Lahney Preston-Matto teaches in the English Department at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She received her doctorate from New York University’s English Department in May 2000. Her area of specialization is medieval and twentieth-century Irish literature. Although her friends think that she watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the fashion and language play, she has been secretly carrying a torch for that tweedy Englishman, Rupert Giles, since the inception of the show.