Education
Ph.D., Indiana University, 1999
M.A., Indiana University, 1993
B.A., Williams College, 1989
Teaching Interests
Satire
Book History
American Comics and Graphic Novels
British Literature, esp. 1700-1900
Core Cultures
Most Recent Publications
Books
The Broadview Anthology of Eighteenth-Century British Satire. Co-edited with Nicholas Nace. Broadview Press. 2023
Teaching Modern British and American Satire. MLA Options for Teaching Series, Co-edited with Nicholas Nace. MLA, 2019
Robinson Crusoe, Editor. Broadview Press:,2010. (Modernized edition, 2014).
Articles and Short Essays
Introduction, Teaching British and American Satire. Co-authored with Nicholas Nace. MLA, 2019
“Irony.” Teaching British and American Satire. Edited by Evan Davis and Nicholas Nace, MLA, 2019
“Pope’s Phantom Moore: Plagiarism and the Pseudonymous Imprint.” Producing the Eighteenth-Century Book: Writers and Publishers in England, 1650-1800. Edited by Laura L. Runge and Pat Rogers. University of Delaware Press. 2009
"The Injured Lady, the Deluded Man, and the Infamous Creature: Swift and the 1707 Act of Union." Anglo-Irish Identities, 1571-1845. Edited by Jill Bradbury and David Valone. Bucknell University Press, 2008
"A Just and Authentic Relation: Solitude, Sodomy, and Print Culture in the Narrative of the Marooned Dutchman." The Eighteenth-Century: Theory and Interpretation. Summer 2004
"Teaching in the Space of Blackboard." Co-authored with Sarah Hardy. Computers and Composition On-line. Spring 2003
Review of Shipwrecked: Disaster and Transformation in Homer, Shakespeare, Defoe, and the Modern World, by James Morrison. Digital Defoe. Summer 2016
“’Lost’: The Pilot Episode, or, Robinson Crusoe in the Classroom.” The Hampden-Sydney Record, 2010
"Philip Larkin: 'This Be the Verse.'" The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry, 1900 to the Present. Ed. James Persoon and Robert R. Watson. New York: Facts on File, 2008
Honors & Awards
Hampden-Sydney Honors and Awards
Elliott Professorship, 2008-11, 2016 to the present
John Peter Mettauer Award for Excellence in Faculty Research, 2022
Thomas Edward Crawley Award for Distinguished Service to the College, 2020
Cabell Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2011
Hampden-Sydney Summer Research Grants, 2000-2009, 2012-2021
Bortz Award for Teaching with Technology, 2004
External Honors and Awards
Fulbright Instructor, Tokyo, Japan. Tsuda University and Hosei University, 2023-24
Geiss-Hsu Foundation Scholarship to support the study of East Asian Cultural Artifacts, Rare Book School, Summer 2022
Fulbright finalist, 2021
Mayers Fellowship, The Huntington Library, June 2014, May 2015
Clark Library/Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies Short-Term Fellowship, The William Andrews Clark Library, June 2005
American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Fellowship, The Newberry Library, November 2004
Mayers Fellowship, The Huntington Library, May-July 2004
NEH Summer Seminar Fellowship. “Anglo-Irish Identities, 1600-1800.” Notre Dame Keough Center for Irish Studies. June-July 2003
Indiana University Graduate School Dissertation Year Fellowship, 1997-1998
Indiana University Fellow, 1991-1996
Selected College Service
Promotion and Tenure Committee, 2019-2021 (chair 2020-21), 2022-2024
Lectures and Programs, 2022
Assistant Dean of the Faculty, 2016-19
Presidential Search Committee, 2015-16
Professional Development Committee, 2012-16
Chair, English Department, 2010-13
Admissions Committee, 2009-12
Rhetoric Program Associate Director, Fall 2008
Honors Council, 2005-08
Family
Mary Boodell
Ravenel Davis
Benjamin Davis