About

I am Professor of American Literature at the University of Stavanger, Norway.

My most recent book is Beards and Masculinity in American Literature (Routledge). This book celebrates canonical beards in canonical works of American writing – from Walt Whitman to Ernest Hemingway – as well as discussing the range of issues that beards evoke with regards to the everyday performance of masculinity.

I also have a podcast called Writing Beards. You can listen to it here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Season 2 is coming soon.

My research is focused mainly on representations of gender and masculinity in American Literature. I have published two monographs and a range of articles that discuss representations of men and masculinities in 19th, 20th, and 21st century American writing. I also have broader interests in the flaneur and urban writing, trauma and literature, the Spanish Civil War, and the writings of Federico Garcia Lorca.

I teach American Literature, Contemporary Literature, and Literary Theory courses at BA and MA level. I also supervise BA and MA theses on a range of topics connected to British, Irish, and American Literatures. Recent successful theses have included ecomasculinities in American Literature, representations of trauma in contemporary Irish literature, and hegemonic masculinity in contemporary African Literature.