Jennifer Fleischner | Faculty Profiles

Diplomas/Degrees

Certificate, Narrative Medicine Basic Workshop, Columbia University, Center for Continuing Education, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, March 2019 (2019)

, Columbia University, Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, 1992-1994 (1994)

, Training Institute of National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP), 1990-1992 (1992)

Ph.D., Columbia University (1988)

B.A., Williams College (1977)

Licenses and Certifications

Certificate, Narrative Medicine Basic Workshop, Columbia University, Center for Continuing Education, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, March 2019

Personal Statement

I hope my students leave my courses loving some of the literature they've read and with a thirst to read more on their own. Beyond that, I hope that they develop these skills and habits of mind:the ability to read closely, with an attention to detail; the ability to think deeply, with compassion and generosity, about the works; and the ability to communicate in speech and in writing, creatively and critically, about complex literary texts. I hope the carry these with them throughout their lives.

Courses Previously Taught

Reading Race; Literature in English III; 18th-century Novel; 19th-Century Novel, Women and Literature; Jane Austen; Reading New York City

Specialization/Interests

British and American literature; race and slavery; women's lives and literature; creative non-fiction; narrative and illness, children's literature

Teaching Philosophy

I am a passionate advocate for literature. On the most basic level, I enjoy sharing my love of reading, the pleasures of responding personally and critically to a text, the pleasures and challenges of a close reading of a complex text, the excitement of the sudden insight, the intensity of an engrossing story. I try to show my students how literature, even works from the distant past, can help them understand their own worlds and the worlds of others. I also try to guide them to use their reading and writing about literature as a way to honor themselves and others, a necessary step toward active and compassionate engagement with the world.

As educators, we perform a balancing act between teaching the intellectual content and skills that students must master to succeed and move forward, and addressing the more fundamental social and emotional needs that shape student learning. I believe in the importance of teaching the individual student in the classroom, acknowledging each student’s strengths and challenges, learning style and interests.

At the same time, the deepest learning at any class happens in the kind of classroom community in which trust, compassion, honesty, and collaboration have been actively nurtured. I am committed to building community inside and outside the classroom, creating the kind of open, less anxious environment in which students feel not only relaxed enough to learn, but also inspired to help one another learn.

Research Interests

British and American literature

history and literature of American slavery

intertwined biography

historical fiction

creative non-fiction

Books

2nd edition (2019) 1st edition (2010). Harriet Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl". Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's Press.

(2015). A History of 茄子视频. Boston, MA: Pearson.

(2006). Nobody's Boy. MO: University of Missouri Press.

(2003). Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave. New York: Broadway Books.

(1996). Mastering Slavery: Memory, Family, and Identity in Women's Slave Narratives. New York, NY: NYU.

with Susan Weisser, ed. (1994). Feminist Nightmares: Women at Odds. Feminism and the Problem of Sisterhood. New York, NY: NYU Press.

Chapters

(2009). "On Lincoln's Letter to His Wife". In Harold Holzer and Joshua Wolf Shenk (Eds.). In Lincoln's Hand. With Commentary by Distinguished Americans. NY, NY: Random House.

(2004). "'When Bridget or Dinah Takes to Writing Books Instead': Reaction to Elizabeth Keckley's BEHIND THE SCENES". In Joanne Braxton (Eds.). "Monuments of the Black Atlantic: History, Memory and Politics. Oxford University Press.

(2003). "Reshaping the Marriage: Mary Lincoln and Post-Assassination Memory". In Charles Hubbard (Eds.). Reshaping the Presidency: Lincoln's Legacy. Mercer University Press.

(1999). In Roy Brooks (Eds.). When Sorry Isn't Enough: The Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustices. NYU Press.

(1994). "Introduction" and "Mothers and Sisters: The Family Romances of Antislavery Women Writers". In Susan Weisser and Jennifer Fleischner (Eds.). Feminist Nightmares: Women at Odds. Feminism and the Problem of Sisterhood.

Articles

“Elizabeth Keckly,” Encyclopedia Virginia (Library of Virginia, 2020)

“Rescuing Stories,” Blog, Potomac Review: A Journal of Arts and Humanities (February 2013), http://potomacreview.wordpress.com/

“What’s in a Name: Making Lizzy K.,” Arena Stage Blog: Stage Banter (February 2013), http://blog.arenastage.org/arena_stage_blogs/2013/02/whats-in-a-name-behind-lizzy-k.html

“On Lincoln’s Letter to His Wife,” In Lincoln’s Hand. With Commentary by Distinguished Americans, Harold Holzer and Joshua Wolf Shenk, eds. (Random House, 2009)

Elizabeth Keckly,” African American Lives (Oxford University Press, 2004)

"Charles Chesnutt,” Encyclopedia of the Midwest (2004)

“’When Bridget or Dinah Takes to Writing Books Instead’: Reaction to “Elizabeth Keckly’s Behind the Scenes,” in Monuments of the Black Atlantic: History, Memory and Politics, Joanne Braxton, ed (Oxford University Press, 2004)

“Washington, D.C., in the Civil War and The Soldiers’ Home,” invited to write article for use at The Soldiers’ Home Historic Site (2003).

“Reshaping the Marriage: Mary Lincoln and Post-Assassination Memory,”’ in Reshaping the Presidency: Lincoln’s Legacy, Charles Hubbard, ed. (Mercer University Press, 2003)

"Remembering Slavery," in When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustices, Roy Brooks, ed. (NYU Press, 1999)

(1994, Winter), "Memory, Sickness, and Slavery: One Slave Girl's Story". American Imago: Special Issue on Women, 51:4.

(1991, Spring), "Hawthorne and the Politics of Slavery". Studies in the Novel Special Number: Hawthorne in the Nineties, 23:1.

(1988, Fall), Female Eroticism, Confession, and Interpretation in Nathaniel Hawthorne". Nineteenth-Century Literature, 44:4.

(1982), "Class, Character, and Landscape in Old Mortality". Scottish Literary Journal, 9:2.

Conference Presentations

“Adelphi During WWI,” World War One at 100: A Symposium, Sept. 9, 2014, Adelphi U. (invited)

“Gender, Fraternity, and Masculinity in Lincoln’s and Davis’s America,” The Filson Club’s 3^rd Academic Conference, Commentator, October 24-5, 2008 (invited)

Panel Discussion on The Bondwoman’s Narrative, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Respondent, Southern Women’s Conference, University of Georgia at Athens, June 2003 (invited)

Society for the Study of American Women Writers, “Twenty-first Century Working Women Writing on Nineteenth-Century Women Writing Work: Roundtable,” Fort Worth, TX, September 2003 (invited)

“Reading the Reaction to Elizabeth Keckly’s Behind the Scenes,” Monuments of the Black Atlantic: History, Memory and Politics, Williamsburg, VA, May 2000 (invited)

"Psychoanalysis and Slavery," Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society Annual Conference, 1996 (invited)

"Maternal Dynamics and Mixed-Race Identity in Harriet Jacobs and Kate Drumgoold," Forum on Psychoanalysis and Race, MLA Division for Psychology and Literature, MLA, 1996 (invited)

Chair of special session, "Masochism and Narrative: Internalized Aggression as a Literary Strategy," and paper delivered, "Masochism in Women's Slave Narratives" MLA, 1994 (invited)

"Locating Sexual and Racial Politics in The Marrow of Tradition," MLA, 1993 (invited)

"The Construction and Reconstruction of Self and Other in Antislavery Novels" Popular Culture Association, 1993

Chair, Female Autobiography, Northeast MLA, 1992

"The Problematics of Sisterhood in Slave Narratives," Northeast MLA, 1991 (finalist for Women's Caucus Award)

"Sexual Difference and the Function of the Slave Narrative: Conceptions of Self in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," Northeast MLA, 1990

"Settling and Unsettling America: Engendering Texts in The Pioneers and The Deerslayer," American Culture Association, 1990

Chair, American Literature up to 1865, Mid鈥慔udson MLA, 1989

"Female Eroticism, Confession, and Interpretation in The Blithedale Romance," Mid鈥慔udson MLA, 1988

"Letters and the Idea of Authority in the 19th鈥慍entury British Novel," Northeast MLA, 1985

Invited Presentations

“Mourning A Son at Wilson’s Creek,” Talk Sponsored by National Parks Service, Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Springfield, MO, March 2019

Keynote adress and teaching workshops at conference on Elizabeth Keckly, Burwell School Historic Site, Hillsborough, North Carolina (Nov. 2018).

Mary Todd Lincoln House, talk and workshops in honor of bicentennial of birthdays of Elizabeth Keckly and Mary Todd Lincoln (Oct. 2018).

Panel Discussion (2016, February). The Life and Times of Mrs. Keckly. Randolph Macon College, Department of History Film Series, Ashland, VA.

(2016, February). Harriet Jacobs, Property, and Slavery. Randolph Macon College, Department of History Speakers Series, Ashland, VA.

(2014, September). "Adelphi During WWI". World War One at 100: A Symposium.

(2013, March). Q & A: Mary L. and Lizzy K. Arena State Theatre, Washington, D.C..

(2011, April). Elizabeth Heyrick: Quaker Abolitionist. 茄子视频 Works-in-Progress Series.

(2009, October). Mary Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckly. Newberry Library, Chicago.

(2008, October). "Gender, Fraternity, and Masculinity in Lincoln's and Davis's America". The Filson Club 3rd Academic Conference.

(2008, July). Race and Place: African Americans in Washington from 1800-1954. Decatur House, Washington, D.C..

(2008, July). Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Library of America, NEH Teachers' Workshop, Brooklyn.

(2008, April). Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly. North Hempstead Country Club.

(2004, March). Women Writing Women's Lives. CUNY Graduate Center.

(2003, October). Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly. New School University, co-sponsored by the Committee for History and Writing Program, New York.

(2003, September). Roundtable Speaker, "Twenty-first Century Working Women Writing on Nineteenth-Century Women Writing Work". Society for the Study of American Women Writers, Fort Worth, TX.

(2003, June). Panelist, discussion of "The Bondswoman's Narrative.". Southern Women's Conference, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.

(2001, November). "Sacred History vs. Sacred Memory: Rewriting the Past". Lewis Miller Lecture Series, Northern Virginia Community College.

“Elizabeth Keckly: ‘The Colored Historian’ and Lincoln Memory,” African-American Intellectual Culture Lecture Series, Higgins School of Humanities, Clark University, September 2001.

(2001, September). Elizabeth Keckly: 'Colored Historian' and Lincoln Memory. African American Intellectual Culture Lecture Series, Higgins School of Humanities, Clark University, Worcester, MA.

(2001, April). "Reshaping the Lincoln Marriage: Keckly, Herndon, andL 'The Secret Mary Lincoln,''. The Lincoln Symposium at the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum, TN.

(2001, April). The Problems of Biography: Mary Lincoln. The HIstory of Psychiatry Group, New York City.

“Sacred History vs. Sacred Memory: Rewriting the Past,” Lewis Miller Lecture Series, Northern Virginia Community College, November 2001.

(2000, May). "Reading the Reaction to Elizabeth Keckly's BEHIND THE SCENES". Monuments of the Black Atlantic: History, Memory, and Politics, Williamsburg, VA.

(1999, August). "Elizabeth Keckly and the Lincolns" Panel Discussion. THe Lincoln Forum, Sixth Annual Ford's Theatre Second Symposium, Washington, D.C..

(1999, March). Abraham Lincoln, Mary Lincoln, and Elizabeth Keckly". The Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic Annual Symposium, Washington, D.C..

(1999, February). 'When Bridget or Dinah Takes to Writing Books Instead. CCNY American Studies Lecture Series.

(1996, December). "Maternal Dynamics and Mixed-Race Identity in Harriet Jacobs and Kate Drumgoold". Forum on Psychoanalysis and Race, MLA Division for Psychology and Literature, MLA.

(1996, January). "Psychoanalysis and Slavery". Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society Annual Conference.

(1996, January). On Freud's 'Screen Memories'. SUNYAlbany Humanities Seminar, Albany, NY.

"On Freud's `Screen Memories,'" Albany Humanities Seminar, 1996

(1995, October). "Obituaries in Black and White". The Persistence of Memory, Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

(1995, January). Writing and Identity in Autobiography. Diversity Lecture Series, SUNY Albany.

(1995, January). Representing the Slave's Suffering. Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University.

"Writing and Identity in Autobiography" Diversity Lecture Series at University at Albany, 1995

“Representing the Slave's Suffering," Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University, 1995

(1994, December). "Masochism in Women's Slave Narratives". MLA Conference.

(1993, May). Narrating a Life After Slavery. Grand Rounds, Harlem Hospital, N.Y..

(1992, April). Hawthorne and the Question of Women. Babcock Lecture, Hartwick College.

"Hawthorne and the Question of Women," Babcock Lecture, Hartwick College, April 1992

(1991, January). Bonds of Motherhood in Women's Slave Narratives. Humanities Institute, SUNY Albany.

(1988, March). The Works of Angela Carter. The New York State Writers Institute Lecture Series at the NEw York State Museum, Albany, NY.

(1988, February). Desire and Repression in Hawthorne's Novels. Humanities Institute, SUNY Albany.

Other Work

Selected Media/Interviews

Commentator, WBUR (Boston local station, NPR), , 1/29/20

“Wait, she’s black?,” Q and Abe Podcast (President Lincoln’s Cottage, Washington, DC), Season 3, Episode1, 9/17/2020,

Quoted, NYTIMES, “Overlooked No More, Elizabeth Keckly, Dressmaker and Confidente to Mary Todd Lincoln,” by Nancy Wartik, 10/7/2019, A24

Featured Q & A, The Christian Science Monitor, “How a Book by a White House Insider Made Waves…in 1868,” by Randy Dotinga, 1/17/19

Commentator, documentary film, Life and Times of Elizabeth Keckly, New Millennium Studios, Petersburg, VA, June 2014

Panelist, “The 100^th Anniversary of WWI,” Exploring Critical Issues Series, TelecareTV, May 2014

Quoted in NYTIMES, “A Strong Thread in a Torn Union,” by John Williams, 1/10/2013, C1

NPR Podcast Interview, 9/1/13,

Guest, KPSI Palm Springs Radio Station, December 2012

Commentator, PBS documentary film, “Lincoln,” January 2005

MNN Access Television, Interview, March 2004

Teacher as Historian on WNYE-FM, May 2003

Radioscope, May 2003

Commentator, History Channel, “History’s Lost and Found: Mary Lincoln Letters,” March 2000

Book Reviews

Harriet Jacobs: A Life (Basic Civitas Books, 2005), Legacy

Radical Passion: Ottilie Assing’s Reports from America and Letters to Frederick Douglass, edited by Christoph Loehmann. Journal of American History, (June 2001)

Lift Every Voice: African American Oratory, 1787-1900. Edited by Philip S. Foner and Robert James Branham. The Georgia Historical Quarterly, (1998)

Heresy: Sandor Rado and the Psychoanalytic Movement, by Paul Roazen and Bluma Swerdloff. Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine Bulletin,(1996)

(Dis)forming the American Canon, by Ronald A.T. Judy, American Literature 6:3 (1994)

Sex and Death in Victorian Literature, edited by Regina Barreca, Journal of the History of Sexuality (July 1992)

"A little disguised, or a little mistaken: Rereading the Novels of Jane Austen" (review essay), Annals of Scholarship: Rereading the Nineteenth-Century Woman in England and America, 7:4 (1990)

Selected Invited Public Talks/Readings: Mt. Bethel Baptist Church, Hillsborough, NC; Library of Congress; Smithsonian institute; New York State Writers Institute; North Shore Civil War Roundtable; Fords Theatre; Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library; 92nd St. Y, etc

Creative Scholarship

Commentator, WBUR (Boston local station, NPR), , 1/29/21

“Wait, she’s black?,” Q and Abe Podcast (President Lincoln’s Cottage, Washington, DC), Season 3, Episode 1, 9/17/2020

Quoted, NYTIMES, “Overlooked No More, Elizabeth Keckly, Dressmaker and Confidente to Mary Todd Lincoln,” by Nancy Wartik, 10/7/2019, A24

Featured Q & A, The Christian Science Monitor, “How a Book by a White House Insider Made Waves…in 1868,” by Randy Dotinga, 1/17/19

"Commentator". Documentary film on Elizabeth Keckly, New Millenium Studios, Petersburg, VA. June 2014.

"Panelist". "The 100th Anniversary of WWI," EXPLORING CRITICAL ISSUES SERIES, Telecare TV. May 2014.

"NPR Podcast Interview". http://civilwartours.tumblr.com/post/60023729937. September 2013.

"Q & A session". Arena Stage Theatre performance of Mary L. and Lizzy K. Washington, D.C.. March 2013.

""Rescuing Stories"". Blog, Potomac Review: A Journal of Arts and Humanities. February 2013.

""What's in a Name: Making Lizzy K."". Arena Stage Blog: Stage Banter. February 2013.

"Guest interview". KPSI Palm Springs Radio Station. December 2012.

"Commentator". PBS documentary film, "Lincoln.". January 2005.

"Guest Interview". MNN Access Television. March 2004.

"Guest interview". Radioscope. May 2003.

"Guest Interview". "Teacher as Historian," WNYE-FM. May 2003.

"Commentator". History Channel, "History's Lost and Found: Mary Lincoln Letters.". March 2000.

"Speaker and Panelist". C-Span broadcast of The Lincoln Forum, Sixth Annual Ford's Theatre Symposium. Washington, D.C.. September 1999.

"Guest interview". Urban Radio Network, THE BEV SMITH SHOW. April 1999.

"Commentator". PBS documentary film on author Barbara Kingsolver. January 1998.

Grants

Faculty Development Grant, 茄子视频, 2005-06

American Antiquarian Society, 2005 Creative and Performing Artists and Writers Fellowship, Alternate

Faculty Research Awards, Univ. at Albany, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1990, 1987

Nuala McGann Drescher Award, United University Professors, 1994-95

Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellowship, Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, 1993-94

Lane Cooper Dissertation Fellowship, Columbia University, l985 86

President's Fellowships, Columbia University, l980 81 and l981 82

Theses Advised

Joseph Hoeffner, Think of the Radio: Interpreting Records Through Stories, 2018-19

Projects Mentored

In every class I've taught, I've mentored student projects.

Honors and Accomplishments

Nominee, Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship, 茄子视频, 2015, 2016

American Antiquarian Society, Creative and Performing Artists and Writers Fellowship, Alternate, 2005 Faculty Development Grant, 茄子视频, 2005-6

Nominated for Lincoln Prize, MRS. LINCOLN AND MRS. KECKLY: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN A FIRST LADY AND A FORMER SLAVE, Broadway Books, 2003.

MASTERING SLAVERY: MEMORY, FAMILY, AND IDENTITY IN WOMEN'S SLAVE NARRATIVES, listed in "Lingua Franca" (March 1998) in its "Breakthrough Books" column.

Nuala McGann Drescher Award, United University Professors, 1994-95

Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellow, Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, 1993-94

"The Problematics of Sisterhood in Slave Narratives," Northeast MLA, 1991 (finalist for Women's Caucus Award)

Community Outreach

PUBLIC TALKS, WORKSHOPS, AND PRESENTATIONS

“Mourning A Son at Wilson’s Creek,” Talk Sponsored by National Parks Service, Wilson’s Creek Battlefield, Springfield, MO, March 2019

Keynote Speaker, Elizabeth Keckly Bicentennial Symposium, Hillsborough, North Carolina (Governor of North Carolina issued Proclamation Honoring Elizabeth Keckly), Nov. 10, 2018

Mary Todd Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium, Mary Todd Lincoln House/University of Kentucky, speaker and panelist, Lexington, KY, Nov. 1, 2018

“’It May Be Charged That I Have Written Too Freely’: Elizabeth Keckly and Mary Lincoln Remember and Write.” Sponsored by National Park Service and Civil War Roundtable of the Ozarks, Springfield, MO, Guest Lecturer, March 16, 2019

“Harriet Jacobs, Property, and Slavery,” Randolph-Macon College, Guest Lecturer, Department of History Speakers Series, Feb. 15, 2016

Panel Discussion, following film, The Life and Times of Elizabeth Keckly, in which I am a featured commentator, Randolph Macon College, Feb. 16, 2016

Arena Stage Theatre: Mary L. and Lizzy K., q & a following performance, April 2013

Newberry Library, “Mary Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckly,” October 2009

Library of America, NEH Teachers’ Workshop, “Abraham and Mary Lincoln,” July 2009

Teachers’ Institute on teaching slave narratives, Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, New York, Public Library, July 30, 2008.

NEH Teachers’ Workshop, “Race and Place: African Americans in Washington from 1800-1954, Decatur House, July 15, 2008.

“Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly,” North Hempstead Country Club, April 2008.

National Museum of Women in the Arts, Smithsonian Institute, Feb. 2004.

“Women Writing Women’s Lives,” CUNY Graduate Center, March 2004.

“Reshaping the Lincoln Marriage: Keckly, Herndon, and ‘The Secret of Mary Lincoln.” The Lincoln Symposium at the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum, Tennessee, April 2001. (invited)

“The Problems of Biography: Mary Lincoln,” The History of Psychiatry Group New York City, April 2001.

“‘When Bridget or Dinah takes to writing books instead’ Elizabeth Keckly’s Behind the Scenes,” CCNY American Studies Lecture Series, February 1999

“Elizabeth Keckly and the Lincolns” and panel discussion, The Lincoln Forum, Sixth Annual Ford’s Theatre Second Symposium, August 1999, Broadcast on C-Span

“Abraham Lincoln, Mary Lincoln, and Elizabeth Keckly” The Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic Annual Symposium, March 1999

"Obituaries in Black and White," The Persistence of Memory, conference, Harvard University, October 1995

"Narrating a Life After Slavery," Grand Rounds, Harlem Hospital Center: Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, May, 1993

"Beyond Being a Survivor," University at Albany Teach-in on Violence Against Women, 1993

"`Slavery and Education Are Incompatible': Frederick Douglass," Special on-campus seminars for inner-city high school students, to encourage them to pursue college educations; a program of visits initiated for the Options program, Goddard-Riverside Community Center, New York City, 1991, 1993

"`So she took me to be her own dear, loving child': Bonds of Motherhood in Women's Slave Narratives," SUNY at Albany, Humanities Institute, Works-in-Progress Series, 1991

"Desire and Repression in Hawthorne's Novels," University at Albany, Humanities Institute, Works鈥慽n鈥慞rogress Series, 1988

"The Works of Angela Carter" (introduction), The New York State Writers Institute Lecture Series at the New York State Museum, 1988

PUBLIC MEDIA APPEARANCES AND INTERVIEWS

Quoted, NYTIMES, “Overlooked No More, Elizabeth Keckly, Dressmaker and Confidente to Mary Todd Lincoln,” by Nancy Wartik, 10/7/2019, A24

Commentator, documentary film, Life and Times of Elizabeth Keckly, New Millennium Studios, Petersburg, VA, June 2014

Panelist, “The 100^th Anniversary of WWI,” Exploring Critical Issues Series, TelecareTV, May 2014

Quoted in NYTIMES, “A Strong Thread in a Torn Union,” by John Williams, 1/10/2013, C1

NPR Podcast Interview, 9/1/13,

Guest, KPSI Palm Springs Radio Station, December 2012

Commentator, PBS documentary film, “Lincoln,” January 2005

MNN Access Television, Interview, March 2004

Teacher as Historian on WNYE-FM, May 2003

Radioscope, May 2003

Commentator, History Channel, “History’s Lost and Found: Mary Lincoln Letters,” March 2000

Guest, Urban Radio Network, The Bev Smith Show, interviewed about work on Elizabeth Keckly and the Lincolns, April 1999

Speaker and Panelist, C-Span broadcast of The Lincoln Forum, Sixth Annual Ford’s Theatre Symposium, August 1999

Commentator, PBS documentary film on Barbara Kingsolver. 1998

Professional Activities

Advisory Board, Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, 2007-09

Board of Directors, Lincoln Studies Institute, Knox College, 2004-08.

Selection Committee for ACLS Fellowship Programs, 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Board of Directors, Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic, 2000-04.

Book reviewer for Journal of HIstory of Sexuality, American Literature, Annals of Scholarship, American Studies International, Georgia Historical Review, Journal of American History, Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine Bulletin, Legacy.

Manuscript Reviewer for NYU Press, Oxford University Press, University of Wisconsin Press, University of California press, University of Florida Press, Duke University Press.

University Service

Interim Chair, Department of English, Spring 2017