Peter earned his Ph.D. from the department of English at Princeton University. He studies 18th and 19th century transatlantic literature on race, environment, theology, and speculation. His dissertation, Terrors of Superstition and Reason: Speculative Knowledge in the Novel, 1794-1859 narrates the story of how the imaginative qualities of speculative literature embrace and challenge Enlightenment claims to truth, and of the mode’s complex and paradoxical relation to the ideas out of which it arose. Talk to him about Frankenstein, ghosts, demons, automatons, and artificial intelligence. 

While at Princeton Peter was a fellow with The Center for Culture, Society, and Religion as well as a GradFUTURES University Administrative Fellow. There he worked as a community-engaged scholar with a focus on public communication of academic ideas. As a Resident Graduate Student for Mathey College's Edwards Collective, Peter also coordinated a group of approximately 35 students who applied to live together in a residential community that celebrates the humanities and creative arts.