Before coming to UMBC, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania. A specialist in American and African American literature, he is at work on two different projects. One project constitutes the first historicist attempt to account for the differences between the American realist novel and its English predecessor; the second seeks to create a distinct space for biracial fiction beyond the prevailing monoracial paradigms into which it is almost always assimilated. Dr. Walker’s essays have appeared in leading journals, including Genre, MELUS, and Studies in the Novel. An essay derived from his second project–“Nella Larsen Reconsidered: The Trouble with Desire in Quicksand and Passing“–was awarded the 2016 Crompton-Noll Award for Best Article in LGBTQ Studies by the Modern Language Association’s Gay and Lesbian Caucus.