Her first book, The Politics of Anxiety in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, was published by Cambridge University Press in May 2011. It explores the political, literary, and religious quandaries posed by studies of the nervous system in the nineteenth century. She is currently at work on a series of essays on Civil War and Reconstruction literature. For every semester she has taught at Illinois, she has been listed on the List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by their Students, four times with an "outstanding" distinction. She was also nominated for the English department&apos;s Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2007 and 2009.