About

I have served on the faculty of the English department at Western Oregon University since fall 1999. Alongside literature I teach classes in film studies, plus broader literary history and critical theory. Web design, digital archiving, and the digital humanities are closely related interests. I also directed our university Honors Program from 2008 until its closure in 2026.

Western Oregon University is a public liberal arts college with an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 3,000 students. Founded in 1856 by pioneers, it is the oldest public university in the state and one of the oldest on the West Coast.

I specialize in twentieth-century English and Irish literature, especially fiction of the post-World War II period. 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 and 2005), as well as two edited collections: Martin Amis: Postmodernism and Beyond (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) and The Cambridge Companion to Martin Amis (Cambridge University Press, 2026).

The Cambridge Companion to Martin Amis features the work of fourteen scholars from five different countries and is the definitive survey of Amis’s fifty-year career. The book was spotlighted at a full-day book launch and podcast event in London, with panels featuring seven of my fourteen contributors.

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.

A novel, Flight, has been perhaps my most meaningful endeavor. The manuscript is complete at 80,000 words and currently under agent review.

My final book project will be a scholarly monograph on spatial trauma and the reclamation of traumatic spaces in Ireland. Specific chapters will address Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes, Ghost Estates, and Famine Walls/Roads/Graveyards.