About

My work focuses on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African American literature and culture, especially poetry. In my first book, Rhetorics of Literacy: The Cultivation of American Dialect Poetry (The Ohio State University Press, 2013), I argued that dialect poetry functioned in the turn-of-the-century US in surprising ways, challenging readers’ expectations of a light and entertaining subgenre. My current book project considers African American literary and cultural views of the politics of imperial Ethiopia from the 1860s to the 1930s, particularly as expressed in newspapers and magazines, reflecting an interest in periodical studies that has informed my research throughout my career.