Brief Biography
In 1987 I graduated from the University of Idaho with a B.A. in History and English. In 1993 I finished my Ph.D. at the University of Iowa, where I specialized in U.S. literature and literary and cultural theory.
I moved to Kansas in August of 1993 and became an assistant professor at Kansas State University in the Department of English, where I teach courses in American literature and culture, world literature, literary theory, and cultural studies. I was promoted to associate professor in 1998 and to professor in 2005, and I served as the Director of Graduate Studies in English from 1997 to 2010. In 2008 I became a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar, and in 2015 I was named the Donnelly Professor of English. I received the CASE/Carnegie Kansas Professor of the Year award in 2013. I am the founding Director of K-State First, our university's first-year experience program, a role I held from 2010 to 2023. I am also a long-time member and current Director of our Program in Cultural Studies.
I have written a book called Literature and Humanitarian Reform in the Civil War Era (Indiana University Press, 1996). With my colleague Professor Anne K. Phillips, I edited a special issue of Women's Studies (2019) on Louisa May Alcott and four books on Alcott: an edition of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (2004) for the Norton Critical Edition series, The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia (2001) for Greenwood Press, and Critical Insights: Little Women (2015) andCritical Insights: Louisa May Alcott (2016) for Salem Press. I also prepared an edition of the works of Emma Lazarus and an edition of Adah Isaacs Menken's writings (both 2002) for Broadview Press. In addition to these seven books, I have a number of shorter publications.
The life and writings of Louisa May Alcott continue to be an important area of research for me, and I am the President of the Louisa May Alcott Society. Other current intellectual pursuits include William James and nineteenth-century pragmatism, Walt Whitman, Stoicism and U.S. literature, and the relationship between literature and emotion in nineteenth-century America.
I am always easy to contact via email, Twitter, or Facebook. I can also be reached at the Department of English, 108 English/Counseling Services Building, 1612 Steam Place, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66056-6501. Phone: (785) 532-6716.
