I received my Ph.D. from Florida State University, and taught at Kansas State and California State San Jose before coming to UMD in 2001. My teaching and research focus on the intersection of childhood studies and Victorian literature and culture. I’ve published articles and presented at conferences on such topics as Mary Wollstonecraft, Lewis Carroll and Victorian fantasy literature, environmental children’s literature, and Victorian nature writing. I am currently working on a project that examines representations of science, nature, and empire in Victorian children’s literature.

Representative Publications:
“Animal Orders: Nature, Science, and Imperialism in Victorian Children’s Fantasy Literature” (in progress).
“‘Wonders Wild and New’: Lewis Carroll’s 'Alice' Books and Postmodern Women Writers.” Twice-Told Children’s Tales: The Influence of Childhood Reading on Writers for Adults. Ed. Betty Greenway. Routledge, 2005. 133-145.
“‘I’ll be Home for Christmas’: Misrule and the Paradox of Gender in World War II-Era Christmas Films.” Journal of American Culture 28.4 (2005): 345-56.
“Lewis Carroll Studies, 1983-2003.” Dickens Studies Annual 34 (2004): 375-413.
Alternative Alices: Visions and Revisions of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” Books. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1997.
“Authorizing Alice: Professional Authority, the Literary Marketplace, and Victorian Women’s Re-Visions of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’ Books.” The Lion and the Unicorn 22.3 (1998): 351-363.

Research Interests: Children’s Literature and Culture, Lewis Carroll and Victorian Fantasy Literature, Victorian Nature and Environmental Writing, Popular Culture, Film Studies.

Teaching Interests: Children’s Literature and Culture, Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Nature Writing, Women Writers, Gothic Literature, Fairy Tales, Popular Culture, Film, Picture Books and Graphic Fiction.

Courses:
ENGL 1805: Satire and Humor
ENGL 1666: Gothic Tales of Terror
ENGL 2581 Women Writers
ENGL.3502: British Literature II (1800-present)
ENGL 3333: Children’s Literature—Texts and Contexts
ENGL 3906: Literary Methods
ENGL 5444: Childhood in Literature and Culture
ENGL 5562: Victorian Literature (various topics)
ENGL 5583: British Novel
ENGL.8181: Seminar in British Literature after 1800 (various topics)