Michelle Neely

Michelle Neely serves as Associate Professor of English and Director of the American Studies Program at Connecticut College, where she has been a core faculty member since 2013. Her interdisciplinary work bridges literary studies with critical examinations of environmental and social justice frameworks.

Her academic credentials include:

• B.A. from University of California, Berkeley
• M.A. and Ph.D. from University of California, Irvine

Professor Neely's research interrogates 19th-century American literature through contemporary crises, particularly in Against Sustainability: Reading Nineteenth-Century America in the Age of Climate Crisis (Fordham University Press, 2020). Her scholarship spans environmental humanities, African American literary traditions, and feminist theory, with special focus on animal studies and food systems. She examines how pre-1900 literature challenges modern sustainability paradigms to envision just ecological futures.

Her distinguished fellowships include:

• Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Toronto’s Jackman Humanities Institute
• Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment Senior Faculty Fellowship (2022-2023)

As American Studies Director, she mentors students across interdisciplinary projects while teaching innovative courses like "Humans and Other Animals" and "Literatures of the Anthropocene." Her current research explores utopian literature's role in social transformation. She actively collaborates with Connecticut College's Environmental Studies Program and GSIS Department on cross-departmental initiatives.

Professor Neely contributes to campus intellectual life through affiliations with the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment and Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology, where she develops programming at the intersection of humanities, ecology, and technological innovation.