Dr. Hillard joined the English Department in 2007, after earning his Ph.D. in English from the University of Arizona, an M.A. in Literature and the Environment from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a B.A. in English from Boise State University. His current research and scholarship focuses on the intersections between fear, writing about nature, and the literary Gothic in 19th-century American literature and culture. He is co-editor of the book Before the West Was West: Critical Essays on Pre-1800 Literature of the American Frontiers (University of Nebraska Press, 2014).