Growing up in Australia my first encounter with the USA was through the media of television and comic books. My interest in the USA has expanded to include the broad sweep of American history, but the early interest in media still features in my teaching and writing and I still watch far too much television, although I no longer read comic books except for academic purposes, which lately has been quite a lot. After completing my undergraduate degree in Australian and American history I spent six years in the United States between 1987 and 1993, first at Rochester in upstate New York, and then in Washington, DC where I worked at the Smithsonian Institution. The Washington Post described my first book, Comic Strips and Consumer Culture (1998), as "engaging". Before coming to NUS I worked as a lecturer and administrator in Australian tertiary institutions. Of things American I have a passing tolerance for American football, baseball, and basketball, and enjoy rock 'n roll and jazz. During my 2007 sabbatical I was a visiting professor at the University of Melbourne and the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. 

I am an International Contributing Editor for the Journal of American History. I am on the editorial boards of the Australasian Journal of American Studies, ImageTexT, the International Journal of Comic Art, Popular Communication, and Studies in Comics. I am a member of the editorial board and a former managing editor of H-AMSTDY, the American Studies discussion list on the Internet.

My research interests are: Media; Memory, Nostalgia, and History; and brand names and trademarks.

My irregularly updated blog is here.

You can contact me at: hisilg at nus.edu.sg