John's University. He holds a 1997 Doctorate in Comparative Literature from New York University, where he concentrated on Latin literature in all its periods. His research interests include didactic and scientific poetry, the cultural interchange between Islam and Christendom, and American vernacular music. He is at present working on a book about pre-war jazz, blues and country records for Da Capo Press, and he has an article on the representation of the physical world scheduled to appear in the forthcoming issue of the Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature.