He received his Ph.D. in American Studies from Boston University in 2000. A historian of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American literature, he also researches and teaches courses on New York City’s many literary cultures. His book Republic of Intellect: The Friendly Club of New York City and the Making of American Literature was published in early 2007 by Johns Hopkins. He has published several articles in such journals as The William and Mary Quarterly, American Literary History, and Early American Literature. Professor Waterman’s current research involves seduction stories and sex scandals in the revolutionary Atlantic World; he is also at work, with Cyrus Patell, on a cultural history of New York City, and together they maintain the weblog A History of New York.