Andrea Knutson

Andrea Knutson serves as Associate Professor in the Department of English, Creative Writing, and Film at Oakland University. She specializes in early American literature and culture, with additional institutional roles including co-chair of the Native American Advisory Committee and membership on the Women and Gender Studies Executive Committee.

Her educational background features a Ph.D. from The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).

Dr. Knutson's research interests center on Early American Literature, Environmental Humanities, and Indigenous Studies. She investigates plantation ecologies within the British empire, sovereign spaces in the plantation complex, and the materialism of clay in historical contexts. Her work extends to early American women writers, literary histories of transgression and civil disobedience, and the American supernatural.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong interdisciplinary trend, merging environmental history with literary studies. Key themes include fugitive environmentalisms, resilience, and the material culture of colonialism, particularly in Caribbean and American contexts.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• 2020: Jay and Deborah Last Fellowship in Visual Culture from the American Antiquarian Society
• 2016: Center for Historic American Visual Culture Summer Seminar Fellowship (topic: "Seeing Nature: The Environment in American Visual Culture to 1900") from the American Antiquarian Society

In academic service, she co-chairs the Native American Advisory Committee and contributes to the Women and Gender Studies Executive Committee. Her current scholarly project is a second book examining the materialism and sovereignty of clay in plantation histories.