My research interests are varied: I have studied the Harry Potter novels and films a great deal (my dissertation continues this interest). I am fascinated by the linguistic and ideological constructions of childhood and adulthood in films from Disney (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan) and Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo). I am captivated by the many different ways that picture books engender meaning through various levels of interplay between imagistic and textual communication systems. I am also interested in critical theory in general, and structuralism, formalism, film theory, and narrative theory specifically. Now that I have completed my dissertation, I am working on reshaping it into a book. I am also writing a book that offers a close reading of the constructions of dominant cultural ideology in the Pixar films (Finding Nemo, Wall–E, The Incredibles, etc.). Academic publisher McFarland has shown interest in both books.
