Born in Wheeling, WV, I graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Chemistry and German as well as a Naval ROTC commission. Following training as a nuclear engineer and submarine officer, I served aboard USS ALBANY (SSN 753) in Norfolk, VA and completed three deployments to the North Atlantic.
I first began to teach English literature at Wheeling Central Catholic High School before receiving a Master’s in English and American Literature from the University of Notre Dame. During this time I was also the Executive Director for the first two seasons of the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. I earned my doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, and then held a postdoctoral fellowship at Fordham University.
I am Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Missouri – St. Louis and the 2018-19 recipient of the UMSL Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. My work has appeared in Exemplaria, the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Shakespeare Quarterly, and elsewhere. I’m currently undertaking a book project with the working title Shakespeare at Sea: A Cultural History of Theatricality in the Royal Navy. Its aim is to help enrich our understanding of the theatrical and literary cultures of the Royal Navy from the Age of Sail to the present. My first book, Shakespeare’s Medieval Craft: Remnants of the Mysteries on the London Stage (Cornell University Press), demonstrates the central importance of stage properties, technologies, and theatrical practices from pre-Reformation religious drama to Shakespeare’s stagecraft.