Barbara Ladd

Barbara Ladd is a Professor of English at Emory University, specializing in late 19th- and 20th-century American literature, with a focus on southern literature. Her work examines race, gender, class, literary modernism, and environmental studies in southern contexts. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has authored influential books such as Resisting History: Gender, Modernity, and Authorship in William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, and Eudora Welty (2007) and Nationalism and the Color Line in George W. Cable, Mark Twain, and William Faulkner (1997). She is also co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U.S. South (2016). Her current projects include studies on place, memory, and environmental themes in Upper South literature.

Her education includes an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and earlier degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and UNC Chapel Hill. She lectures widely on southern literature and is actively engaged in academic discourse on race, nationalism, and ecological writing.

Her research emphasizes intersections between literature and broader cultural movements, particularly in re-evaluating canonical texts through postcolonial, environmental, and gendered lenses. Her recent articles explore Faulkner's engagement with modernity, Twain's ecological perspectives, and spatial dynamics in southern narratives.

Ladd's scholarly contributions bridge traditional literary analysis with contemporary critical frameworks, offering fresh insights into foundational American authors like Faulkner, Twain, Poe, and Morrison. She is affiliated with Emory's English department and maintains an active academic profile through publishing and teaching.