- Interim Chair, Department of English, Spring 2007
- Director of Graduate Studies, Department of English, 2000-2003
- Director of Graduate Admissions, Department of English, 1999
- Associate Dean for Personnel and Planning in Arts and Sciences, 1995-1998: faculty recruitment, appointment, honors, fellowships, and leaves; affirmative action and sexual harassment; promotion and tenure; annual salary and post-tenure review.
- Acting Chair, Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, 1997-1998
- Editorial Boards: PMLA 2015-2016; University of Virginia Press, 2005-07; Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies; South Atlantic Review; Lifewriting Annual.
- MLA: Executive Committee, Autobiography, Biography, and Life Writing 2006-2010; Radio Committee 2009-2011; Chair, 2009-2010; Member, Lowell Prize Committee, 2007; Chair, 2008; Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee, 1996-1998; Chair, Committee on Honors and Awards, 1997-1998.
- President, Society for the Study of Narrative Literature, 2005. Perkins Prize Committee for Best Book on Narrative, 2006-2007
- Advisory Board, North American Victorian Studies Association (elected 2011)
- Professor, Bread Loaf School of English, summer 2006, 2008
- Project Coordinator, Center for the Liberal Arts, 2003-present (Short courses for high school English teachers in the area and state.)
- Conference Co-organizer: 3rd Annual North American Victorian Studies Association Conference, University of Virginia, 30 September-2 October 2005
