About

I focus primarily on American literature in English from the long nineteenth century. My focuses in this period are medical writing, sexuality, and disability. These interests have led me to write about medical and sexological treatment of sexed bodies. My dissertation addresses how hermaphroditism functioned as a metaphor in medical and literary texts. I specifically look at Julia Ward Howe’s Laurence MS, medical and popular literature from the mid-century, homosexual autobiography from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (especially Autobiography of an Androgyne) and hermaphroditism in works of American modernism.

I’m a PhD candidate at Temple University, and am writing my dissertation now!