Travis earned a B.A. in Plan II and English (with Honors) at The University of Texas. After that, he completed his PhD in English at The University of North Carolina. His research specialties include post-1945 American literature and film, health humanities, black studies, and sexuality studies. Articles on these topics have appeared or are forthcoming in American Literature; boundary 2; Literature, Interpretation, Theory; The Quarterly Review of Film and Video; and symplokē. Travis's dissertation--A Glamorous Nightmare: HIV/AIDS, American Literature, and the Viral Power of Whiteness--integrates these interests through examinations of texts including Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, and Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. At Rice, Travis will begin converting this dissertation into a book manuscript. He will also be collaborating with Rice's Medical Futures Lab and producing a series of podcast episodes. When not writing, Travis enjoys cycling, cooking, walking his mini dachshund, and reading detective novels.