Hilary received a BA in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University in 1993 and an MA in Literary and Cultural Theory from Carnegie Mellon University in 1995. She is currently at work on a dissertation for the English Department at the University of Chicago, titled "The Levelling Muse," which examines how the figure of the Leveller and metaphors of leveling are used to talk about the problem of equality in British print culture from 1789-1850. Her teaching and research interests include radical politics and political writing; the Romantic novel; figures of speech; and marxism and cultural studies.