Explores the invisible man, in Ralph Ellison’s “The Invisible Man,” as borrowing upon associations of patriarchal maleness, in the sense Ann Douglas in her “Terrible Honesty” argues 20s modern’s did, to secure freedom from feelings of entrapment by maternal figures, whose near-proximity to him is expressed in the text as often incestuous, gross;…[Read more]

This is the Introduction to my new book, _Victorian Skin: Surface, Self, History_.

A review of Stanley Kunitz’s poetry, emphasizing how he used his poetry to both explore and manage his relationship with his dominating mother. Argues that none of Kunitz’s elegies work as conventional elegies, or as we traditionally understand or expect them to work, but more as working their way to the direction Peter Sacks advocates, as…[Read more]

Explores how Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” encourages, more than identification with, but an impressing oneself within “the kid,” and makes all of his adventures with Glanton and his outriders a ride we thrill at, even if at times very much secretly — as with the slaughter of the indigenous camp. Glanton is a phallic “hero” for us; it is the…[Read more]

Explores how Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” encourages, more than identification with, but an impressing oneself within “the kid,” and makes all of his adventures with Glanton and his outriders a ride we thrill at, even if at times very much secretly — as with the slaughter of the indigenous camp. Glanton is a phallic “hero” for us; it is the…[Read more]

Personal perspective on the current state of open access and publishing practices in the fields of Television and Media Studies, and pointers to a variety of scholar-led initiatives and options of where scholars can actually publish open access in their field without the payment of Article Processing Charges (APCs).

Many digital humanists in centers or libraries—interdisciplinary positions that cater to multiple departments—are expected to demonstrate the products of their digital labor to high-ranking administrators and stakeholders on a consistent basis. As such, they often are on tight and over-extended timelines to produce high-quality digital sch…[Read more]

This chapter details a credit-based orientation & information literacy course taught with local archival and special collections materials.

Full collection of essays written during my undergraduate and graduate studies in literature.

Graduate-level syllabus for a seminar in the Department of English. Neither “history of the book” nor “media studies,” this course sits somewhere in-between combining the ethos of a makerspace with the hands-on resources of a letterpress and book arts studio.

This essay looks to the near history of copyright, commercially licensed resources, and fair use that shapes digital scholarship on nineteenth-century periodicals today. Using the digitization of British Library newspapers as a case study, I demonstrate how arguments about access to public domain materials do not fully account for the complex…[Read more]

Digital scholarship, particularly with digital monographs, requires a great deal of work that traditional scholarship does not. The presenter has authored a digital monograph (published 2017) and written and co-written web texts on the methodologies of digital scholarship and critical making (both currently under review). While digital tools can…[Read more]

Digital scholarship, particularly with digital monographs, requires a great deal of work that traditional scholarship does not. The presenter has authored a digital monograph (published 2017) and written and co-written web texts on the methodologies of digital scholarship and critical making (both currently under review). While digital tools can…[Read more]

One of the most salient aspects of DH projects is that they are fun to create. DH scholars love to make amazing new tools that solve tangible problems. This makes teaching DH a joy: students work harder on DH assignments because the assignments demand and reward their attention. When work is fun, it doesn’t feel like work. Rather than being a…[Read more]

One of the most salient aspects of DH projects is that they are fun to create. DH scholars love to make amazing new tools that solve tangible problems. This makes teaching DH a joy: students work harder on DH assignments because the assignments demand and reward their attention. When work is fun, it doesn’t feel like work. Rather than being a…[Read more]

In 1526, royal refiner and natural historian Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo (1478-1557) praised the singular quality of the “muchos tesoros de oro labrado / en poder delos indios q̄ se hā cōquistado” (lxv, v). By 1535, however, he had to define what, exactly, he meant by gold: “No hablo aquí en el oro que se ha habido por rescates, o en la guerra, ni…[Read more]