Elizabeth Muther

Affiliation: English
Associate Professor of English, on leave for the 2023–2024 academic year
Elizabeth Muther works in 20th and 21st century American and African American literatures with teaching and research interests in humor theory, visual culture studies, poetry, and children’s literature.  She has developed a cluster of courses that approach literary texts through theoretical and historical engagements with visual culture: “African American Literature and Visual Culture,” “Of Comics and Culture” (on graphic narratives and sequential art), “African American Children’s Literature,” “The Harlem Renaissance,” and “African American Film.”  She recently co-curated an exhibition at the Bowdoin Museum of Art entitled “Letters and Shadows: African American Art and Literature” that was linked to one of these courses. Her current book project, Shadow Dancing: Racial Doubles in Performance, explores the problems of racial mimicry and of shadow figures in American expressive culture.
Elizabeth Muther headshot

Education

  • PhD, University of California-Berkeley
  • BA, Wellesley College