Eileen Cleere will spend three weeks in England this summer continuing her research on the connections between fine art and dirt. Sound strange? Well, she's spent several years on the project and hopes to eventually turn it into a book.

"I'm examining the interdisciplinary connections of the Sanitary Reform Movement of the 1840s and changes in art criticism and appreciation. Part of my theory is that when the first sanitary theory came about, everything changed, including the cleaning and maintenance of art."

The movement led to the establishment of regulations governing public health policy in response to growing concerns about urban sanitation problems and the threat of public contamination.

The first part of her research will be published in the journal "Representations." Cleere says it can be very difficult to find the right home for a topic such as hers because it crosses such varied disciplines. But that's exactly what drew her to it in the first place.

"So much of what is going on in the humanities is pushing toward interdisciplinary work. We've created false boundaries and people are beginning to be more creative in thinking about history. It will be more rewarding for students in the long run if they are reading about art and philosophy in a literature class and making connections between them."

Teaching at Southwestern has allowed Cleere the flexibility to teach 19th century Romantic and Victorian literature — her specialty — as well as feminist film studies, a course she developed for the University. "It's funny that I came to Central Texas from the East Coast to find academic freedom. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around, but Southwestern seemed to be a place where liberal arts was still thriving."

Before arriving at Southwestern in the fall of 2000, Cleere taught at Simmons College in Boston for four years. There, she directed the master's program in English. Simmons was her first teaching job after earning her M.A. and Ph.D. at Rice University.

She credits her academic advisor at Rice for sparking her interest in Victorian studies. "It was a moment in time when women began to write great novels. I'm also intrigued by how political the Victorian world was, the oddities and new cultural developments. Plus I just loved Dickens."

While at Rice, she met her spouse John, who now works as a freelance writer and editor after teaching at Boston University. For fun, Cleere collects out-of-print 19th century novels, runs, takes kickboxing and practices yoga. She is a junior fellow in British studies at the University of Texas at Austin, which she says helps connect her to a larger community while giving Southwestern some attention as well.

For the most part, Cleere says that any time she's not teaching, she's desperate to work on her research. "I often bring my research into the classroom. We say, as a community, that we value lifelong learning, so I think it is good to show my students that their professor is still engaged in learning."

Sharing her successes as well as her struggles, Cleere recently showed her class a set of proofs, or edits, of a piece she wrote. "It was all marked up with red ink, and I think the students enjoyed the fact that what I write isn't perfect either. I'm as much a work-in-progress as they are."