He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, where he specialized in 20th-century American literature and Critical Theory. His research interests include mobility studies (especially airports), ecology and environment, and concepts of place and space. He is the author of The Textual Life of Airports: Reading the Culture of Flight (Bloomsbury, 2012), and co-editor of Deconstructing Brad Pitt (Bloomsbury, 2014). He is co-editor of an essay and book series called Object Lessons, and can be found on twitter under the handle @airplanereading.