David Porter

David Porter is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan's LSA (Literature, Science, and the Arts). He holds a MA from Cambridge University (1990) and a PhD from Stanford University (1996). His research focuses on transcultural translation, early modern China-Europe exchanges, and Great Lakes environmental humanities. Key projects include the Detroit River Story Lab and the Great Lakes Theme Semester. He has authored works such as The Chinese Taste in Eighteenth-Century England and edited Comparative Early Modernities: 1100-1800. His recent work bridges environmental stewardship with community engagement in the Great Lakes region.

Research interests span seventeenth/eighteenth-century British literature, postcolonial studies, material culture, and environmental humanities. His publications analyze cross-cultural aesthetics, global early modernity, and anarchist political thought. He teaches courses on literary journalism and research methodologies.

Porter's interdisciplinary projects engage public audiences through initiatives like the Great Lakes Writers Corps and the Great Lakes Arts, Cultures, and Environments Summer Program. His scholarship integrates literary analysis with ecological and historical frameworks, emphasizing interconnected global histories.