I specialize in nineteenth-century British literature, Caribbean studies, archival theory, and digital humanities. My first book, English Origins, Jewish Discourse, and the Nineteenth-Century British Novel (Pess State Press, 2009), examines literary responses to Jewish and Christian religious and historical affiliations. In recent years I've co-edited two essay collections, Fear, Loathing, and Victorian Xenophobia (Ohio State University Press, 2013) and Caribbean Jewish Crossings: Literary History and Creative Practice (University of Virginia Press, 2019). A forthcoming book, Strangers in the Archive: Literary Evidence and London's East End (University of Virginia Press, 2022) focuses on archives of the nineteenth-century East End of London. My corresponding digital project, The East End Digital Library, includes digital editions of texts from the Lyon Family Archive, interactive maps, podcast interviews with Lyon family members, and data visualizations of East End publications and their Atlantic connections. Through this work I've had opportunities to collaborate on a multi-year public-humanities research project to create a permanent archive of Jamaican Jewish cemeteries. 

I serve as the Director of Digital Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences. In 2017 I helped create a minor in Digital Humanities.