Associate Professor
English
My research examines the literary histories of deafness, disability, and queerness from the eighteenth century forward. I also have a secondary interest in queer literature and poetry leading up to and following the Stonewall Riots (1969). My first book, Novel Bodies: Disability and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century British Literature (Bucknell University Press鈥揟ransits Series, 2019), examines how fictional representations of physical disability, deafness, and chronic illness inform the emergence of modern regimes of gender and sexuality. Novel Bodies argues that early novelists represent queer and disabled characters in their fiction to reconfigure the political and social landscapes of eighteenth-century Britain.
Currently, I am working on two book projects. The first of these, The Deaf Resonances of Eighteenth-Century Fiction, argues that the emergence of deaf education in Britain is a vital but overlooked cultural touchstone for the shape and form of eighteenth-century literature. Over roughly the same period that deaf education materialized, what we now know as novels emerged as popular print forms. Deaf ways of being, I argue, resonate across early print literary culture, imbuing prose narratives with a formal liveliness that has yet to be acknowledged in eighteenth-century studies. The other project is a creative biography that narrates the life of my deceased uncle, Joe LeSueur, a queer author who was the lover, friend, and roommate of the celebrated New York School poet, Frank O鈥橦ara. This project details my efforts to learn about LeSueur, whom I only met briefly as a child, from the various forms of writing he published鈥搃ncluding a pulp novel, a book of concrete poetry, theater reviews, soap operas, and a memoir. An excerpt from this project appears in .
I enjoy teaching a range of classes in eighteenth-century literature, disability and LGBTQ+ studies, gothic fiction, the health humanities, and our department鈥檚 introduction to literary studies course. My classes routinely challenge students to think transhistorically about disability, sexuality, gender, and race in the literature and theory we read together. I prioritize accessibility in my classrooms, and I also seek to build communities of care that foster intellectual and personal growth. Due in part to my deafness, I have learned firsthand about the importance of accessibility. I am involved in various collaborative efforts to enhance accessibility for staff, faculty, and students with disabilities, including in my appointments as a member of Marquette鈥檚 ADVANCE team and MLA鈥檚 Committee for Disability Issues. I have written in public forums about accessibility at conferences and in classrooms with the goal of establishing more inclusive communities.
Courses Taught
Grad Seminars:
- Nineteenth-Century Literature: Gothic Fiction and Form
- Literature, Disability, and the Health Humanities
- Queer Disability, Then and Now
- Disability Theory
Undergraduate courses:
- Introduction to Health Humanities
- The Novel to 1900
- Disability and Literature
- Introduction to Gothic Literature
- LGBTQ+ Narratives: Literature, Film, and Theory
- Introduction to Literary Studies
- First-Year Honors Seminar (鈥淩eimagining Disability鈥)
Research Interests
- Literary Studies
- Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Studies
- Disability and Deaf Studies
- Queer Studies
- Health Humanities
- Sound Studies
Publications
- 鈥淐rip Sensibilities and the Limits of Oralism in Early British Deaf Education,鈥 for The Crip Linguistics Reader, eds. Henner and Robinson, forthcoming from Gallaudet University Press (2025).
- 鈥淚mprovisational Accessibility and Romanticism,鈥 Romantic Circles special issue, 鈥淲ellbeing in the Classroom,鈥 eds. B Pladek and Emily B. Stanback
- 鈥淒isability,鈥 in Daniel Defoe in Context, eds. George Justice and Al Rivero, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 276-283.
- 鈥淔eeling for Deaf Resonance in the Eighteenth Century and Beyond,鈥 Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies 17.1 (2023): 1-21.
- 鈥淒isability as Metaphor and Lived Experience in Samuel Richardson's Pamela and Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 50 (2021): 309-312.
- 鈥淭he Queer Kinship of Our Literary Lives: A Tribute to My Uncle Joe LeSueur (and Frank O鈥橦ara),鈥&苍产蝉辫;The Rambling 5 (2019).
- Novel Bodies: Disability and Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Bucknell University Press (Transits Series: Literature, Thought & Culture, 1650-1850) 2019.
- 鈥淐rip Gothic: Affiliations of Disability and Queerness in Horace Walpole鈥檚 The Castle of Otranto (1764),鈥 in The Routledge Companion to Literature and Disability, 2020, 109-119.
- 鈥淢y Novel Body,鈥 Bucknell UP Blog, American University Presses Blog Tour, Read. Think. Act, 2019.
- 鈥淭oward a More Accessible Conference Presentation,鈥 co-authored with Dr. Travis Chi Wing Lau, Profession, Spring Issue, 2019.
- 鈥淐olonizing Gestures: Crusoe, the Signing Sovereign,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Eighteenth-Century Fiction 29.4 (2017): 537-562.
- 鈥淟ibertine Sexuality and Queer-Crip Embodiment in Eighteenth-Century Britain,鈥 in 鈥淣ew Queer Readings.鈥 Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 16.4 (2016): 96-118.
- 鈥淗omosexuality,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Encyclopedia of British Literature: 1660-1789, eds. Gary Day and Jack Lynch, Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, 601-604.
- 鈥淪harp Minds/Twisted Bodies: Intellect, Disability, and Female Education in Burney鈥檚 Camilla (1796),鈥&苍产蝉辫;The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 55.1 (2014): 1-17.
- 鈥淎ttractive Deformity: Enabling the 鈥楽hocking Monster鈥 from Sarah Scott鈥檚 Agreeable Ugliness,鈥 in The Idea of Disability in the Eighteenth Century (Bucknell UP), 2014, 181-201.
- Review of Review of What Pornography Knows by Kathleen Lubey, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 35.4 (2023): 556-559.
- Review of Born Yesterday: Inexperience and the Early Realist Novel by Stephanie Insley Hershinow, The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 62.1 (2022): 107-110.
- Review of Victorian Bestseller by Karen Bourrier, Victorian Studies 63.3 (2021): 463-65.
- Review of Queer Friendship: Male Intimacy in the English Literary Tradition by George Haggerty, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 32.2 (2019): 355-357.
Additional Information
Office Hours
Spring 2025
Teaching Schedule
Spring 2025