Lisa Kasmer

Lisa Kasmer is an Associate Professor of English and Department Chair at Clark University, specializing in gender/sexuality studies, trauma studies, Romanticism, and Victorian culture. She holds a Ph.D. from UCLA (2002), M.A. from the University of Chicago (1985), and B.A. from the University of Connecticut (1983). Her research examines sociopolitical narratives in 19th-century literature, with a focus on women's historiography and national trauma. She authored Novel Histories: British Women Writing History, 1760-1830 (2012) and edited Traumatic Tales: British Nationhood and National Trauma in Nineteenth-Century Literature (2017). Current projects include Traumatic Failure in Romanticism. She teaches courses like Queer Victorians and The Gothic.

Her work bridges literary analysis with historical contexts, addressing imperialism, nationalism, and cultural memory. Notable articles include studies on Percy Shelley's The Cenci (2019) and Cassandra Cooke's historiography (2025). She has presented widely on topics like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (2013) and Romantic aesthetics (2025).