How would you describe your research in 1 or 2 sentences? 
My research explores how New England Puritans used emotion to shape their culture and community.  

Can you explain that a little further? 
On one level, I am interested in American literary history.  The research I am conducting suggests that Puritans paid as much attention to the binding force of affections as to doctrines, laws, and covenants, and their emphasis on affection influenced the shape of their writing.  Puritan literature repeatedly depicts the godly as melting into tears or breaking forth in “bowel-bursting” sobs, bound together by feelings that overflow in highly sentimental scenes.  Contrary to many narratives of America’s literary past, I argue that the Puritans contributed to—rather than resisted—the rise of sentimentalism.

More broadly, I am interested in how communities take shape, form boundaries and cohere—and especially what role the emotions play in each of those steps.  In Puritan society, only those who could display the right feelings at the right times—as judged by ministers and magistrates—could become full members of both church and state; even more, the capacity to feel often drew the line between “civilized” and “uncivilized” peoples.  Thus Puritan leaders used sentiment to advance a series of agendas—policing citizenship, increasing their authority, and regulating English interactions with Native Americans.  With this project, therefore, I hope to offer fresh insight into the ways preachers, politicians and authors use emotion to garner support for their social, political and religious ends.

How did you decide to enter your field, and what brought you to your topic? 
In college, I studied philosophy, religion, and literature, and when I decided to apply for graduate school, I could not decide which of the three I most wanted to pursue.  Then I thought of which books I would like to reread again and again as I taught classes for the rest of my life, and the answer came out as literature.  As for my topic, I started in the study of literary theory and twentieth-century poetry (keeping alive my philosophical interests), then gradually moved earlier and earlier in American literary history until I ended at one of its beginnings.  The study of the Puritans, incidentally, also permitted me to continue studying religion (and employ what I had learned)—so it offered a kind of bonus.

Who is your advisor? 
Julia Stern in the English Department. 
 
What are your interests outside of research? 
Apart from academics and reading in general, I love to play basketball, watch football (especially Notre Dame football—where I grew up), travel, hang out with friends, go to movies – all the usual things.

What are your future plans? 
I hope to get gainful employment as a professor some day, teaching, researching, and writing.