✏️ Inheritance Plots: I'm currently revising my PhD dissertation, a literary history of inheritance in the nineteenth-century United States. In reading a mix of court cases, novels, and other narratives, this project understands how we tell stories about why the past still matters. You can read a bit more about that over here.

📖 Various book reviews: When I have the time and inspiration, I cover new or reissued books (mostly fiction) or TV for a variety of places on the internet. You can find more of that over here.

🐳 Melville's Queer Afterlives: With Jordan Stein and Dana Seitler, I'm editing a special issue of Leviathan on "Melville's Queer Afterlives," documenting the way that Melville's work has shaped and influenced queer art and writing since the nineteenth century. The issue is scheduled to be published in Fall 2025.

🚲 BikingI've been really enjoying riding my bike in Chicago. The lakefront path is perfect for long rides. It's a good opportunity to be outside, get in some exercise, and learn new things as I get better at fixing and maintaining my bike.

⚖️ Literature and the Law: In Fall 2025, I am teaching a new course on the relationship between literary and legal history for advanced undergraduates. In this class, we will read contemporary court cases as well as their legal and historical precedent, using literary texts to broaden our understanding of their context and the issues at play in each case.

🦹‍♂️ No Name Series: I'm working on an article about this series of anonymously published books called The No Name Series. The publisher Roberts Brothers put out these books in the 1870s and 80s, and the series included work by Louisa May Alcott, Helen Hunt Jackson, and the first publication of Emily Dickinson in a book. In the article, I'm interested in how anonymous authorship lets these writers break out of set topics and styles as well as how that freedom wasn't quite so straightforward.

📚 Pleasure Reading: I try to carve out as much time as I can to read for fun. I'm currently reading Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend (late to the party, I know...).