocation. In addition to the three books listed above, I’ve also published a dozen coauthored or coedited books, about 60 articles, 30 reviews, and presented 30 conference papers.
My involvement in the field internationally includes my stint as President of the International Conference on Romanticism (2000-2003), and my work with the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism. In addition, I am the Co-editor of the European Romantic Review, and a board member of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net and Studies in the Novel.
I teach a wide variety of courses, but my specialties are "The Female Gothic," "Literature and Psychology," "Romanticism: Gender, Class, Race," "Gothic Fiction and Drama," “Catholic/Anti-Catholic Literature and Culture,”and “Romanticism and Religion.”
When I am not teaching, reading, or writing about literature, I am traveling, mostly in Europe. True to my gothic interests, I love to explore ruins, old cathedrals, museums, and art galleries.
Link to Curriculum Vitae
Teaching Fields
- English Literature of the Romantic Period
- The Gothic Novel
- Women's Literature
Office Hours
Fall 2013
- TUTH 12:30 - 2:00
Teaching Schedule
Fall 2013
- 2710/106 TuTh 11:00-12:15 Cudahy 131
- Introduction to Literature: Fiction
- 6400/101 TuTh 2:00-3:15 Cudahy 131
- Studies in Nineteenth-Century British Literature
Research Interests
- British Romanticism
- Gothic fiction and drama
- Women’s literature
Selected Publications
- The Gothic Ideology: Religious Hysteria and Anti-Catholicism in Popular British Fiction, 1780-1880. New book forthcoming from Cardiff: University of Wales Press (distributed in USA by University of Chicago Press), 2014.
- Editor and author, A Companion to the Brontës. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, forthcoming 2014. Editor of volume and author of the Introduction and “The Brontës and the Gothic Tradition.”
- Gothic Riffs: Secularizing the Uncanny in the Eurpoean Iimaginary, 1780-1820. Columbus: The Ohio State UP, 2010
- The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe. Ed by Frederick S. Frank and Diane L. Hoeveler. Broadview P, 2010.
- Gothic Feminism: The Professionalization of Gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontës. University Park: Penn State Press, 1998. Republished in a Japanese translation by Kyoto: Apollon-sha, 2007.
- Romantic Androgyny: The Women Within. University Park: Penn State Press, 1990.
- Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature, 3 vols.(Contributing Coeditor with Fred Burwick and Nancy Goslee)
- Charlotte Brontë. New York: Macmillan/Twayne Publications, 1997. (Coauthor with Lisa Jadwin).
- Women’s Literary Creativity and the Female Body. New York: Palgrave/ Macmillan Press, 2007. (Contributing Coeditor with Donna Schuster).
- Interrogating Orientalism: Contextual Approaches and Pedagogic Practices. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2006. (Contributing Coeditor with Jeffrey Cass).
- Romanticism: Comparative Discourses. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Press, 2006. (Contributing Coeditor with Larry Peer).
- Approaches to Teaching Gothic Fiction. New York: Modern Language Association, 2003. (Contributing Coeditor with Tamar Heller).
- Women of Color: Defining the Issues/Hearing the Voices. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. (Contributing Coeditor with Janet K. Boles).
- Comparative Romanticisms: Power, Gender, and Subjectivity. Columbia, SC: Camden Press, 1998. (Contributing Coeditor with Larry H. Peer).
- Approaches to Teaching Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre.’ New York: Modern Language Association, 1993. (Contributing Coeditor with Beth Lau).
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Honors/Awards
- Way Klingler College Interdisciplinary Humanities Fellowship, 2012-13
- Allan Lloyd Smith award for best book in the field, International Gothic Association (2011)
- Co-Editor, European Romantic Review. Published by Routledge six times a year.
- Named to Editorial Board, “Gothic Futures” Book Series edited by David Punter, Edinburgh University Press
- Way Klingler Faculty Fellowship Award, 2009-12
- Way Klingler Sabbatical Fellowship, 2007-08
- Jean-Pierre Barricelli Book Award, International Conference on Romanticism, 2006
- Nora Finnegan Werra Faculty Achievement Award given by the Association of Marquette University Women, 2007
- Brico Awards for Women’s Studies, 2001-03
- Five Summer Faculty Fellowships, Marquette University, 1990; 1992; 1995; 1997; 2000
- National Endowment for the Humanities, 1987
- Council for Basic Education, 1986
English Department
