Vita

Education:

• 1974-79:  Ph.D., University of Virginia
• 1970-74:  B.A., Yale University

Employment:
 

• 2003-06: William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor and Chair, Department of English
• 2002, Fall: Acting Chair, Department of English, Vanderbilt University
• 1993-03:  Professor, Vanderbilt University
• 1988-93:  Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
• 1986-88:  Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 1979-86:  Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 1975-79:  Teaching Assistant, University of Virginia

Dissertation:
 

Romanticism and the English Novel: Visionary Experience in Narrative. Director: Cecil Y. Lang

Fellowships, Grants, and Honors:
 

• 2005: Suzanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship for Charles Dickens in Cyberspace.
• 2005: George and Barbara Perkins Prize for best book of the year in the field of Narrative Studies, Honorable Mention for Charles Dickens in Cyberspace
• 2003-2006: National Institutes of Health, National Human Genome Research Institute Grant 1 R03 HG 3031-01 - PI, "Genetics in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture"
• 1999-2000: John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1996-99:  Board of Supervisors, The English Institute, Harvard University
• 1996-97:  Spence Lee Wilson and Rebecca Webb Fellow, and co- Director of the Fellows Program, Robert Penn Warren Center for Humanities
• 1995:       President, Society for the Study of Narrative Literature
• 1995:      Choice: "An Outstanding Academic Book for 1995" for The Pleasures of Babel
• 1994-95:  University Research Council Grant (academic year)
• 1994:       Affirmative Action Award, Vanderbilt University
• 1992:       University Research Council Grant (summer)
• 1989-90:  Fellow, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University
• 1988-89:  Robert A. Partlow Award, The Dickens Society, for Romantic Vision and the Novel
• 1988-89:  Fellow, Vanderbilt Center for the Humanities
• 1988-89:  Senior Fellow, Wisconsin Institute for the Humanities (declined)
• 1986:       Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Wisconsin
• 1986:       Wisconsin Graduate School Research Grant (Summer)
• 1985:       Wisconsin Graduate School Research Grant (Summer)
• 1983:       John H. McGinnis Memorial Award, Honorable Mention, best short story in The Southwest Review, 1982-83
• 1981-82:  American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
• 1982:       Wisconsin Graduate School Research Grant (Summer)
• 1981:       Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship in Creative Writing
• 1978:       Balch Prize for criticism, University of Virginia

Teaching Experience:
 

Vanderbilt University:
 
• ENGL 106W - Critical Approaches to Literature
• ENGL 115W - Freshman Seminar: Contemporary American Fiction
• ENGL 115W - Freshman Seminar: Hypertext: Reading and Writing Online
• ENGL 204 - Fiction Writing
• ENGL 231 - Nineteenth-Century English Novel
• ENGL 232 - Modernism and the American Novel
• ENGL 234 - Contemporary American Fiction
• ENGL 243 - Literature, Science, and Technology
• ENGL 273 - Genetics in Literature and Film
• ENGL 287 - Desire in the Novel
• ENGL 288 - Special Topics: Contemporary Fiction
• ENGL 289 - Independent Study (numerous)
• ENGL 290A - Honors Colloquium
• ENGL 290B - Honors Thesis
• ENGL 295D - Undergraduate Seminar: Postmodernism and the Culture of Cyberspace
• ENGL 318 - Victorian Novel, 1851-67: From Exhibitionism to Reform (graduate seminar)
• ENGL 318 - Science and the Nineteenth Century English Novel
  (graduate seminar)
  
• ENGL 337A - Introduction to Literary Theory: Deconstruction, Gender Theory, and Cultural Studies (graduate seminar)
• ENGL 337A - Narrative and the Ends of Theory (graduate seminar)
• ENGL 337B - Special Topics in Literary Theory: Cultural Studies (graduate seminar)
• ENGL 355 - Undisciplined Cultures: Literature and Technology after Postmodernism
• ENGL 355 - Postmodernism and Contemporary Fiction (graduate seminar)

University of Wisconsin:
 
• English 207 - Intro. to Modern Literature, 19th. Cen. (lecture, 300 students)
• English 208 - Intro. to Modern Literature, 20th. Cen. (lecture, 300 students)
• English 253 - Approaches to Narrative
• English 301 - Intermediate Fiction Writing
• English 306 - Advanced Fiction Writing
• English 460 - Victorian Novel
• English 511 - Contemporary American Fiction
• English 682 - Senior Honors Thesis
• English 695 - Directed Creative Writing
• English 699 - Undergraduate Directed Study
• English 723 - Critical Methods (graduate lecture course)
• English 724 - Desire in the Novel (graduate lecture course)
• English 727 - Narrative Theory (graduate seminar)

Teaching Interests:
 

Victorian novel; contemporary literature and culture; literature, science, and technology; genetics and literature; hypermedia and online gaming; literary theory

Publications:
 

• Books and Edited Volumes:

Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture. Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. x + 270. Winner, Suzanne M. Glasscock Humanities Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship. Honorable Mention, George and Barbara Perkins Prize for the best book in Narrative Studies. Paperback edition, 2006.

Time and the Literary. Edited (with Marianne Hirsch and Karen Newman). New York: Routledge, 2002). Pp. vi + 261.

The Pleasures of Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. pp. xii + 209. Selected "An Outstanding Academic Book for 1995" by Choice.

Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History. Edited (with Eric Rothstein). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. pp. x + 349.

Romantic Vision and the Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pp. x + 250. Second printing, 1988. Winner, Robert A. Partlow Award for 1988, The Dickens Society.

Contemporary Literature and Contemporary Theory. Edited (with Betsy Draine). Special Issue. Contemporary Literature 29/3 (1988).

• Articles and Chapters in Refereed Volumes:

 

"Victorian Chimeras: Literature and Genetics Policy." New Literary History (forthcoming, 35 pp. in manuscript)

"Frankenstein's Futurity." The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley. Ed. Esther
Schor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 84-99.

"Convergence of the Two Cultures: A Geek's Guide to Contemporary Literature."
American Literature 74 (December 2002): 807-31.


"Genome Time." In Re-reading the Present: Time and the Literary. Ed. Karen Newman, Jay Clayton, and Marianne Hirsch. New York: Routledge (forthcoming, 30 pp. in manuscript, 2001).

"Introduction: When Is Now?" (Co-authored with Karen Newman and Marianne Hirsch). In Re-reading the Present: Time and the Literary. (15 pp. in manuscript, 2000).

"Cultural Patchwork in the Classroom: Shelley Jackson, Tom Stoppard, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling Rewrite the Romantics." In Romanticism and Contemporary Culture. Online .

"Hacking the Nineteenth Century." In Victorian Afterlife: Postmodern Culture Rewrites the Nineteenth Century. Ed. John R. Kucich and Dianne F. Sadoff. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2000. 186-210.

"The Voice in the Machine: Hazlitt, Hardy, James." In Language Machines: Technologies of Literary and Cultural Production. Ed. Jeffrey Masten, Peter Stallybrass, and Nancy J. Vickers. New York: Routledge, 1997. 209-32.

"Concealed Circuits: Frankenstein's Monster, the Medusa, and the Cyborg." Raritan 15:4 (1996): 53-69.

"Is Pip Postmodern? or, Dickens at the End of the Twentieth Century." In Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism: Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations". Ed. Janice Carlisle. Boston: Bedford Books, 1996. 606-24.

"Londublin: Dickens's London in Joyce's Dublin." Novel: A Forum on Fiction 28 (1995): 327-42.

"A Portrait of the Romantic Poet as a Young Modernist: Literary History as Textual Unconscious." In Joyce: The Return of the Repressed. Ed. Susan Stanford Friedman. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993. 114-27.

"Dickens and the Genealogy of Postmodernism." Nineteenth-Century Literature 46 (1991): 181-95.

"Figures in the Corpus: Theories of Influence and Intertextuality." (Co-authored with Eric Rothstein.) In Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. 3-36.

"The Alphabet of Suffering: Effie Deans, Tess Durbeyfield, Martha Ray, and Hetty Sorrel." In Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History. 37-60.

"The Narrative Turn in Recent Minority Fiction." American Literary History 2 (1990): 375-93.

Reprinted, with revisions, in Narrative and Culture. Ed. Janice Carlisle and Daniel R. Schwarz. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1994. 58-76.

"Afterword: Voices and Violence--A Dialogue." (Co-authored with Ellen Wright Clayton). Vanderbilt Law Review 43 (1990): 1807-1818.

"Narrative and Theories of Desire." Critical Inquiry 16 (1989): 33-53.

"Contemporary Literature and Contemporary Theory: A Preface." (Co-authored with Betsy Draine.) Contemporary Literature 29 (1988): 331-6.

"Interview with Stanley Elkin." Contemporary Literature 24 (1983): 1-12.

"Visionary Power and Narrative Form: Wordsworth and Adam Bede." ELH 46 (1979): 645-72.

• Fiction:

"The Laws of Memory." Denver Quarterly 22/4 (1988): 59-71.

"The King of Elum Street." The Southwest Review 67 (1982): 414-27. Honorable Mention, John H. McGinnis Award.

"Trojan Women." Kansas Quarterly 12 (1980): 31-48.

"Straw Drawing." The Southern Review 15 (1979): 189-201.

"Texas, the Beautiful." Harvard Advocate 106 (1974): 34-36.

"July Snow." Yale Lit 142 (1974): 10-18.

• Reviews:

"Guys in the Middle." Review of Alan Wilde, Middle Grounds: Studies in Contemporary American Fiction. Novel: A Forum on Fiction 23 (1988): 221-3.

Review, Gary J. Handwerk, Irony and Ethics in Narrative: From Schlegel to Lacan. Studies in Romanticism 27 (1988): 446-51.

"Post-Critical Deconstruction." Review of Patricia McKee, Heroic Commitment in Richardson, Eliot, and James. Novel: A Forum on Fiction 22 (1988): 119-21.

• Other Media:

Introduction to Modern Literature: The Twentieth Century. Three audio programs produced for the Annenberg Foundation and National Public Radio on Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, and Toni Morrison.

Work in Progress:
 

Charles Dickens in Cyberspace, Or, Literature in an Age of Cultural Studies. (Book on the links between 19th-century British literature and postmodernism. Manuscript completed.)

Conference Papers:
 

"Literature, Science, and Public Policy: Victorian Chimeras and Contemporary Genetics." NAVSA: North American Victorian Studies Association. Charlottesville, VA. Sept. 30, 2005.

"AI, Robotics, and Turing Tests Online." Modern Language Association. San Diego, CA. Dec. 27-30, 2003.

"The Dickens Tapes: Lost and Found Sound before Recording Technology." NAVSA: North American Victorian Studies Association. Bloomington, IN. October 17-19, 2003.

"Gen X Eugenics: Brave New World and the Contemporary Genetics of Race." University of California, Berekley. March 27-29, 2003.

"New Age Evolution." Religion and Genetics in Popular Culture Conference. Duke University. Durham, NC. November 21-23, 2002.

"Communication vs. Recording Technology in Friedrich Kittler." MSA4: Modernist Studies Association. Madison, WI. October 31-November 3, 2002.

"Great Expectations: Describing Media Representations of Genetics." ASBH: American
Society of Bioethics and Humanities. Baltimore, MD. October 24 27, 2002.

"Eugenics and Utopia." MSA3: Modernist Studies Association. Rice University. Houston, TX. September 13, 2001.

"Men Under Glass: Joseph Paxton and Victorian Masculinity." Conference: Locating the Victorians. London, England. July 14, 2001.

"Odd Histories: The Crystal Palace in the Outback." Conference: The Legacy of the Great Exhibition. CUNY-Graduate Center. New York, NY. May 4, 2001.

"Crimes of the Genome: Philip Kerr's A Philosophical Investigation and the Gene
for Violence." Narrative: An International Conference. Rice University. March 9, 2001.

"Peacock, Mary Somerville, and the Woman of Science." Romantic Period Division, Modern Language Association. Washington, DC. Dec. 27-30, 2000.

"The GATC of Gattaca." SLS: Society for Literature and Science. Atlanta. October 5-6, 2000.

Moderator. "Technology, Narration, And Communication." Narrative: An International Conference. Emory University April 6-9, 2000.

"Slice and Dice: Clones, Cyborgs, and the Human Genome Project." Modern Language Association. Chicago. December 27-30, 1999.

"Genome Time." The English Institute. Harvard University. October 1-3, 1999.

"Ada in Arcadia." Narrative: An International Conference. Dartmouth College. April, 1999.

Respondent: "Joycean Hypertext," and "Joyce and the Nineteenth Century." 16th International James Joyce Symposium. Rome, Italy. June 14-20, 1998.

"The Economics of Literary Exchange." INCS: Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies--Nineteenth-Century Money and Culture. New Orleans. April 17-19, 1998.

"Sound Art: Digital Voices and Hypertext Narratives." Narrative: An International Conference. Northwestern University. April 3-6, 1998.


"Jane Austen in Cyberspace." Modern Language Association. Toronto. Dec. 27-30, 1997.

"Hacking the Nineteenth Century." Victorian Re-Versions. The Dickens Project, University of California-Santa Cruz. Aug. 9-10, 1997.

"The Past in the Future of Cultural Studies." The Criticism of the Future. University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. July 11-12, 1997.

"Why Do Victorian Narrative?" Narrative: An International Conference. University of Florida. April 3-6, 1997.

Moderator. "Hypertext and Literary Theory." Twentieth-Century Literature Conference. University of Louisville. February, 1997.

"Postmodernism and Multiculturalism, I, II, III." (Organizer and Moderator of three panels for Twentieth-Century American Division, Modern Language Association. Washington. Dec. 27-30, 1996.

Moderator, "Romantic Narrative Art." Narrative: An International Conference. Ohio State University. April 25-28, 1996.

"Acoustic Technology and Modernity." INCS: Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies--The Exhibition of Cultures. April 12-13, 1996.

Moderator, "Contemporary Literature and Film." Twentieth-Century Literature Conference. University of Louisville. February, 1996.

"History in an Age of Cultural Studies." Modern Language Association. Chicago. Dec. 27-30, 1995.

"Fanny Price in Cyberspace." (Plenary address.) Revisiting Mansfield Park: The 17th Annual Jane Austen Society of North America Conference. October 5-8, 1995. Madison, WI.

"The Voice in the Machine." The English Institute. Harvard University. August 24-27, 1995.

"Dickens's London in Joyce's Dublin." INCS: Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies--The City in the Nineteenth Century. University of California, Santa Cruz. April 6-8, 1995.

"Great Expectations and Postmodern Culture." Narrative: An International Conference. Park City, Utah. April 20-23, 1995.

Moderator. "The New Modernist Studies III: Modernism after Poststructuralism/Postmodernism." Modern Language Association. San Diego. Dec. 27-30, 1994.

"Concealed Circuits: Frankenstein's Monster to Haraway's Cyborg." Narrative: An International Conference. Vancouver. April 28-May 1, 1994.

Moderator. "Native American Novels." Twentieth-Century Literature Conference. University of Louisville. February, 1994.

"Gender and Community: Contemporary Women's Fiction." Narrative: An International Conference. Albany, NY. April 1-4, 1993.

"Teaching Narrative in the 1990s." Narrative: An International Conference. Albany, NY. April 1-4, 1993.

"Nomads and Cyborgs: The Blithe Spirit of Postmodernism." Modern Language Association. New York. Dec. 27-30, 1992.

"A Literature without Masterpieces." South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Knoxville. Nov. 12-14, 1992.

"Male Sexualities: Dickens, Gaskell, and Trollope." Semiotics Society of America. Chicago. Oct 30-Nov 1, 1992.

"Londubliners: The City in Dickens and Joyce." XIII International James Joyce Symposium. Dublin, Ireland. June 14-21, 1992.

"Alternative Economies: Dickens in Cranford and The Warden." Modern Language Association Convention. San Francisco. December 27-30, 1991.

"Ritual in a Multicultural Society." Twentieth-Century Literature Conference. University of Louisville. February 21-3, 1991.

"Multiculturalism and Violence in the Contemporary Political Novel." American Literature Association. San Diego, CA. May 31 - June 2, 1990.

"The Politics of the Other in Contemporary Fiction." Narrative: An International Conference. New Orleans. April 5-7, 1990.

"Dickens and the Genealogy of Postmodernism." Modern Language Association Convention. Washington, D.C. December 27-30, 1989.

"Interdisciplinary Studies and Postmodernism." Disciplines and the Canon: An Interdisciplinary Symposium. Vanderbilt University. October 19-21, 1989.

"Interdisciplinary Culture in a Post-Industrial Society." (Re)producing Texts/(Re)presenting History: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Texas A & M University. September 27-9, 1989.

"Narrative and Postmodernism." Narrative: An International Conference. University of Wisconsin--Madison. April 6-8, 1989.

"The Politics of Desire in Recent Narrative Theory." Modern Language Association Convention. New Orleans. December 27-30, 1988.

"Joyce and Romantic Ideology." Eleventh International James Joyce Conference. Venice, Italy. June 8-16, 1988.

"The Economy of Desire: Leo Bersani and Narrative Theory." Narrative: An International Conference. Ohio State University. April 7-9, 1988.

"Violence on the Periphery: Ritual and Politics in Robert Stone and Russell Banks." Modern Language Association Convention. San Francisco. December 27-30, 1987.

"Narrative and Power: Recent Critical Theories." International Conference on Narrative Literature. Ann Arbor, Michigan. April 2, 1987.

"Dickens and Romantic Vision." Modern Language Association Convention. Los Angeles. December 27-30, 1982.

"Non-Epiphanic Lyricism in Jane Austen." Modern Language Association Convention. New York, NY. December 27-30, 1981.

"Visionary Experience in Joyce." James Joyce Symposium. Albuquerque, New Mexico. June 9-16, 1981.

Conferences Organized:
 

Co-Director (with Priscilla Wald). Genetics in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture. Vanderbilt University. November 7-8, 2003.

Co-Director (with James Epstein). Questioning Culture. Vanderbilt University. 1997.

Director. Narrative: An International Conference. Vanderbilt University. April 10-12, 1992.

Co-Director (with Ellen Wright Clayton). Law, Literature, and Social Change. Vanderbilt University. March 16-17, 1990.

Program Committee: The Rhetoric of Public Life. Vanderbilt University. October 19-20, 1990.

Program Committee: Disciplines and the Canon. Vanderbilt University. October 19-21, 1989.

Program Committee: Narrative: An International Conference. University of Wisconsin. April 6-8, 1989.

Invited Lectures:
 

Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs, Princeton University. Invited lecture at a Workshop on Systems Biology and Information Medicine in a Global Society. January, 2007.

Temple University Humanities Center. Invited lecture. October, 2006.

11th Annual Genetics & Ethics in the 21st Century Conference: Engineering Immortality-The End of Death? Aspen, Colorado. July, 2006.

INCS: Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Culture. Plenary panelist. Rutgers University. April, 2006.

Florida State University. Invited lecture. September, 2005.

Case Western Reserve University. Invited lecture. April, 2005.

British Studies Seminar, Ransom Humanities Center. Invited lecture. Austin, TX. April 15, 2005.

SGI: Society for Gynecologic Investigation. Invited lecture. Los Angeles, CA. March 25, 2005.

Glasscock Center for the Humanities, Texas A&M. Invited lecture and Award Ceremony. College Station, TX. February 18, 2005.

Yale University. Invited lecture. New Haven, Ct. February 3, 2005.

The MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and the Law School, University of Chicago. Invited lecture. Chicago, IL. November 17, 2004.

University of Tennessee. Invited lecture. Knoxville, TN. November 10, 2004.

Victorian Soundings. Plenary address. The Dickens Project. University of California, Santa Cruz. July 31-August 3, 2003.

Stanford University Humanities Center. Invited lecture. Palo Alto, CA. April 7, 2003.

University of Kentucky. Invited lecture. Lexington, KY. November 2002.

INCS: Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Culture. Plenary address. Georgetown University, Washington, DC. April 2002.
Indiana University. Invited lecture. Bloomington, IN. November, 2001.

NVSA: Northeastern Victorian Studies Assoc. Plenary Speaker. Periodization in Nineteenth-Century Studies. Brown University, Providence, RI. April 28, 2001.

Cornell University. Invited lecture. Ithaca, NY. March 26, 2001.

Emory University. Invited lecture. Atlanta, GA. March 19, 2001.

National Human Genome Research Institute. NIH. Invited lecture. Bethesda, Maryland. May, 2000.

University of Washington. Invited lecture. Seattle, Washington. April, 1999.

Southern Methodist University. Invited lecture. Dallas, Texas. March 23, 1998.

Center for Aesthetics and Logic. Aalborg University, Denmark. November 5-6, 1997.

Murray State University. Murray, KY. Invited lecture. November 9, 1995.

Fifth Annual Josephine G. Ferguson Lecture in 19th Century British Literature. Tulane University. March 10, 1994.

Hall Center for the Humanities. Invited lecture. University of Kansas. Lawrence, KS.

Rice University. Invited lecture.

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Invited lecture.

---

 

Editorial and Advisory Boards:
 

2005-08: Advisory Board, PMLA

1996-98: Advisory Board, American Literature

1992- : Advisory Board, Narrative

1988- : Advisory Board, Contemporary Literature

1985-88: Associate Editor, Contemporary Literature
 

Reader of scholarly manuscripts (journals):

 
• American Literary History
• American Literature
• American Quarterly
• Contemporary Literature
• Dickens Studies Annual
• The Historian
• Journal of Narrative and Life Histories
• Mosaic
• Narrative
• Novel: A Forum on Fiction
• Style
• Tulsa Studies in Women and Literature
• Victorian Studies

Reader of scholarly manuscripts (presses):

• University of California Press
• Cambridge University Press
• Columbia University Press
• Cornell University Press
• Duke University Press
• University of Georgia Press
• Johns Hopkins University Press
• University of Kentucky Press
• University of Minnesota Press
• North Carolina University Press
• Ohio State University Press
• Oxford University Press
• Princeton University Press
• University Press of Virginia
• University of Wisconsin Press
• Vanderbilt University Press

 Professional Organizations
 

2004-: Society of Critical Exchange, Board of Directors


2003- : NINES: Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century, University of Virginia


1995- :  The English Institute

Board of Supervisors, 1996-99

1978- :  Modern Language Association

Chair, First Book Prize Committee (1997)

First Book Prize Committee (1996)

Chair, Executive Committee, Division on 20th- Century American Literature (1996)

Executive Committee, Division on 20th-Century American Literature (1995)

1985- : Narrative Society

Director of Electronic Communications, 1996-

Past-President and Chair, Perkins Prize Committee, 1996

President, 1995

First Vice-President, 1994

Second Vice-President, 1993

1995- : INCS--Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies

1988- : Dickens Society

Trustee, 1989-92

Departmental Service:
 

• Vanderbilt University:

• Chair, F02 (acting), 2003-present
• Director of Graduate Studies, 1995-96, 96-97, 97-98
• Director of Undergraduate Studies, 1992-93, 93-94
• Dissertations directed:
• Briana O'Riordan (in progress)
• Shalyn Claggett, "The Science of Character in Victorian Literature." December, 2005. Assistant Professor, Mississippi State University.
• Lisa Niles, "Unproductive Productivity: Aging and Literature in the Nineteenth Century," December, 2005. Lecturer, Vanderbilt University
• Suzanne Bost. "Mulattas and Mestizas: Mixed Identity in Women's Writing of the Americas, 1850-1996." December, 1997. Associate Professor, SMU.
• Gregg A. Hecimovich. "Waking the Reader: Riddles in Nineteenth-Century British Literature." December, 1997. Associate Professor, Western Carolina University.
• Elizabeth L. Breau, "Lying with the Fathers: Incest in Contemporary Feminist Fictions." December, 1994. Lecturer, Vanderbilt University
• F. Elizabeth Hart. "The Structure of Constancy: Metaphor, Language, and the Chaos of Shakespeare's English." December, 1993. Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut
• Steve Luebke, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin, Fall Rivers
• Christine Loflin, "Race, Nationalism, and Colonialism in the African Landscape." June, 1989. Assistant Professor, Grinnell College
• Dissertation Committees: Marilyn Lewis Allison, Fred Ashe, Lance Bacon, Lisa Barnes (02), Wendy Barry, Hyeyurn Chung (05), Ken Cooper, Jeff Crouch, June Ellis, Chris Freeman, David Guest, Sean Heuston (02), Melanie Holliday (06), Amanda Kinard, Kurt Koenigsberger, William Kupinse, Tat-Siong Benny Liew (Religious Studies), Deandra Little (01), Francisco Lozado (Religious Studies), Carol Manthey, Ann McDonald, Antonia Moser (02), Laura Patterson (01), Philip Nel, Elaine Phillips, Leigh Phillips, Katherine Pratt (01), Clay Railey, Arnold Schmidt, Lady Smith, Adrianne Stewart, Honor Wallace, Caroline Woidat
• Exam Committees (Ph.D.): Marilyn Lewis Allison, Misty Anderson, Fred Ashe, Lance Bacon, Lisa Barnes, Wendy Barry, Suzanne Bost, Cathie Wade Byron, Beth Breau, Hyeyurn Chung (03), Shalyn Claggett (03), Ken Cooper, Kinian Cosner, Jeff Crouch, June Ellis, Josh Epstein (06), Chris Flack, Chris Freeman, David Guest, Benjamin Graydon (06), Gregg Hecimovich, Sean Heuston (01), Melanie Holliday, Amanda Kinard, Kurt Koenigsberger, William Kupinse, Alan Lewis, Tat-Siong Benny Liew (Religious Studies), Francisco Lozado (Religious Studies), Ann McDonald, Carol Manthey, Jeff Menne (06), Lee Moore, Frank Nigro, Lisa Niles (03), Briana O'Riordan (05), Lee Phillips, Katherine Pratt, Clay Railey, Tim Richardson, Jim Schiavoni, Julie Scheutz, Lady Smith, William Turner (History), Honor Wallace, Caroline Woidat
• Honors Program (English), Director, 1991-92, 92-93, 93-94
• Honors Program Planning Committee, Chair (designed new English Honors Program), 1990-91
• Literary Theory Reading Group (Director), 1988 89, 89 90, 90 91
• Masters Examination Committee, 1994, 96, 98
• Merril Moore Prize Committee, 1989 90
• Search Committee (endowed chairs), 1988 89, 89 90, 93-94, 96-97, 97-98, 2000-01, 01-02, 02-03, 03-04, 05-06
• Search Committee (tenured and tenure track positions), 1988 89, 89 90, 90-91, 92-93, 95-96, 97-98, 98-99, 2000-01, 01-02, 02-03, 03-04, 04-05
• Tenure and Promotion Review Committees: 10 candidates (Chair of 4)
• Visiting Writers Program (Director), 1989 90 S
• Web Page Supervisor, 1996-97, 97-98, 2000-01, 01-02, 02-03, 04-05
• Writers Committee, 1990 91
  
  
  
• University of Wisconsin:

 
• Ad Hoc Committee on the Graduate Program (charged with designing new M.A. and Ph.D. programs in English), 1985-86, 86-87
• Area VI - Dept. Area Committee, 1979-80, 80-81, 82-83, II 83-84, 84-85, 85-86, 86-87, 87-88
• Area VI - Executive Area Committee, 1986-87, 87-88
• Area 12 (Criticism), 1984-85, 85-86, 87-88
• Area 7 (Novel), 1986-87 (Chair), 87-88
• Brittingham Poetry Prize, Reader, 1984-85, 85-86, 86-87, 87-88
• Contemporary Literary Theory Discussion Group (co-founder), 1980-81, 82-83, 83-84
• Curriculum Committee, 1980-81
• Director of Creative Writing, II 1980-81, 87-88
• The Draft Group (co-founder, faculty paper presentations), 1985-86, 86-87, 87-88
• Faculty Advisor, Madison Review, 1979-80, 80-81, 82-83, II 83-84, 84-85, 85-86, 86-87, 87-88
• Introductory Literature Courses Policy Committee, 1979-80, 82-83
• Prizes Committee, 1979-80, 80-81, 82-83, II 83-84, 84-85, 85-86, 86-87, (Chair) 87-88
• Recording Secretary, Executive Committee, 1986-87
• Special Nominations Committee, 1986-87, 87-88
• TA Review Committee, 1980-81, 82-83, 84-85
• Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, Director (responsible for publicizing the program, coordinating the selection of fellows, scheduling colloquia, and supervising fellows' residency in the Institute), 1986-87, 87-88
• Writers Committee, 1979-80, 80-81, 82-83, II 83-84, 84-85, 85-86, 86-87, (Chair) 87-88

University Service:
 

Vanderbilt University:

• Academic Computing and Instructional Technology Board, 1997-98, 98-99, 04-05
• Academic Policies and Services Committee (Chair), 2001-02, 02-03
• Advisory Board, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, 1990 91, 91 92, 92-93, 93-94, 94-95, 95-96
• Center for the Americas Director, Search Committee, 2003-04
• CPLE Subcommittee on Humanities, 1995-96, 96-97
• Committee on Academic Standards and Procedures, 1995-96
• Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities, 1993-94, 95-96, 97-98, 98-99
• Communication of Science and Technology Program, Advisory Committee, 2002-03, 03- 04, 04-05, 05-06
• Comparative Literature Committee, 1989 90, 92-93 F, 93-94 S
• Computer Advisory Board (A&S), 1996-97, 97-98, 98-99
• Council on Teacher Education (Peabody), 1993-94
• Curriculum Committee, 1988 89 F, 89 90 S, 90 91, 91 92, 92-93
• Dissertation Award Committee (graduate school), 1996
• Faculty Council, l992-93, 93-94, 95-96
• Faculty Council, Secretary, 1993-94
• Faculty Senate, 2000-01, 01-02, 02-03
• Chair, Academic Policy and Services Committee, 2001-02, 02-03
• Task Force on Revising the Faculty Manual, 2004-05
• Foucault Study Group (Director), Warren Center for the Humanities, Summer 1989
• Graduate Education Task Force, 2002-03
• Graduate Faculty Council, 1993-94, S 2001
• Graduate School Ad Hoc Evaluation Committee (NEH summer stipend proposals): 1992
• Institutional Repository Policy Committee, 2003-04, 04-05
• Learning Center Review Committee, 2005-06
• Lectures to campus organizations:
  • Guest Teacher, BME 201, Biomedical Engineering Ethics. Sept. 20, 2005
  • "Representations of Genetics in Literature and Film." Arts and Science Day, Alumni Association, Vanderbilt University. February 23, 2001
  • "Representations of Genetics in Literature and Film." Genetics Interest Group, Vanderbilt Medical School. Spring, 2000
  • "Postmodernism." European Studies 201. Fall, 1995
  • "Response to Laurence Lerner on the New Historicism." Humanities Center. Spring 1989
  • "Shari Benstock's Women of the Left Bank." Women's Center, Fall 1990
  • "Response: Sacvan Bercovitch." American Studies 301 (Maymester, 1991)
  • "Dueling DeLillos." Program in Social Thought. Fall 1991
  • "Narrative Strategies and the Shaping of Ethnic Communities." American Studies 301: Ethnic America (Maymester, 1992)
  • "On The Pleasures of Babel." Humanities Center, Faculty Luncheon Group, Beverly Asbury (Director)
• Library Technology Advisory Committee, 2005-06
• Medical School Humanities Emphasis Program, 04-05
• Medicine, Health, and Society Program, 2001-02, 02-03, 04-05, 06-07
• Peabody Search Committee for senior scholar in Language, Literacy, and Culture, 2005-06
• Postmodernism and Culture Seminar (Director), Warren Center for the Humanities, 1992-93 S, 93-94
• Strategic Academic Planning Committee, College of Arts and Science, 2000-01
• Visible Knowledge Program, 2000-01, 01-02, 02-03
  
  
• University of Wisconsin:

• Academic Appeals Board, II 1979-80, 80-81, II 83-84, 84-85, 85-86
• Faculty Senate, 1984-85
• Faculty Senate, Alternate, 1979-80, 82-83
• Graduate School Research Committee, 1986-87, 87-88
• L & S Senate, 1984-85
• L & S Senate, Alternate, 1982-83
• NEH Summer Nominations Committee, I 1987-88

Professional Service:
 

• Annenberg Project in Modern Literature, Associate Director, (developing and producing a course in twentieth-century literature for National Public Radio broadcast and casette distribution), II 1986, 86-87, 87-88, 88-89
• External evaluation of English departments:
  • University of Virginia. March, 2006
  • University of Georgia. February, 2006
    
• Project Evaluator, Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, 1986-87
• Partlow Prize Committee, 1990
• Radio Broadcasts
• "Hideous Progeny: Stories about Cloning." What's the Word. National Public Radio, 2004
• "Genetics and Literature." Teddy Bart's Round Table. December, 2003
  
• "Why Must Literary Theory Be So Difficult," National Public Radio, January 1993
• "William Wordsworth," Wisconsin Public Radio, March & April, 1988
• "Charles Dickens," Wisconsin Public Radio, December, 1985
• Tennessee Humanities Council, Southern Festival of Books, Moderator, October, 1990, 94
• Tenure and Promotion Review (external evaluator)
  • Reviews of candidates to associate professor, full professor, and endowed chairs for 39 colleges and universities