My areas of interest are two-fold but mostly relate to stories and storytelling. I am a British Romanticist and write about the connections between developing theories of the mind and literature of the period. My first book, *Creating Romantic Obsession: Scorpions in the Mind,* dealt with the ways in which obsession became categorized and viewed as an illness during the period. My newest book will be about cognitive disability and how it intersected with ideas of feeling, race, and gender during the period.
In addition, I direct our Medical Humanities program and work on illness and disability narratives; I believe that stories are very powerful and can change minds and, in turn, societies.