Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Cultural memory, Culture, English Literature, Modern History , Screen Studies

Research keywords:

American literature, English literature, American culture, Hollywood 1930-present, Biography, Reception history, American history

Regions:

North America

Summary of research interests and expertise:

I research topics relating American literature, culture, and history across the long 20th century (1890 to the present), with a particular focus on the interwar period and especially the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his circle. My research explores American myths and icons and close reads cultural discourse, especially intertextual and subtextual cultural codes and recovering lost contexts. Research topics include Gone with the Wind, histories of interwar American fascism, a rhetorical history of the phrases "American Dream" and "America First," histories and readings of The Great Gatsby, American language in the American 1920s and 1930s, classical Hollywood cinema, and iconic American figures including Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Henry James, and Margaret Mitchell. My methodologies focus on cultural history, biographical criticism, reception history and literary history, and I am particularly interested in the intersections of iconography, biography, authorship, and language. My journalism has been published in the New York Review of Books, Atlantic, Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, Prospect, Guardian, TLS, New Statesman, Sunday Times, and many others.

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
01-Nov-2022	'The Modern Old Master': Reading The Great Gatsby Again Chapters The Cambridge Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald, revised 2nd edition, ed. Michael Nowlin (Cambridge University Press, in press. Forthcoming 2022).
01-Oct-2022	America First, Last, All the Time Chapters Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past, ed. Kevin M. Kruse and Julian Zelizer. Basic Books, Oct. 2022.
07-Jul-2022	The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Myth of the Lost Cause Monographs Bloomsbury/Head of Zeus. ISBN 978-1789542981
01-Jan-2022	Cultural Amnesia, Dark Prophecies, and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead Novels Chapters Marilynne Robinson: Essays, ed. Rachel Sykes et.al., (Manchester UP: Forthcoming, 2021), in press.
01-Sep-2021	What is Vernacular History? Chapters What is History Now? ed. Suzannah Lipscomb and Helen Carr, Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2021. ISBN 9781474622455.
15-Jan-2021	The Party of Lincoln Ignored His Warnings About Mobocracy Articles New York Review of Books
01-Dec-2020	“'The Scandal Detectives': Town Topics and the Syndication of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1916-1923.” Journal articles F. Scott Fitzgerald Review.
21-Nov-2020	Can American Democracy Survive Donald Trump? Articles Guardian Review Cover Story
08-Oct-2020	The Oracle of Our Unease Articles New York Review of Books
02-Sep-2020	The Return of American Fascism Articles New Statesman
21-Aug-2020	The Plot Writes Itself: American History in Fiction and Counterfactual Articles Times Literary Supplement
10-Jul-2020	White Lies Matter Articles Prospect Magazine
22-Jun-2020	American Fascism: It Has Happened Here Articles New York Review of Books
28-Sep-2019	Donald Trump Acts As if He is Above the Law Articles Observer Comment
28-Sep-2019	American Immigration: A Century of Racism Articles New York Review of Books
11-Jun-2019	The Lehman Trilogy and Wall Street's Debt to Slavery Articles New York Review of Books
27-Feb-2019	America's Original Identity Politics Articles New York Review of Books
03-May-2018	Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream Monographs Bloomsbury (UK) and Basic Books (US)
01-Jan-2018	“Echoes of the Twenties Chapters American Literature in Transition, 1920-1930, ed. Ichiro Takayoshi, (Cambridge UP, 2018).
01-Jun-2017	“In Search of Bunny Burgess, or Down the Rabbit Hole: Glorified Anecdotes, Secret Histories, and The Great Gatsby.” Journal articles The Cambridge Quarterly, vol. 46 no. 2, 2017, p. 140-161. Selected as "Editors' Choice" 2017.
01-Dec-2016	“‘The Balzacs of America’: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Burton Rascoe, and the Lost Review of The Great Gatsby.” F. Scott Fitzgerald Review Journal articles F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, 2016
01-Jan-2016	“Trashing Marilyn: Reflections of a Metabiographer.” Journal articles Film, Fashion and Consumption special issue on Marilyn Monroe
15-Jan-2015	“Making the Social Register: Reading the Scrapbooks of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, 1920-1925 Chapters First Comes Love: Power Couples, Celebrity Kinship, and Cultural Politics, ed. by Shelley Cobb and Neil Ewen, (Routledge: 2015)
01-Jan-2015	“Literary Spirits.” Journal of Transatlantic Studies
01-Jan-2014	Forgotten Fitzgerald: Echoes of a Lost America. Edited Book
15-Jun-2013	Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby Monographs
01-Jul-2012	“Introduction: Must Read,” co-authored with Thomas Ruys Smith, in Churchwell and Ruys Smith, eds. Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers Chapters
12-Jun-2012	Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers Edited Book
01-Jan-2012	“Master of Sentiment: The Romances of Nicholas Sparks,” in Churchwell and Ruys Smith, eds., Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers Chapters
01-Jan-2011	Pale Horse, Pale Rider: The Selected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter Edited Book
10-Jun-2010	Introduction to Flappers and Philosophers: The Collected Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Chapters
01-Jan-2007	“Janis Joplin and Performance Anxiety.” From Self to Shelf: The Artist Under Construction, ed. Sally Bayley Chapters
01-Jan-2006	“‘Your Sentence Is Mine Too’: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and The Prison-House of Collaboration.” Literary Couplings, ed. Marjorie Stone and Judith Thompson Chapters
01-Aug-2005	“’$4000 a Screw’: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and their Prostituted Art.” European Journal of American Culture (Summer 2005) Journal articles
14-Jun-2004	The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe Monographs
01-Jan-2003	“‘Lost Among the Ads’: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and the Politics of Imitation.” Middlebrow Moderns: Popular Women Writers and the Literary Market of the 1920s, ed. Lisa Botshon and Meredith Goldsmith Chapters
01-Apr-2001	“Secrets and Lies: Plath, Privacy, Publication and Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters.” Contemporary Literature Journal articles

Research Projects & Supervisions

Research projects:

Details
Cultural Engagement 2016 Central Services of the School Project period: 15-Feb-2016 - 14-May-2016 Research interests: Culture, Social Sciences

Current PhD topics supervised:

Dates	Details
From: 01-Oct-2021 Until: 31-Oct-2024	Implicit Histories: Decoding the 1921 Archive LAHP Collaborative Doctoral Award, co-supervised with Dr. Christopher Ohge (SAS) and Dr. Chris Brake (FindMyPast.com).
From: 01-Oct-2020 Until: 31-Oct-2023	Ernest Hemingway Icon: The Evolution of Hemingway’s Celebrity Persona, A Reception Study Current supervision in process.

Past PhD topics supervised:

Dates	Details
From: 01-Oct-2014 Until: 31-Oct-2018	Echoes of the Silent Movie Age: F. Scott Fitzgerald on the Silver Screen (1920-1926) Dr. Martina Mastandrea, successfully completed in 2018.

Consultancy & Media

Available for consultancy:

Yes

Media experience:

Yes

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