Talia Schaffer

Talia Schaffer is a Distinguished Professor of English at Queens College CUNY and the Graduate Center CUNY, with a joint appointment in Women's and Gender Studies. She earned her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1996. Her research spans Victorian literature, feminist ethics, disability studies, and material culture, with a focus on care communities and marriage plots in 19th-century fiction.

Schaffer's work explores:

• Feminist reinterpretations of marriage and relational ethics
• Disability and care networks in Victorian social structures
• Recovery of noncanonical women writers
• Intersections of decorative arts and domestic life in literature

Her recent publications analyze care ethics in pandemic academia, disability in Austen's works, and feminist canon formation. She predominantly publishes in Victorian studies journals, exploring themes of labor, migration, and community.

Awards:

• NAVSA Book Prize (2016)
• Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize
• Choice Outstanding Academic Book (2016)

Schaffer mentors graduate students in feminist methodologies and Victorian studies, though specific advisees are unnamed. She edits scholarly collections and leads projects on care ethics and archival feminism.