About me #

I grew up on a mountain swallowed up by kudzu just across the river from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In college and graduate school I studied nineteenth-century American literature, culture, and history. I’m interested in backcountry settlements in the early republic and conflicts between Native peoples and settlers.

I teach writing and research to first-year students at Dartmouth College.

I wrote The Open Handbook—a free, open-source reference book that introduces students to the conventions of academic writing and research.

I like open-source software and culture. I’m a fan of Canonical’s Ubuntu and System 76’s Pop!_OS. I’m particularly enthused by the Pandoc, Markdown, Obsidian and Hugo projects.

Lately I’ve been listening to The National, Future Islands, The War on Drugs, and Aidan Knight a lot.