My main areas of interest are in literature and the Bible and literature and place. My work in both fields focuses on aesthetics in terms of both visual and sensuous experience of the world (aisthesis) and in political philosophy. My most recent monograph, The Politics of Purim reads Esther and its festival, Purim, via political and aesthetic theory. I have also recently co-edited a book on attitudes to human-world relations in the long nineteenth century: Anticipatory Materialisms in Literature and Philosophy, 1790-1930. My next projects continue this interest in aisthesis in literature (Rough Justice: The Politics of Working-Class Aesthetics in the Victorian Novel) and literary reception of the Bible.
I am happy to hear from potential PhD candidates who want to work on projects related to my research specialisms, namely: literature and the Bible, literature and place, and Victorian fiction (including creative writing projects). I am also interested in longitudinal studies and especially the ongoing influence of Reformation theologies on British and American identities, politics and aesthetics.