Tim Cassedy

Tim Cassedy is an Associate Professor of English at Southern Methodist University (SMU), specializing in American and transatlantic literature, the cultural history of reading, and the history of readers’ relationships with texts. His research explores language’s role in shaping identity during periods of globalization and revolution, as exemplified by his award-winning book Figures of Speech: Six Histories of Language and Identity in the Age of Revolutions (2019), which received the MLA First Book Prize.

Education: Ph.D., New York University.

Research Interests:

• Early American and 19th-century literature
• Print culture and text technologies
• History of reading practices
• Transatlantic cultural exchanges

Recent Articles: Focus on intersections between literature, history, and cultural practices, including studies on lexicography, medical historiography, and globalization.

Awards: Winner of the 26^th Annual MLA First Book Prize for Figures of Speech.

Teaching and Projects: Courses on American literary history and transatlantic studies, alongside digitization efforts of historical texts like John Borthwick Gilchrist’s universal phonetic alphabet (1825) and Mary Willcocks’ imaginary script (1817).