Emily Hodgson Anderson

Emily Hodgson Anderson is Professor of English and Dornsife College Dean of Undergraduate Education at the University of Southern California, where she has been employed since earning her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2004. She specializes in eighteenth-century British literature and culture, with particular expertise in the eighteenth-century novel, drama, theater history, women writers, and theories of authorship.

Her research interests span the interactions between performance and print in 18th-century literature, the relationship between novels and plays, actors and actresses in the emergent celebrity culture of 18th-century theater, and more recently, the literary life, loneliness, and ghostwriting. Her scholarship moves fluidly between historical literary analysis and contemporary literary memoir, showing how the personal and creative intertwine in the literary process.

Anderson's publications reveal a trajectory from traditional literary scholarship to more personal explorations of the writing life. Her recent work focuses on literary labor, authorship, and the emotional dimensions of reading and writing, with particular attention to how books provide both isolation and connection. Her publications appear in prestigious journals and with major university presses, and she contributes regularly to public-facing literary venues like the Los Angeles Review of Books and Literary Hub.

Her scholarly awards include multiple USC Provost's Awards for Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, the USC Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award, and the Hemlow Prize for scholarship on Frances Burney. She has served in significant administrative roles including College Dean of Undergraduate Education and Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department.

Anderson is an active participant in the scholarly community, serving as Editor of The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation and participating in the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies. Her conference presentations and invited lectures demonstrate her standing as a respected voice in multiple scholarly communities, from specialized literary studies to broader discussions about the literary life.