College of Arts & Sciences

My own academic interests tend to be eclectic. My training is in American Studies, so I favor approaches which are highly interdisciplinary in nature. My specialized field of research is the history of publishing and literacy in the United States. More commonly, I work in the area which has come to be called history of the book studies, and I work primarily in the North American context. I am interested in how different forms of writing influence a vast array of cultural practices from religious preaching to proper etiquette at meals. I have written extensively on the production of the English Bible in America. I have also edited a collection of essays on typography and textual interpretation and an anthology on nineteenth century American popular literature.