About Me

I started life in Southern California (where I received my B.A. at the University of California, Irvine), moved to Illinois (where I received my Ph.D. at the University of Chicago), and now live in New York State (where I'm an associate professor of English and graduate coordinator at the College at Brockport, State University of New York). Along the way, I have discovered the concept of seasons, but I remain firmly attached to the Southern California version of "winter." Right now, I share a house with two cats (Victoria and Disraeli) and over 6,500 books. On occasion, you can also find me blogging at The Valve and Cliopatria.

Publications:

• Narrating Women's History in Britain, 1770-1902. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.

• “‘The Reduced Pretensions of the Historic Muse’: Agnes Strickland and the Commerce in Women’s History.” Journal of Narrative Technique 28 (1998): 219-42.

• “‘From Good Looks to Good Thoughts’: Popular Women’s History and the Invention of Modernity, c. 1830-c. 1870.” Modern Philology 97 (1999): 46-75.

• “‘Unstoried in History’? Early Histories of Women at the Huntington Library, 1652-1902." Huntington Library Quarterly 64 (2001): 469-500.

• “Protestants against the Jewish and Catholic Family, c. 1829-1860.” Victorian Literature and Culture 31 (2003): 333-57.

• “‘Not the Superiority of Belief, But Superiority of True Devotion’: Grace Aguilar’s Histories of the Spirit.” Silent Voices. Ed. Brenda Ayres. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 1-27.

• “Barbauld, Anna Letitia”; “Bulwer, Edward”; “Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan”; “Milman, Henry Hart”; “Biography.” The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Ed. Steven Serafin and Valerie Grosvenor Myers. New York and London: Continuum, 2003.

• “Reviving the Reformation: Victorian Women Writers and the Protestant Historical Novel.” Women’s Writing 12 (2005): 73-84.

• “Royal Lives”; “Women Worthies.” A Companion to Women’s Historical Writing. Ed. Mary Spongberg et al. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

• “Counter-Medievalism; Or, Protestants Rewrite the Middle Ages.” Beyond Arthurian Romances: The Reach of Victorian Medievalism. Ed. Lorretta Holloway and Jennifer A. Palmgren. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 147-68.

• “The Historical Novel and Contemporary Criticism: A Survey, 1990-2004.” Choice 43.1 (Sept. 2005): 45-58.

• "'The Highland Widow'." The Facts on File Companion to the British Short Story. Ed. Andrew Maunder. New York: Facts on File, 2007.

• "How to Write a First Person Essay." Chronicle of Higher Education 11 August 2006: C4.

• “Emily Sarah Holt and the Evangelical Historical Novel: Undoing Walter Scott.” Clio’s Daughters. Ed. Lynette Felber. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2007. 154-78.

• "The Fictional Afterlife of Anne Boleyn, 1901-2006: How to Do Things with the Queen." Clio 37.1 (2007): 1-26.

• "Isobel Armstrong, Victorian Poetry: Poetry, Poetics and Politics." The Victorian Literature Handbook. Ed. Alexandra Warwick and Martin Willis. New York and London: Continuum (forthcoming 2008).

• Reviews in Victorian Periodicals Review, Modern Philology, In-Between, Cithara, H-ALBION, New Books in Nineteenth-Century Studies. Staff reviewer, Choice (2001- ).