Anna Hartnell

Anna Hartnell is a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, where she has been teaching since 2010 in the School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication. Previously, she worked for three years in the American and Canadian Studies Department at the University of Birmingham. She currently serves as Director of the BA Liberal Arts program and teaches across multiple undergraduate and postgraduate programs including BA English, MA Contemporary Literature and Culture, MA Modern Literature and Culture, and MA Critical Theory.

Education:

• BA American Studies, University of Sheffield, 2001
• MA Contemporary Approaches to English Studies, Goldsmiths, 2002
• PhD, Goldsmiths, 2007

Hartnell's research centers on contemporary literary and cultural constructions of 'America,' with particular focus on the intersections of race, religion, postcoloniality, and globalization. Her work critically examines US cultural representations of moments of rupture and crisis, especially as they relate to racial and environmental justice. She is currently developing a book project titled Women and the Anthropocene: Peopling the Planet in an Age of Climate Crisis, which explores women's centrality in the Anthropocene imaginary through literary analysis of works by Toni Morrison, Richard Powers, and Margaret Atwood.

Her extensive publication record reveals a consistent engagement with themes of American identity, disaster representation, and racial politics. The analysis of her 15 most recent publications shows a clear trajectory from early work on Exodus narratives in African American thought to contemporary analyses of climate crisis and environmental justice. Her scholarship demonstrates sophisticated interdisciplinary approaches, bridging literary studies with critical race theory, environmental humanities, and postcolonial studies. Particularly notable is her sustained examination of Hurricane Katrina's cultural aftermath and its implications for understanding American identity, neoliberalism, and racial justice.

Scientific Awards:

• AHRC early career fellowship (2013/14), during which she spent three months as a visiting scholar at Tulane University in New Orleans

Hartnell has supervised nine doctoral students at Birkbeck, with completed theses covering topics including 9/11 literature, David Foster Wallace, American suburbs, and the literature of the American South. Her supervision approach reflects her interdisciplinary research interests, encouraging students to explore connections between American literature, race, feminism, and the climate crisis. She has also organized significant academic events, including the conference 'After Katrina: Transnational Perspectives on the Futures of the Gulf South' at Tulane University and 'Rupture, Crisis, Transformation: New Directions in US Studies at the End of the American Century' at Birkbeck.

Beyond academic scholarship, Hartnell actively engages with public discourse through numerous media appearances and articles in outlets including The Guardian, Open Democracy, and Times Higher Education, where she contributes expert commentary on American politics, race relations, and environmental issues.