Alex Trimble Young

Alex Trimble Young is an Associate Teaching Professor and Honors Faculty Fellow at Arizona State University’s Barrett Honors College, with affiliations at ASU’s Center for the Study of Guns and Society. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern California (2015) and a B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University (2004). Young is a leading voice in transnational settler colonialism and U.S. literature/culture, with a forthcoming book The Frontiers of Dissent under contract with University of Nebraska Press.

• Key research areas: settler colonial violence, Indigenous resistance, gun culture, frontier mythology, critical theory, and U.S. literary history.
• Teaches courses on U.S. literature, transnational settler colonialism, gun culture, and the history/culture of the U.S. West, including study abroad programs in Australia and Morocco.
• Co-hosts the Guns Unpacked podcast and co-edited special issues on gun culture (with Lindsay Livingston) and settler colonial studies (with Lorenzo Veracini).

His publications span journals like Social Text, Lateral, and American Literary History, with a focus on how settler colonial frameworks shape contemporary dissent, gun policy, and cultural narratives. Awards include the Aldo Leopold Citizen Advocate of the Year (2024) for public lands advocacy and early career honors from the Western Literature Association and American Studies Association.