His research examines the role of astronomical themes in European poetry, and he has published articles on Petrarch, Dante, Veronica Gambara, Walt Whitman, and on the exploration of Mars. He teaches courses on the history of astronomy and the relations between astronomy and the arts, and is a frequent instructor in the Humanities Seminars program. He is co-founder of the popular lecture series "Astrobiology and the Sacred: Implications of Life Beyond Earth," sponsored by a grant from the Templeton Foundation. He has won a variety of major university teaching awards, including the UA Foundation Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award, the Provost's General Education Teaching Award, and several Humanities Seminars Superior Teaching Awards.