At the edge of the street in northeastern Ohio where I was raised, a large factory sat empty for several decades. My friends and I would explore its grounds, imagining the stories that had unfolded there. While it would take me many years and just as many university seminars to realize it, growing up in a deindustrialized region instilled in me a curiosity about vanishing social formations and cultural expressions. In my work, the literature produced by anticapitalists in the 19th and early 20th centuries provides a particularly rich archive of overlooked working-class radicalisms. My book-in-progress, Bleeding Heartland: Race, Region, and Radicalism in Midwestern Writing, argues that a racially integrated public sphere emerged through partisan print cultures earlier and in more peripheral locations than scholars have assumed. With materialist readings of texts by socialists, anarchists, and Populists who wrote in marginal locations from Cincinnati to Kansas, the book unearths a period when the meaning of the “heartland” and the viability of mass, interracial social movements were in contest.

Essays based on my research have appeared or are forthcoming in peer-reviewed journals and books such as College Literature and Midwestern Miscellany as well as public-facing sources including Jacobin, Chicago Review, Belt, History News Network, and the New Territory. A commitment to making scholarship accessible to diverse audiences animates my work, and I am passionate about writing for and speaking at a variety of community-oriented venues.

As a teacher, I’ve worked in formal and informal classroom settings ranging from private and public universities and writing centers to local bookshops and outdoor teach-ins. At Saint Xavier University, I offer courses in literature, composition, and American Studies. Beyond campus, I have created and facilitated programs for equitable educational exchange and participatory research for academics and local community members.

I’ve had the privilege of living in several locations across the Midwest, from Ohio to St. Louis, where I completed my Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis, and now in “nature’s metropolis,” Chicago. When I’m not writing, teaching, or scouring the archives, I enjoy playing drums, exploring the Chicago music scene, driving through heartland towns, and spending time with my wife and our cats.