Aviva Briefel

Aviva Briefel is the Edward Little Professor of the English Language and Literature and Cinema Studies at Bowdoin College, affiliated with the Department of English and Cinema Studies. She holds a PhD and MA from Harvard University (2000) and a BA from Brown University. Her office is located in Massachusetts Hall 205, and she can be contacted via email at abriefel@bowdoin.edu.

Her research explores Victorian literature and culture, horror film, material culture, and spiritualism. She is currently working on a book manuscript titled Ghost and Things: The Material Culture of Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism (forthcoming from Cornell University Press). Her work critically examines themes of identity, cultural fear, and historical representation across media.

Briefel has authored and edited several books, including The Deceivers: Art Forgery and Identity in the Nineteenth Century (2006), The Racial Hand in the Victorian Imagination (2015), and co-edited volumes such as Horror after 9/11 (2011) and Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work (2023).

She received the James Phelan Award for Best Essay in Narrative (2021) for her article analyzing Jordan Peele's Get Out. Her teaching focuses on Victorian literature, horror cinema, and adaptation studies.