RACHEL A. BLUMENTHAL
Indiana University Kokomo
Department of Humanities KO 235
2300 S. Washington St. | Kokomo, IN 46904
Phone: (765) 455-9312
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.rablumenthal.wordpress.com
EDUCATION & ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Assistant Professor of English
Indiana University Kokomo
July 2014 to Present
Kokomo, Indiana
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Northwestern University
2013-14
Evanston, IL
Ph.D. English
Advisors: Profs. Betsy Erkkilä (director), Julia Stern, Ivy Wilson
Northwestern University
May 2013
Evanston, IL
M.A. English
Northwestern University
May 2008
Evanston, IL
B.A. English & History (summa cum laude, honors, Phi Beta Kappa)
Vanderbilt University
May 2007
Nashville, TN
RESEARCH & TEACHING FIELDS
American literature
Medical humanities
Nineteenth-century culture
Multi-ethnic and African American literature
History of psychology
Gender studies
Life writing
Ecopoetry
BOOK PROJECT
“Misdiagnosis: Psychology and the Female Patient in Nineteenth-Century American Literature”
The nineteenth century saw the rise of a vast array of diagnostic categories and empirical psychological
approaches. My project uncovers an archive of what I call hospital captivity narratives that rivaled
physician-authored treatises and other recognizably scientific forms of writing. This literature, I contend,
overturns the epistemological structures of western medical practice and re-defines the boundary between
health and illness by reconceiving the notion of (mis)diagnosis.
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed A rticles
“Mary Todd Lincoln, Elizabeth Keckley, and America’s Psychiatric Republic.” Literature and Medicine
(accepted).
“Margaret Fuller’s Medical Transcendentalism.” ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance 61.4 (2015):
553-595.
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“Canonicity, Genre, and the Politics of Editing: How We Read Frederick Douglass.” Callaloo, A
Journal of African Diaspora 36.1 (2013): 178–191.
“Looking for Home in the Islamic Diaspora of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Azar Nafisi, and Khaled Hosseini.”
Arab Studies Quarterly 34.4 (2012): 250–265.
Other W ritings
“Khaled Hosseini.” Critical Survey of American Literature. Ed. Steven Kellman. Amenia, NY: Grey House
Publishing (in progress).
“Paresthesia,” “State Road 26,” “Wieland County Wind Farm,” and “Drift” (poems under review).
Antecure.com. Co-Founder, Co-Editor, contributing writer. Medical humanities blog that curates a
thoughtful collection of short-form critical essays, images, and other relevant resources.
www.antecure.com
“Mad Max, Male Nurse.” With Eric Hengstebeck. Antecure: A Medical Humanities Blog 18 June 2015.
http://antecure.com/2015/06/18/mad-max-male-nurse/
“Nightlonging.” The Stockholm Review of Literature. Issue 7, March 20, 2015
http://thestockholmreview.org/the-stagnelius-section/nightlonging-by-rachel-a-blumenthal/
“Our Romance with the American Wilderness,” “Archiving our Lives,” “A Jazzy Take on American
Transcendentalism,” and other pieces at the Chicago Humanities Festival. Weblog. 2012.
http://www.chicagohumanities.org/Blog/Rachel-Blumenthal.aspx
Book Review of Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement In Durham, North Carolina.
Christina Greene. 49th Parallel: An Interdisciplinary Journal of North American Studies. Issue 21.
Autumn 2007. http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue21/index.htm
“Improvisational Soloists in Morrison’s Jazz.” The Explicator. 65.4 (2007): 240–41. Reprinted in Novels for
Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 40. Detroit: Gale, 2012.
“Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.” The Explicator. 65.2 (2007): 117-19.
HONORS, GRANTS, & FELLOWSHIPS
Mayers Fellowship
Huntington Library
Summer 2017
San Marino, CA
Overseas Conference Grant
Indiana University
Summer 2016
Bloomington, IN (to Paris)
Summer Faculty Research Fellowship
Indiana University Kokomo
Summers 2015 & 2016
Kokomo, Indiana
Huntington Library Fellowship Research
Huntington Library
Winter 2013
San Marino, CA
Research Grant
Winter 2013
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Northwestern University Graduate School
Evanston, IL (to CA)
Newberry Library Lawrence Lipking Fellowship
The Newberry Library
Winter 2012
Chicago, IL
Futures of American Studies Institute Fellowship
Dartmouth College
June 2010
Hanover, NH
Science in Human Culture Program Affiliate
Northwestern University
2010-11
Evanston, IL
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS & INVITED TALKS
“Nurse Narratives and the Epistemology of Injury”
Midwest Modern Language Association (Civil War Caucus)
“Neurasthenic Experiments: Emily Dickinson and the Characters of
Mind”
Emily Dickinson International Society
November 2016
St. Louis, MO
June 2016
Paris, France
“Unsettling Sensations and Nineteenth-Century Cognitive Psychology”
(Panel Co-organizer & Presenter)
C19: The Society of 19th-Century Americanists
March 2016
State College, PA
“Reimagining Sensation: Cognitive Science and the American Literary
Madwoman”
Midwest Modern Language Association
November 2015
Columbus, OH
“The Psychiatric Republic: Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Todd Lincoln”
American Literature Association
May 2015
Boston, MA
“Interdisciplinary Futures: The Medical Humanities Model” (Invited
Keynote Address)
Midwestern Graduate Liberal Studies Conference
April 2015
Indianapolis, IN
“Visualizing the Story: Interdisciplinary Techniques for Teaching
Literature to Non-Majors.”
E.C. Moore Symposium on Excellence in Teaching
May 2015
Indianapolis, IN
“Writing Illness in Nineteenth-Century American Literature” (Panel
Chair)
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association
October 2012
Boulder, CO
“Women, Madness, and ‘Secret’ American Histories: Keckley’s Ailing
White House and Wakefield’s Hysterical War”
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association
October 2011
Scottsdale, AZ
“The ‘Secret’ History of American Institutions: Women, Madness, and
19th-Century Life Writing”
International Health Humanities Conference
August 2010
Nottingham, UK
“Captive Representations: Figuring Native American Captivity in Walt
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Whitman’s ‘The Sleepers’ and Sherman Alexie’s ‘Captivity’”
International Walt Whitman Symposium
June 2008
Dortmund, Germany
TEACHING
Assistant Professor of English
Indiana University Kokomo
August 2012 to Present
Kokomo, Indiana
Topics in American Literature & Culture: “American Gothic”
Literary Interpretation
Internship in English: Field Editorial Board (2 sections)
Topics in American Literature & Culture. “Finding Yourself: Identity in
the 20th-Century American Novel.
Early American Writing and Culture to 1800: “Reason, Rage, Revolution.”
Writing Poetry: “World-Changing Language.”
Disturbed Minds: Psychology and Literature (Freshman Learning
Community with Jeff Batis)
American Literature, 1865-1914: “Between the Wars.”
Critical Practices: “The Literary Clinic.” (2 sections)
American Literature, 1800-1865: “Terror and Hope.”
Elementary Composition II: “The Body Across Disciplines.”
Creative Writing: Poetry
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Northwestern University
ENG-L209
ENG-L202
ENG-L209
ENG-L209
ENG-L350
ENG-W303
ENG-L207/PSY-P103
ENG-L352
ENG-L371
ENG-L351
ENG-W132
ENG-W203
2013-14
Evanston, IL
Introductory Seminar in Reading and Interpretation
Studies in American Literature: “Reason, Rage, Revolution.”
Studies in American Literature: “Captivity.”
American Poetry: “Nature/Nurture and Ecopoetics.”
Studies in Twentieth Century Literature: “Writing the Margins.”
Instructor
Northwestern University
ENG 298
ENG 378
ENG 378
ENG 372
ENG 368
2010-13
Evanston, IL
“Plotting Love.”
“American Madness: History & Horror Post-Enlightenment”
Expository Writing (2 sections)
ENG 101
ENG 101
ENG 105
Instructor
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
2013-14
Chicago, IL
The Medical Humanities: Doctor and Patient
MEDICAL HUM &
BIOETHICS 410
Instructor
The Odyssey Project (Illinois Humanities Council)
Fall 2013
Chicago, IL
States of Mind and Body
WRITING & CRITICAL
THINKING
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Graduate Thesis Committee Member
Indiana University Kokomo (Master of Arts in Liberal Studies)
Spring 2016
Kokomo, Indiana
Marisa Mullett, “Gender, Power, and Rebellion: The Transformation of Female Characters within
Dystopic Fiction” (in progress)
Undergraduate Thesis Advisor
Fall 2015
Allison Wisler, “From the Mind’s Eye: A Collection of Flash Fiction”
Alexandria Stark, “To Love Herself: An Epistolary Novella”
Misha Smith, “The Loss of Personal Meaning in Globalized Medical Approaches,” Research essay
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Scholar-Facilitator, Indiana Humanities Next Indiana Campfires
(Limberlost State Historic Site)
Editor-in-Chief, IU Kokomo’s Field: A Journal of Arts & Science
Committee Member, 3rd Year Review (Dr. Paul Cook)
Participant, “Regional Campuses of Indiana University Research and
Grand Challenge Summit.” IUPUI
English Program Review committee member
Interviewer, IU Kokomo Cream & Crimson Scholarship Day
Panelist, IU Kokomo Library Fall Faculty Workshop, “Browzine: A New
Way to Browse and Read Academic Journals”
Panelist, “The Value of Undergraduate Publication.” Teaching to New
Heights: IU Kokomo Academic Affairs Retreat
Co-Organizer, IUK Faculty Research Symposium (2 annual symposia)
Referee, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature
Programming Fellow, Chicago Humanities Festival
Co-Chair, American Cultures Colloquium at Northwestern University
8 October 2016
2015-Present
Spring 2016
14 January 2016
Jan. 2015 to Oct. 2015
5 December 2015
4 November 2015
19 August 2015
January 2015-Present
Summer 2014
2011-12
2010-11
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Participant, Early Atlantic Reading Group
Purdue University
2015-Present
Lafayette, IN
Participant, Research Support Group
IU Kokomo
2014-Present
Kokomo, Indiana
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Modern Language Association (MLA)
American Studies Association (ASA)
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Assoc.
C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists
Midwest Modern Language Association
American Literature Association (ALA)
REFERENCES
Betsy Erkkilä
Henry Sanborn Noyes Professor of Literature
Northwestern University, University Hall 215, 1897 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
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Julia Stern
Professor of English and American Studies, McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence
Northwestern University, University Hall 215, 1897 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
Ivy G. Wilson
Associate Professor of English, Director of the American Studies Program
Northwestern University, University Hall 215, 1897 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
Joe Keener
Associate Professor of English and Chair of Department of Humanities
Indiana University Kokomo, 2300 S. Washington St., Kokomo IN, 46904
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