About
Alex Moskowitz is an Assistant Professor of English and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Critical Race and Political Economy at Mount Holyoke College. He specializes in early and nineteenth-century American and African American literature, with research examining the interplay between sensory perception, literary form, and the political economy of slavery. His current book project, American Imperception: Literary Form, Sensory Perception, and the Political Economy of Slavery in the Nineteenth-Century American Novel, explores these intersections. He co-edits the forthcoming collection Radical Transcendentalisms (2025) and previously served as Associate Editor of The Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies.
Education
- Ph.D., Boston College
- M.A., Boston College
- B.A., State University of New York, Purchase College
Research Focus
Moskowitz investigates racial capitalism, Marxism, and affect theory through literary analysis. His work connects slavery's economic structures with sensory experiences in nineteenth-century texts, particularly in African American literature. Courses he teaches—including 'Abolition and Climate Change' and 'Marxism and Early American Literature'—reflect his interdisciplinary approach to literature as a diagnostic tool for social and economic issues.
His recent publications consistently examine perception, racial dynamics, and political economy, with themes like apathy in antislavery writing and ecological aspects of Black freedom movements. Articles demonstrate a pattern of linking historical literary analysis with contemporary critical frameworks such as racial capitalism and affect theory.
Awards and Honors
- 1921 Prize in American Literature (2023)
- Clough Fellowship, Boston College (2018-2021)
- NEH Summer Fellowship (2022)
- Invited talks at Brown University and Amherst College (2023-2024)
