His research and teaching focus on representations of sexuality, race, and gender in 19th and 20th century American literature and culture, particularly the literature and culture of the U.S. South. His current book project, tentatively entitled Possessive Intimacy: Property, Sexuality, and Southern U.S. Slavery, looks back to the biracial literary archives of the antebellum South to understand how queer forms of desire and eroticism are connected to issues of property and the property both slavery and “traditional” marriage.