Brad Evans

Brad Evans is Chair of the English Department and Professor of English at Rutgers University since 1999. His research focuses on 19th-20th century American literature, anthropology, periodical studies, and documentary film. Special interests include pragmatism, the American short story, and relational aesthetics. He co-restored In the Land of the Head Hunters, a 1914 film now in the National Film Registry, and leads the Pragmatism Working Group at the Rutgers Center for Cultural Analysis. Current projects explore relational aesthetics in art and a study on chewing gum as cultural artifact.

Education: PhD, University of Chicago (no year specified), BA, University of Cincinnati.

Research Interests: Evans bridges literary and anthropological studies, examining how cultural concepts like 'modernity' and 'pragmatism' shape artistic representation. His work emphasizes transnational cultural flows and material culture's role in shaping narratives. He critiques how fads like ephemeral bibelots obscured American modernism's trajectory.

Publications & Awards: Authored Before Cultures (2005) and Ephemeral Bibelots (2019). Recipient of ACLS Fellowship (2012-2013), Center for Historical Analysis Fellow (2006-2007), and Mellon Grant (2004). His scholarship spans film restoration, literary theory, and interdisciplinary cultural analysis.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Pragmatism Working Group and collaborates with the Modernist Journals Project. Active in film preservation through the In the Land of the Head Hunters restoration initiative.