Human Biology Program

About

My research focuses on the history of gender and sexuality in the United States during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. My first book, Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America, dealt the history of gender non-conformity and same-sex sexual behavior in the rural United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Although it is still in the very early stages of development, my second project examines the historical relationship between “anti-social” behavior and sexual alterity, particularly as these currents of meaning played out in the lives of notably solitary figures such as the shut-in, the hermit and the recluse. In addition to the history of gender and sexuality, additional areas of interest include 19th and 20th century US regional literature, the history of agriculture and the environment, queer theory, psychoanalytic theory, postcolonial theory, and the study of material culture. Over the years, my research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Smithsonian Institution, The Johns Hopkins University's Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, the University of Michigan's Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the University of Helsinki’s Ruralia Institute, McGill University’s Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Courses Taught

Publications