Paris is one of the world's great literary and artistic capitals, and has long been a beloved city for artists and travelers from around the world. We'll spend our summer getting to know the city while we read about and explore the lives and works of some of the great artists who made Paris their home. My own passion for ideas, literature, and language was inspired by my study abroad experience in France as an undergraduate. Since that time, I've lived in Paris and in Montpellier, where I worked as an English teacher and translator in France. Now that I'm a professor of U.S. Literature at UCSD, I love to recapture the magic of that first visit to France by sharing the experience with my students.

Although I am now a professor of U.S. Literature, my passion for ideas, texts, and language was inspired by my own study abroad experience in France. Seeing the world outside my hometown was among the most exciting experiences of my life; sharing that world with my students has been among the most rewarding. Relevant things to know about me: I'm fluent in French and have lived in Paris and Montpellier; I love to run; I am about to publish my first book, on the history of U.S. schools in the Philippines.