Since completing my Ph.D. in English at The University of Iowa, I've been teaching in Duke University's Undergraduate Writing Program where an interdisciplinary faculty of postdoctoral Fellows teaches the Writing 20 seminar, Duke's only required first-year course. Working with such a talented and diverse faculty has had a positive and lasting effect on my professional development. I enjoy teaching the writing seminars not only because it gives me a chance to introduce students to the field of U.S. literature and cultural studies, but because writing as a social practice foregrounds reflective inquiry, thoughtful engagement with the work of others, and responsible advocacy -- essential qualities for living an intellectually engaged life, both within and beyond the university.  

My interests in cultural studies and geography have certainly been influenced by the neighborhoods I've called home. I grew up in south St. Louis in a 1930s-era suburb where every house in my three-block neighborhood looked exactly the same. (And I don't mean this in a glib, "the suburbs are all the same" way; literally the only architectural variant was the color of the brick or the odd dormer.) I was fascinated by this as a kid -- and by the cemetery that bordered our backyard -- and my early experiences exploring the neighborhood no doubt helped lead me toward the literature of place and urban studies. When I moved to midtown St. Louis to attend St. Louis University and, later, work as a cataloger in the university library, I had a better opportunity to observe the revitalization projects taking place there and downtown, as well as develop my amateur interests in the architecture, history, and culture of St. Louis' unique neighborhood districts (The Hill, Soulard, Dutchtown, and University City, to name a few).  

My wife, who teaches middle school Language Arts, and I have lived in a couple different St. Louis city neighborhoods, in the suburbs of Iowa City, and on the campus of a Quaker boarding school and organic farm in West Branch, IA, before settling into our 1948 bungalow in the Northgate Park neighborhood of Durham, NC. After six years of Iowa's sweltering summers and frigid winters, we've enjoyed the relatively more moderate climate of the Piedmont region. We like taking short trips to the coast in the summer, sampling Durham's surprisingly good local cuisine, shopping at the Farmer's Market, seeing movies at the art-deco theater downtown, going to concerts, and taking in the occasional Durham Bulls game. When I'm not teaching or writing, I enjoy reading books that have nothing to do with my field, learning how to play guitar, figuring out how to be more handy around the house, exercising at the downtown Y or jogging around the neighborhood, and talking with friends about baseball, novels, movies, and music.