“Most broadly, my scholarly interests are 20th and 21st century American literature and culture. Within that, I am interested particularly in cities and urban experience, in food studies, and also in Italian American studies. That is really diverse and sometimes it makes for a chaotic research agenda, but what I often find is that two or three of those interests connect.

“I’ve written about Italian Americans and food, I’ve written about Italian American food in New York City, and I’ve written about foodways and modernity in New York City. What I’m working on right now is an essay about how immigrant foodways in early 20th century New York were often seen as problematic by the powers that be.