Emily Gowen

Emily Gowen is a Lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard University, based at Massachusetts Hall in Cambridge, MA. Her research focuses on intersections between the rise of the novel, print culture history, and social inequality in 19th-century America. She holds research fellowships from institutions including the American Antiquarian Society and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. Her book project, awarded the 2023 SHEAR Dissertation Prize, is forthcoming from Penn Press. Gowen’s writing appears in American Literature, J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, and Early American Literature.

Her professional trajectory includes the 2022–23 John B. Hench Post-Dissertation Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society. Key research themes include literary history, publishing practices, and sociohistorical analysis of cultural texts. Though no specific articles are listed here, her work bridges early American literary studies with broader questions of print’s role in shaping social hierarchies.

• Awards: 2023 SHEAR Dissertation Prize
• Grants/Fellowships: John B. Hench Fellowship (2022–23), American Antiquarian Society, McNeil Center, Library Company of Philadelphia, BU Center for the Humanities