My teaching and research interests include 19th Century English Literature; comparative literature and transcultural adaptation; the English novel; American short fiction; literary translation; and creative writing. I have taught many courses in these areas at both graduate and undergraduate levels throughout my career.
My research has been published in peer reviewed journals (A&HCI and MLA indexed) such as The Cambridge Quarterly, Comparative Drama, Classical Receptions Journal, International Theatre Research, The Explicator, The Ibsen Review, The Eugene O’Neill Review, The Hardy Review, and Literature Compass. The latest is a commissioned chapter for The Edinburgh Companion to Modernism in Contemporary Theatre (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).
My scholarly books include Culture, History, and the Reception of Tennessee Williams in China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), Adapting Western Classics for the Chinese Stage (Routledge, 2018), The Bronte Sisters in Other Wor(l)ds (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and Western Literature in China and the Translation of a Nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
Among my book-length creative endeavors are Becoming Monkey King: The Untold Story (2023), the perilous epic Journey to the West told for the first time in Monkey’s own witty, whimsical, and (self)righteous voice; Twin-Sun River: An American POW in China (2011); Purple Mountain: A Story of the Rape of Nanking (2010, featured at Shepherd Best Books, titled When the Purple Mountain Burns: A Novel when first published (2005); and Red Guard Fantasies and Other Stories (2007). My screenplay Purple Mountain has been optioned for production and my play Twin-Sun River: An American POW in China was staged by the prestigious Shanghai Theater Academy (2009).
My short stories, creative essays, and other short works have appeared in Feminist Studies, AMBIT, the Connecticut Review, Rain Flower, Shanghai Theatre, and many other places.
Among my literary translations are two Thomas Hardy novels: A Pair of Blue Eyes (1994) and The Well-Beloved (1998), and Pearl Jacket: Flash Fiction from Contemporary China (2008). Another Hardy-themed book I coauthored is Tragic Harmony: Essays on Thomas Hardy’s Fiction and Poetry (2001).
I served as chair of the Department of English at Western Connecticut State University (2017-2022) and coordinator of the MA in English program (2007-2015). I am the recipient of CSU Board of Trustees Research Award (2007), Distinguished Visiting Professor at the College of Liberal Arts, Yangzhou University (2017–present), and adjunct professor (English/Comparative Lit) at San Diego State University (2024–). I am serving on the Editorial Board of The Thomas Hardy Journal and The Hardy Society Journal (2018–present).