I am an Associate Professor in the Department of English, where I’ve been teaching since 1999. I received my BA in 1990 (honors, summa cum laude) from Bryn Mawr College, and both my MA and PhD from the University of California, Irvine, in 1992 and 1996, respectively. Before coming to UNLV, I taught at UC Irvine,  San Diego State University, and the University at Albany (SUNY). Altogether I have twenty-two years of teaching experience. As a full-time (tenured) professor at UNLV, I teach both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, specializing in the history of literary theory (Plato to the present), late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British literature.

Undergrad courses I teach regularly include ENG 303 (Introduction to Literary Theory), ENG 298 (Writing About Literature), as well as 400-level courses on late-nineteenth century literature (Decadence, Oscar Wilde), and special topics in literary theory (advanced/contemporary theory, aesthetics of the sublime, narrative and interpretation). My work at the graduate level involves, most often, ENG 703, as well as extensive graduate advising.

Current research, writing, and publication centers on the fin de siècle, specifically the “decadent” 1890s. I contend that this period is far more radical and “modern” than Modernists — and its critics — tend to acknowledge.