About Me

A headshot with trees and woods in the background.

In May 2020 I forewent tenure and accepted a position at in the Division of Education Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities, where my official title is “humanities administrator” but most people use the phrase “program officer.” This website represents my personal opinions and not those of the NEH or the federal government. (And frankly, the blog is old and I rarely post anymore).

While I am no longer a professor, I continue to publish in my research fields, Victorian literature and children’s literature. I will complete two books this year (2023), both under contract. Disney’s Victorians, continues my interest in children’s literature and literary history by examining how the Walt Disney Company mediates our modern understanding of Victorian literature. A Companion to 19th-Century British Children’s Literature, part of McFarland’s series of companions to 19th century literature, provides introductions to about 100 authors, texts, and topics of relevance to teachers and scholars of Romanticism, Victorian studies, and children’s literature. My first book, The Legacy of the Moral Tale, was about how childhood reading influenced the history of the novel, and is available from the University of Tennessee Press.

Before joining the NEH I was an assistant professor of English at Fisk University in Nashville, TN, where I also directed the W. E. B. Du Bois General University Honors Program. At Fisk I taught courses in British literature, including surveys for majors and seminars on nineteenth-century literature, children’s literature, and the history of the novel. I also substantially revised the honors program, making it more open to students from all majors and supporting those who applied to national and international fellowships and scholarships. When I started, the honors program had one graduating senior and students rarely applied for national awards. When I left, the honors program was an integral part of both recruitment and of the student experience. In my last two years at Fisk, honors students won a Goldwater, a Luard Morse, and a Fulbright, among other smaller awards, and the university had several finalists for the Rhodes Scholarship.

I received my B.A. from Pomona College and my M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. I used to compete as an amateur ballroom dancer: some of my performances are still on YouTube (here and here), and I was featured in the short film Ballroom Boys, part of the Virginia Film Festival’s Adrenaline Film Project. My wife and I met through ballroom dancing, and though we don’t go out dancing as much as we used to, we enjoy spending time with our son Penn and playing board games (especially Scrabble). I also enjoy cooking, running, biking, and playing disc golf and pick-up ultimate frisbee.