Sari Edelstein

Sari Edelstein is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her scholarship focuses on nineteenth-century American literature and culture, with expertise in women's writing, ecocritical approaches, critical age studies, and feminist/queer theory. She has authored two monographs, Between the Novel and the News (2014) and Adulthood and Other Fictions (2019), and co-edits ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture. Her current project, Beach Reading: A Literary History, examines the beach as a cultural and leisure institution in the nineteenth century.

• PhD and MA in English from Brandeis University
• BA in English from Northwestern University

Edelstein's research bridges literary analysis with interdisciplinary frameworks, including environmental humanities and age studies. Her recent publications explore intersections of age, gender, and ecological themes in American novels, periodicals, and theoretical discourses. She has organized special journal issues on oceanic New England and age in American literature.

Her work frequently addresses the cultural construction of age, from childhood to old age, and challenges normative developmental narratives in canonical and marginalized texts. Articles span topics like ecocritical readings of Melville, queer interpretations of women's writing, and historical analyses of aging representations.

• Pro-Quest-RSAP Prize for best article on periodicals by a pre-tenure scholar

Edelstein serves on editorial boards for J19 and ESQ, co-directs the Center for the Humanities, Culture, and Society, and advises the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on American literature, ecocriticism, and age studies.