Lori Leavell
Associate Professor of English
Irby 401
(501) 852-2064
Lori Leavell (Ph.D., Emory University) began her academic journey in the sciences, but it took only one English class (freshman composition with Doug Sonheim) to convince her to change directions. What she loved about that class are the things that continue to animate her study of literature: language that astonishes and stories that captivate. More than anything, Leavell loves to be surprised by a work of literature or by the path a printed text cuts in the world. Drawn to the material histories of literary works and the workings of print culture, she likes to think about how texts get produced, where they go, and who encounters them. These are the kinds of questions that have propelled her scholarship in nineteenth-century African American literature, some of which can be found in Callaloo, Book History, and Critical Insights: Frederick Douglass. Leavell regularly teaches Interdisciplinary Writing and Research, Introduction to Fiction, the surveys in American Literature, upper-level English classes that are part of the African/African American Studies curriculum (including Southern Literature), and Research Methods for graduate students. When not in the classroom, she looks for opportunities to run and swim whenever she can. Learn more about Dr. Leavell’s research and teaching expertise by consulting her CV.