Dani (my spouse) has been pushing me for a long time to shift my compulsive political posting from Facebook (and the ruins of Twitter) to Substack. Since it’s summer now, it feels like the right time to test out the waters and see how this thing works.
So, here’s a quick sketch of who I am and what I might discuss on this site.
I’m an Associate Professor of English in Philadelphia, and I work on the intersections of politics and culture. I’m a British Romanticist by training and a long-time rhetoric and writing administrator and teacher, so I think a lot about language, literature, feeling, and formation—especially in the turbulent contexts of modern political revolt and nationalist upheaval.
I grew up in Idaho with Washington family, and I did graduate school in Oregon, so I’m permanently connected to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. I worked for several years as a photojournalist in the Boise area, and I did two years of acting with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival before that, so I anticipate some of those things might turn up in later posts.
Dani is a U. S. historian who specializes on ideology, politics, & white supremacy. They’re also an expert in curricular development and (like me) a one-time stage performer. We got married on Zoom during the pandemic. They may decide to post here from time to time, but mostly they’ll just come up as a recurrent reference point in my posts.
American Id is an “occasional” podcast that Dani and I produced in the fall of 2022. That’s what the name of this Substack comes from. We posted the first four episodes of a series called “Eye of Sauron” that offers a window into right-wing political appropriations of J. R. R. Tolkien’s works. It was fun, and it did really well. We posted two research-heavy regular episodes and two bonus episodes that dealt with breaking news (yes, breaking Tolkien news is weirdly a thing). Then, some life complications and our careers got in the way, and we had to step back from the project. Hopefully we’ll return to it in the near future.
In the meantime, welcome to my Substack!
Consider subscribing, if you liked our podcast or if you have an interest in things like the politics of popular culture, leftist political analysis, public argument, antifascist activism, and democratic education.
