Biography

I began working at Western Oregon University as a professor of literature in fall 1999. From 2008-2026 I also directed our university Honors Program. Western Oregon University is a public liberal arts college with an undergraduate enrollment of approx. 3000 students. Founded in 1856 by pioneers, the school is the oldest public university in the state and one of the oldest on the West Coast.

As literature professor, I specialize in twentieth-century English and Irish literature, especially fiction of the post-World War II period. I also teach classes in film studies, plus broader literary history and critical theory. Web design, digital archiving, and digital humanities are closely related interests.

My scholarly projects are oriented to both general and specialized audiences.  Major projects include a book, Father and Son: Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, and the British Novel Since 1950 (University of Wisconsin, 2003 & 2005) as well as an edited collection, Martin Amis: Postmodernism and Beyond (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). 

My most recent major project is The Cambridge Companion to Martin Amis, forthcoming in summer 2026.  This edited collection will feature the work of fourteen scholars from five different countries and, when published, will become the definitive survey of Amis’s fifty-year career.

Since 2006 I have also overseen and administered the Martin Amis Web, the authoritative digital archive for that author. The British Library designated it a site of scholarly significance in 2012 and archives it every six months as part of their ongoing UK Web Archive Project.

An 80,000 word novel, Flight, remains unpublished but was perhaps my most meaningful endeavor.  My final book project will be a scholarly monograph on Irish traumatic spaces.

Select Grants and Awards

• Faculty Advisor of the Year, NACADA (national award, 2016), and Western Oregon University
  (campus award, 2014)
• Invited Fellow, Institute for Study Abroad Ireland, 2015.  Ireland and Northern Ireland locations:  
  Dublin, Meath, Donegal, Fermanagh, Ballyshannon, Sligo, Leitrim, Derry City, Bundoran
• Invited Fellow, Canadian Studies Institute, 2009. Alberta Province locations: Calgary, Banff Centre, Athabasca Glacier, Ice Fields Parkway, Edmonton, Fort McMurray Oil Sands, DrumHeller, Lethbridge
• Mario & Alma Pastega Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Western Oregon University, 2007
• Travel Research Grants:  Dublin, Cork, and Galway, Ireland  |  Belfast, Northern Ireland  |  London, England  |  Huntington Library, California  |  Thomas Merton Center and the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky