Ann Louise Kibbie

Ann Louise Kibbie is an Associate Professor of English at Bowdoin College, specializing in eighteenth-century British literature with a focus on intersections between literature and medical history, property law, and economic narratives. Her research explores themes such as representations of money, sentimentalism, Gothic elements, and legal frameworks in early modern texts. She is on leave for the Spring 2025 semester.

Dr. Kibbie holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley (1990) and a BA from Boston University (1981). Her monograph Transfusion: Blood and Sympathy in the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (2019) examines blood symbolism and medical discourse in Victorian literature. Her current project, Fatal Labors: Obstetrics and the Disabled Maternal Body in Nineteenth-Century Great Britain, was supported by a 2021 NEH Fellowship.

Her research interests span literary analysis of corporeality, legal and economic narratives, and medical humanities. Notable awards include the NEH Summer Stipend (2000), recognition as a finalist for the William Riley Parker Prize (1995), and the Karofsky Prize for teaching excellence (1992).

She has presented widely at conferences such as the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, addressing topics like anatomical fragments, disabled maternal bodies, and transfusion narratives in literature. Her work bridges literary studies with interdisciplinary fields like medical history and material culture.