I am an Associate Professor of English at the University of New Haven. My work has appeared in Victorian Literature and Culture and Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies. My current book project, “Not Crossing the Line: The Sailor Amateurs of H.M.S. Chesapeake,” offers a history of nineteenth-century shipboard theatricals through the productions mounted aboard the flagship of the East India China station between 1857 and 1860. With Judith Hawley, I co-direct the international interdisciplinary network known as RAPPT (Research into Amateur Performance and Private Theatricals; rappt.org).
My teaching is motivated by the belief that students can and should produce work that contributes to academic disciplines. I have worked with my students on practice-based research into the history of shipboard theatricals through a production of a nineteenth-century farce aboard US Brig Niagara and the performance of a collaboratively written rehearsal play aboard USS Constitution. These experiences have inspired me to incorporate into each course I teach a project that genuinely contributes to a disciplinary conversation. I am especially energized by the ways in which digital pedagogy is making student contributions more feasible and legible. Alongside my book project, I am developing a scholarly digital edition of The Young Idea: A Naval Journal Edited on Board the H.M.S. Chesapeake in 1857, 1858 & 1859. The Young Idea was an illustrated weekly newspaper edited by A.D. McArthur (a clerk aboard the Chesapeake), circulated in manuscript at sea, and published by facsimile in London in 1867.
