I am Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri–Columbia. I specialize in eighteenth-century British literature, particularly in the history of the book and the relationship between publishing and literature during the “long” eighteenth century, between 1660 and 1820. Before coming to Mizzou in 2002, I taught at Marquette University and Louisiana State University. I earned my PhD in 1994 from the University of Pennsylvania.

I served as Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department at the University of Missouri from 2004-2006.

I am co-editor of The Eighteenth-Century Novel, a scholarly annual published by AMS Press, and I was formerly book review editor of the JASNA News, the official newsletter of the Jane Austen Society of North America. I am Secretary/Treasurer of the Johnson Society of the Central Region and am an active participant in the Jane Austen Society of North America’s Mid-Missouri Region.