On the surface, Turner's focus on Trollope seems in keeping with a current wave in the industry. Trollope's fictional world of highly politicized communities, peopled with diverse characters, is well suited for Britian's growing fascination with Victorian culture. Trollope has been rediscovered as a cultural icon, and the market is flooded with contemporary analyses of the author.

However, for Mark Turner- a progressive academic-Trollope seems an unlikely subject. But Turner is not focusing on the author, nor is he focusing on the actual novels per se. Melding historical research with poststructuralist approaches to gender and culture, he looks at Trollope's serial installments in relation to other features in the magazines, both in terms of theme and physical juxtaposition. He also examines the magazines themselves in the context of Victorian print culture and society at large. Because periodicals represent such a hybrid represent such a hybrid of literary genres, this approach is ideal for Turner's "recklessly eclectic" sensibilities.

Just as Trollope seems a surprising subject for such a progressive study, it seems equally surprising that a young American has established himself as an authority on British literature at the University of London. An alumnus of Hampden-Sydney emerging as a spokesperson for contemporary feminism is, ostensibly, yet another anomaly. But Hampden-Sydney, in fact, was a wellspring for Turner's literary interests. The College's "ideal seminar atmosphere," he said, fostered his passion for literature, and the liberal arts curriculum was an impetus for the cross-disciplinary tendencies that now define his work. "I really found an intellectual niche," Turner said, citing specifically a Milton class with former professor Jim Schiffer and a literature and theology class with professors Elizabeth Deis and Lowell Frye.

"You can easily find professors to talk to," he continued. "They'll give you all the time in the world. And that's what's great about Hampden-Sydney."

This salient characteristic of the College underscored Turner's relationship with advisor Mary Saunders. In the very first lines of his acknowledgements for Trollope and the Magazines, Turner writes: "I was introduced to the fiction of Anthony Trollope by Mary Saunders, under whose tutelage I read through the Barchester novels as an undergraduate. Her enthusiasm became my addiction, for which many thanks."

It was through "backroom dealings" with Saunders, Turner said jokingly, that he began to explore Victorian literature and feminism. The byproduct of their intellectual camaraderie was Turner's senior honors thesis-The Feminine Solution: Trollope's Comic Vision in the Barchester Novels-for which he won the Jones Prize at graduation. The intellectual dialogue they initiated in the recesses of Morton is still very much alive, thanks to e-mail.

"He was so much fun," Saunders said, fondly recalling a Christmas party that Turner and others held in their residence hall at Penshurst, then used as a dorm. "He was incredibly energetic and curious. He wanted to find out more about everything. But our conversations were so casual that I just never realized he was becoming a scholar."

After graduation, Turner entered a master's program at University College London, where he wrote his thesis on gender issues in Edith Wharton's fiction. By the time he was in the Ph.D. program at Birbeck College London, he was ready to return to Trollope. When he did, he realized that critics were not looking at the novels as serial installments.

"I knew right away that the magazines were the way to approach the questions I wanted to address," he said. Turner structured his thesis like a book, and when publishers became interested, he didn't have to rewrite.

In addition to Trollope and the Magazines, Turner co-edited a book entitled From Author to Text: Re-Reading George Eliot's 'Romola.' He is also the co-editor of Media History, a journal in which he tries "to create a space where people from many disciplines-politicians, art historians, literary critics-can come together." He is on several other editorial boards, gives talks in America and on the continent, and frequently writes for various journals and periodicals.

When he is not writing and publishing, Turner teaches Victorian literature, master's theory courses on research methods, and 19th-century single author classes at King's, one of the UK's foremost research universities. He also convenes the English department's master's program and supervises Ph.D. students.

Recently, Turner has added courses in which he looks at the representation of cities in urban literature (e.g., Dickens) and addresses questions of urban culture through the lenses of architectural theory, spatial theory, and urban planning. He is now working on a study of sexuality and urban space in London and New York since the late 19th century.

Quite often, such theory-based criticism is confined to the ivory tower. But Turner's publicly oriented scholarship subverts this practice. "It is the responsibility of the scholar to change," Turner said, his non-academic persona seemingly incongruous with the charge of scholar. Rather than withdrawing from the greater community into the enclave of academia, Turner uses diverse methodologies to address real issues of culture and society. The result is something of a critical synergism; through his progressive template, Turner assumes the threatened role of public intellectual. For a scholar unbound by conventional demarcations, it's a fitting paradox.