My research and teaching focuses on three main areas of literature and culture:

• The literature and political economy of settler colonialism in the Victorian era, focusing especially on Australia and New Zealand, and its relationship to metropolitan culture
• The relationship between narrative, empire, and the environment in the nineteenth century
• New Zealand literature, especially the novel and poetry, from its origins to the contemporary moment

I grew up in Wellington (well, Johnsonville) and began my studies ​with a BSc in Chemistry and an MA in English at Victoria University of Wellington. From there, I completed a PhD in English at Duke University, supported by a Fulbright Scholarship, under the supervision of the inestimable Kathy Alexis Psomiades.

My first job was in the Division of English at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. I returned to New Zealand to take up a position in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University in 2010. I live in Palmerston North, two hours north of Wellington, with my wife and our four children.