EDUCATION

1990: PhD, English, Yale Univ., New Haven, CT.;
1984: MA, English, Yale Univ.;
1981: BA, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL.

EMPLOYMENT

1997- Associate Professor of English, Allegheny College
1990-97 Assistant Professor of English, Allegheny College
1989-90 Instructor, Connecticut College
1985-89 Instructor, Yale University

DISSERTATION

"Exiling the Sensual Muse: The Literary Career of Mark Twain's Decency."
Dissertation director: Richard H. Brodhead, Yale University

PUBLICATIONS/
SCHOLARSHIP

review, Henry Wonham, Charles W. Chesnutt: A Study of the Short Fiction (NY: Twayne, 1998); in African American Review 34 (1), 2000;

"Revising Freely: Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Disembodiment," a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 11, 1 (Spring, 1996)

"Narrative Jujitsu: Twain's `Studied Fictions' and Their Plot Against Audience," Prospects, Vol. 20 (1995);

"Listening to `The Goophered Grapevine' and Hearing Raisins Sing," American Literary History, 6, 4 (Winter, 1994); reprinted in Henry Wonham, Charles W. Chesnutt: A Study of the Short Fiction (NY: Twayne, 1998)

WORK IN
PROGRESS

Writing Off Readers: The Problem of Audience in Nineteenth-Century American Literature;

"Local Vision and the Anti-Imperial in Jewett's `The Flight of Betsey Lane'"

TALKS

"Local Vision and the Anti-Imperial in Jewett's `The Flight of Betsey Lane,'" Narrative: An International Conference (April 2002, East Lansing, MI)

"Upgrading the Server: Reanimating the Liberal Arts through Computer-Mediated Pedagogy," poster session, Association of American Colleges and Universities (January 2001, New Orleans, LA)

"Dickinson and Doctors," Humanities Lecture Series, Allegheny College (Spring 1998)

"Race as Hypochondria: Howells's An Imperative Duty and the Cure of Realism," Narrative: An International Conference (April 1997, Gainsville, FL.)

"The Road to Wellville through Emily Dickinson," American Studies Association Conference (November, 1995, Pittsburgh, PA)

"Narrative Freedom as Biographical Bondage? The Conditions of Douglass's Authority," Narrative: An International Conference (April 1994, Vancouver, B.C.)

"Listening to `The Goophered Grapevine' and Hearing Raisins Sing," Narrative: An International Conference (April 1993, Albany, NY)

Moderator: "Capitolism, Consumerism and the Novel," a panel at the Narrative Conference (April 1992, Nashville, TN)

"Audiences in Mark Twain," Humanities Lecture Series, Allegheny College (November, 1991)

PROFESSIONAL
ACTIVITIES

Outside reader, Joseph Cosco, Eyeing Italians: Race, Romance, and Reality in American Perception, 1880-1910. Dissertation: The College of William and Mary (American Studies), November, 1999;

Outside reviewer for tenure review (Denison College), October, 1997;

Referree for Nineteenth-Century Contexts (An Interdisciplinary Journal), 1995

Consultant for Contemporary Literary Criticism, 3rd Edition, Eds. Davis and Schleifer (New York: Longman, 1994)

GRANTS

Buhl Foundation (with Bethany Reynders and Michael Maniates), $100,000 for innovative, computer-mediated instruction (1997-99); Project Director, 1999-2001

RESEARCH
INTERESTS

Nineteenth-century American and African American literature and culture; Literary and Critical Theory; Cultural Studies; Pedagogy

TEACHING

Allegheny College (1990-)
English 100 (Basic Composition) English 200 (Approaches to Lit.), English 203 (Studies in American Literature: Romanticism and the Rise of Realism), English 205 (Writing Fiction), English 240 (American Lit. I), English 250 (American Lit. II.), English 260 (Alternative Traditions in American Literature--Spring, 1997) English 301: Forms of Fiction (The Short Story), English 320 (The Short Story--Fall, 1996), English 390 (Literary Theory), English 465 (varying topics in 19th Century American Literature: Local Color Fiction, Reconstruction, Twain and Technology), English 540 (The Senior Project Practicum); English 552 (Junior Seminar on Race in 19th Century American Lit. and Culture), English 553 (Junior Seminar on Lyricism in British and American Lit.), English 555 (Junior Seminar on Howells, James and Twain), LSF 100 (How We Imagine Our Selves), LSH 100 (Introduction to the Humanities), LSW 200 (What's Revolting: Taboo and the Changing Art of "Indecency;" The Death Penalty; Forging a Future: Pittsburgh and the Question of Progress), LS 185 (Introduction to Fiction Writing); FS102 (Pittsburgh and the Question of Progress); FS102 (The American Family Farm); LS320 (Science and the Transformation of American Life)

Connecticut College (1989-1990)
Visiting Instructor: Introduction to Literary Analysis (twice);
Writing-intensive Freshmen Seminar (twice)

Yale University (1985-1989)
Instructor: The Epic Tradition; The Dramatic Tradition; Advanced Writing;
Principles of Writing; Forms of Literary Expression (twice); The "Other" in American Literature and Culture;.

Guest Lecturer: "The Voice of Huck Finn"

Teaching Fellow: Modern Am. Lit. (1900-1940); Late-19thc.Am. Lit.; Early Am.Lit.

Tutor: Daily Themes

The Hotchkiss School (1981-1983)
Instructor in English

TEACHING
INTERESTS

American literature and culture; African American literature; Interdisciplinary Studies; Literary Theory; Cultural Studies; Composition; Creative Writing

ACADEMIC
HONORS

Faculty Development Grant recipient, 1993;
John T. Roberts Fellowship, Yale Univ. 1986-7
Yale University Fellowship, 1983-4, 1984-5, 1985-6;
The Edwin L. Schuman Award for short fiction, Northwestern Univ., 1979-81

COMMUNITY
SERVICE

Department Chair, 2001-
Chair, Allegheny College Planning Workshop, 2001
Chair, 19thc. British literature Search Committee, 2000-01
Faculty Review Committee, 2000-
Chair, Environmental Writing search (English dept.) 1999- 2000;
Computer Science Search (1999-2000);
Project Director, Buhl Foundation grant, "Re-imagining the Classroom," 1999-2001
Environmental Writing search (1998-99)
Convener, Second Seminar (FS102) faculty workshops (1998-99);
Communication Arts Search Committee (1998-99);
Chair, Search Committee for Director of Diversity Affairs (1997-98);
Faculty Council (1995-97 ), Secretary, Spring1996;
Co-Chair of the Committee on Racial Issues (1996-97);
Honorary Degree Committee (1995-96),
NEH Teaching and Technology initiative (1996-98); Humanities/Social Science Brainstorming Group (1995-96)
Coordinator, Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration (1994-95);
History Search Committee (1993-95);
English Search Committee (1992-93);
CORIS/CODIS member (1992-);
Retention Task-Force (1993-1995);
Health Professions Advisory Committee (1992-1995);
Coordinator, Humanities Lecture Series (1992-94);
AAUP Executive Committee (1993-94)
"Heart of the Campus" Committee (1992)

PROFESSIONAL
SOCIETIES

The Modern Language Association; American Studies Association; Society for the Studies of Narrative Literature; American Departments of English; American Association of Colleges and Universities