Education

B.A., English, Cornell University, 1989
Ph.D. English and Humanities, Stanford University, 2000

Current position

Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Literature, Writing, and Film, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Research interests

American Modernism and Post-Modernism, Poetry and Poetics, Religion and Literature

Courses Taught

• English 101: Introduction to College Reading and Writing
• English 102: Introduction to College Reading, Writing, and Research
• English 252: The Bible as Literature
• English 271: Critical Writing in the Field of English
• English 348: American Literature, 1890-1945
• English 481: Seminar in Literature post-1800
• Core 390: World of Ideas

Select Publications

• “Loyalty to myself at the very least”: Historical, Religious, and Narrative Commitments in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead.”  Religion and Literature. 55.2 (Autumn 2023)
• “’A Sort of Buoy’: Stevens, Plato, and Benjamin Jowett.” The Wallace Stevens Journal. 47.2 (Fall 2023)
• “‘ [A]ll / things began in Order to / end in Ordainer’: The Theological Poetics of Louis Zukofsky from ‘A’ to X.”  Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 51.2 (Summer 2009), 203-222.
• “The Memoirist as Collector: Lyn Hejinian’s My Life and Walter Benjamin’s A Berlin Chronicle.”  ANQ 20.2 (Spring 2007), 47-53.

Select Conference Presentations

• “Stevens, Benjamin Jowett, and ‘concupiscent curds.’”  American Literature Association Annual Conference. Boston. May 26, 2023
• “D. H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature at One Hundred.” American Literature Association Annual Conference. Chicago. May 26, 2022.
• “Illiberal Democracies and the ‘Rage for Order.’” Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference.  Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  August 10, 2017.
• “Founding Violence and Historical Legacy in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird.”  Midwest Modern Language Association Annual Conference. St. Louis, Missouri.  November 11, 2016.
• “’Almost an Ungulate’: Thinking and Feeling in the Poetry of Kay Ryan.” Contemporary Poetry: Thinking & Feeling.  Plymouth University.  Plymouth, UK.  May 22, 2016.
• “The ‘Blessings of Doubt’ and the ‘Burden of Faith’: Devotional Agnosticism and Religious Authenticity in Joshua Ferris’s To Rise Again at a Decent Hour.” God and the American Writer: American Literature Association Symposium.  San Antonio, Texas.  February 27, 2015.
• “’Into the Wilderness to Azazel’: The Geography of Mimetic Violence in the Bible.”  Annual Meeting of the Colloquium of Violence and Religion.  University of Northern Iowa.  Cedar Falls, Iowa.  July 11, 2013.