Eliza Richards

I study and teach American literature with a specialization in American poetry before 1900. I’m especially interested in the ways historical events and changes in media networks shape and inform the ways people write poetry, as well as the ways poetry participates in cultural transformations. Poetry in the nineteenth century was a powerful social force, and I explore the relations among categories like “popular,” “experimental,” “conventional,” and “great.” My work broadens understanding and awareness of important nineteenth-century poetry written by women, African Americans, and popular writers. I have written about Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Adah Isaacs Menken, Frances Sargent Osgood, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Herman Melville, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and many others. My research has been recognized by distinguished fellowships, and my work with students on the graduate and undergraduate levels has been honored by teaching awards.

Research interests: Aesthetics | African American Literature | American Literature from 1789 to 1900 | American Literature to 1900 to the present | British Literature from 1789 to 1900 | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Disability Studies | Genre Theory | History of the Book | Literature and History | Literature and Philosophy | Literature and Science | Literature of the Americas | Media Studies | Performance Studies | Poetry and Poetics | Women Writers
[from: https://englishcomplit.unc.edu/faculty...