Research Interests
American pop culture
Prison studies
Critical theory
History of American capitalism
Midwestern regionalism
Nineteenth-century American literature
Publications
Books
Paranoia and Nostalgia in Recent American Popular Culture, Bloomsbury Academic (forthcoming)
Journal Articles
“Expanding Our Honors Neighborhood: Teaching in and About Jails and Prisons,” With Victoria Bryan, Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (forthcoming)
“Abraham Lincoln’s Republic of Rules: The Logic of Labor, the Labor of Logic,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, volume 42, issue 2, 2021, 26-46
“‘Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple’: Existing Politics of Honors Education,” Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, volume 22, issue 11, 2021, 21-26.
“‘It’s Not Polite to Talk About Yourself’: Regional Identity and Erasure in the Midwest from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Mad Men.” MidAmerica, volume 41, 2014, 39-61.
Book Chapters
“Do You Want to Feel Something Real? Irony and Sincerity in the Work of Nathan Fielder,” Sincerity and Irony in Contemporary Television: Nicecore Aesthetics and Politics, eds. Owen Cantrell and Sage Westfall, Bloomsbury Academic (forthcoming)
“Georgia State University Prison Education Project & Honors: Belonging in Honors in the Prison Classroom,” with AZ, Declaration, and Gallo (pseudonyms), Belonging in Honors, ed. Anne Dotter, National Collegiate Honors Council (forthcoming)
“Fragility and Empathy in the Literature Classroom,” The Affects of Pedagogy in Literary Studies, eds. Christopher Lloyd and Hilary Emmett, Routledge, 2023, 174-186
“‘Poverty Porn’: CBS’s The Briefcase and the Deserving Poor in Reality Television,” Representing the Other Half: Essays on Poverty in American Popular Culture, edited by Wylie Lenz, McFarland Press, 2020, 228-246
“‘Ya Got Trouble’: River City, Main Street U.S.A., and Nostalgia in the Imagined Midwest,” The Midwestern Moment: Pieces of the Heartland: Representing Early Twentieth-Century Midwestern Places, edited by Andy Oler, Hastings College Press, 2018, 53-68
“‘To Stand Shoulder to Shoulder and Heart to Heart’: Politics, Authenticity, Community, and Folk Music in the Recent Work of Bruce Springsteen,” Bruce Springsteen and Popular Music: Rhetoric, Memorial, and Contemporary Culture, edited by William I. Wolff, Routledge, 2017, 147-161
Poems
“How to Watch a Flower Decay,” The Reach of Song 2020: Georgia Poetry Society, Ed. Michael Diebert, Georgia Poetry Society, 2020, 44-45
Book Reviews
Review of “Going There:” Black Visual Satire by Richard J. Powell,” Studies in American Humor, volume 8, issue 1, 2022, 208-211
Review of “Sitcommentary: Television Comedies that Changed America by Mark A. Robinson,” Studies in American Humor, volume 7, issue 1, 2021, 249-251
Review of Surveyors of Customs: American Literature as Cultural Analysis by Joel Pfister, South Atlantic Review, volume 84, issue 4, 2019, 148-150.
Review of Echoes of Emerson: Rethinking Realism in Twain, James, Wharton, and Cather by Diana Hope Polley, South Atlantic Review, volume 84, issue 1, 2019, 178-180
Selected Presentations
“Georgia State University Prison Education Project Shutdown: Potential Implications for the Field and How to Support PEPs post-Pell Reinstatement,” Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, Virtual Roundtable (May 1, 2024)
“Do you want to feel something real?” The Lynchian roots of New Sincerity in HBO’s The Rehearsal,” Pop Culture Association Conference, San Antonio, TX (April 7, 2023)
“What Can the Prison Classroom Teach Colleges and Universities?” Grantmakers in Education Virtual Conference (October 20, 2021)
“Fragilities: Empathy in the Literature and Composition Classroom,” American Comparative Literature Association Virtual Panel (March 21, 2020)
“Sentimental Oppression: Social Totality in Melville's Diptych Tales,” Pacific American Modern Language Association, San Diego, CA (November 17, 2019)
“Ghosts: The White Body in Black Surrealism,” Southern American Studies Association, Atlanta, GA (March 15, 2019)
“How Did These Get Made: Towards a Theory of Comedy Podcast Consumption,” Humor in America, American Humor Studies Association and The Mark Twain Circle, Chicago, IL (July 13, 2018)
“The ‘Truthiness’ of It: Questioning the Validity of Our Own Minds,” Northeastern Modern Language Association, Pittsburgh, PA (April 13, 2018)
“The Writing Center as Prison, The Prison as Writing Center: Discipline and Punishment," Southeastern Modern Language Association, Atlanta, GA (November 4, 2017)
“Empathy and Community Engagement in the Composition Classroom,” Two Year College Association of Georgia, Clarkston, GA (October 13, 2017)
“‘Only Hegel is fit for America’: Dialectic and Parataxis during the Market Revolution,” American Literature and the Philosophical, Paris, France (March 23, 2017)
Interviews
Interviewed in film Common Good Atlanta: Breaking Down the Walls of Mass Incarceration, 2021
American pop culture
Prison studies
Critical theory
History of American capitalism
Midwestern regionalism
Nineteenth-century American literature
Publications
Books
Paranoia and Nostalgia in Recent American Popular Culture, Bloomsbury Academic (forthcoming)
Journal Articles
“Expanding Our Honors Neighborhood: Teaching in and About Jails and Prisons,” With Victoria Bryan, Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (forthcoming)
“Abraham Lincoln’s Republic of Rules: The Logic of Labor, the Labor of Logic,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, volume 42, issue 2, 2021, 26-46
“‘Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple’: Existing Politics of Honors Education,” Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, volume 22, issue 11, 2021, 21-26.
“‘It’s Not Polite to Talk About Yourself’: Regional Identity and Erasure in the Midwest from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Mad Men.” MidAmerica, volume 41, 2014, 39-61.
Book Chapters
“Do You Want to Feel Something Real? Irony and Sincerity in the Work of Nathan Fielder,” Sincerity and Irony in Contemporary Television: Nicecore Aesthetics and Politics, eds. Owen Cantrell and Sage Westfall, Bloomsbury Academic (forthcoming)
“Georgia State University Prison Education Project & Honors: Belonging in Honors in the Prison Classroom,” with AZ, Declaration, and Gallo (pseudonyms), Belonging in Honors, ed. Anne Dotter, National Collegiate Honors Council (forthcoming)
“Fragility and Empathy in the Literature Classroom,” The Affects of Pedagogy in Literary Studies, eds. Christopher Lloyd and Hilary Emmett, Routledge, 2023, 174-186
“‘Poverty Porn’: CBS’s The Briefcase and the Deserving Poor in Reality Television,” Representing the Other Half: Essays on Poverty in American Popular Culture, edited by Wylie Lenz, McFarland Press, 2020, 228-246
“‘Ya Got Trouble’: River City, Main Street U.S.A., and Nostalgia in the Imagined Midwest,” The Midwestern Moment: Pieces of the Heartland: Representing Early Twentieth-Century Midwestern Places, edited by Andy Oler, Hastings College Press, 2018, 53-68
“‘To Stand Shoulder to Shoulder and Heart to Heart’: Politics, Authenticity, Community, and Folk Music in the Recent Work of Bruce Springsteen,” Bruce Springsteen and Popular Music: Rhetoric, Memorial, and Contemporary Culture, edited by William I. Wolff, Routledge, 2017, 147-161
Poems
“How to Watch a Flower Decay,” The Reach of Song 2020: Georgia Poetry Society, Ed. Michael Diebert, Georgia Poetry Society, 2020, 44-45
Book Reviews
Review of “Going There:” Black Visual Satire by Richard J. Powell,” Studies in American Humor, volume 8, issue 1, 2022, 208-211
Review of “Sitcommentary: Television Comedies that Changed America by Mark A. Robinson,” Studies in American Humor, volume 7, issue 1, 2021, 249-251
Review of Surveyors of Customs: American Literature as Cultural Analysis by Joel Pfister, South Atlantic Review, volume 84, issue 4, 2019, 148-150.
Review of Echoes of Emerson: Rethinking Realism in Twain, James, Wharton, and Cather by Diana Hope Polley, South Atlantic Review, volume 84, issue 1, 2019, 178-180
Selected Presentations
“Georgia State University Prison Education Project Shutdown: Potential Implications for the Field and How to Support PEPs post-Pell Reinstatement,” Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, Virtual Roundtable (May 1, 2024)
“Do you want to feel something real?” The Lynchian roots of New Sincerity in HBO’s The Rehearsal,” Pop Culture Association Conference, San Antonio, TX (April 7, 2023)
“What Can the Prison Classroom Teach Colleges and Universities?” Grantmakers in Education Virtual Conference (October 20, 2021)
“Fragilities: Empathy in the Literature and Composition Classroom,” American Comparative Literature Association Virtual Panel (March 21, 2020)
“Sentimental Oppression: Social Totality in Melville's Diptych Tales,” Pacific American Modern Language Association, San Diego, CA (November 17, 2019)
“Ghosts: The White Body in Black Surrealism,” Southern American Studies Association, Atlanta, GA (March 15, 2019)
“How Did These Get Made: Towards a Theory of Comedy Podcast Consumption,” Humor in America, American Humor Studies Association and The Mark Twain Circle, Chicago, IL (July 13, 2018)
“The ‘Truthiness’ of It: Questioning the Validity of Our Own Minds,” Northeastern Modern Language Association, Pittsburgh, PA (April 13, 2018)
“The Writing Center as Prison, The Prison as Writing Center: Discipline and Punishment," Southeastern Modern Language Association, Atlanta, GA (November 4, 2017)
“Empathy and Community Engagement in the Composition Classroom,” Two Year College Association of Georgia, Clarkston, GA (October 13, 2017)
“‘Only Hegel is fit for America’: Dialectic and Parataxis during the Market Revolution,” American Literature and the Philosophical, Paris, France (March 23, 2017)
Interviews
Interviewed in film Common Good Atlanta: Breaking Down the Walls of Mass Incarceration, 2021
