Erin Penner

Dr. Erin Penner is a Professor of English at Asbury University, where she has held roles including Assistant Professor (2013–2018), Associate Professor (2018–2025), and currently Professor (2025–present). She holds a Ph.D. in English from Cornell University, an M.A. from Cornell, and a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Yale University. Her research focuses on British and American modernism, African-American literature, and the literature of mourning and war. She has conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.

Her academic work includes the book Character and Mourning: Woolf, Faulkner, and the Novel Elegy of the First World War (University of Virginia Press, 2019). Ongoing projects explore African-American literature of mourning and the long-term effects of trench talk on soldiers and civilians. She collaborates on the Digital Yoknapatawpha project, a digital humanities initiative analyzing William Faulkner’s works.

Her research trends emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to modernist literature, digital humanities, and the intersection of war, grief, and identity. Notable topics include Faulkner’s narrative techniques, Woolf’s elegiac forms, and the rhetoric of profanity in modernist texts.

Dr. Penner actively contributes to scholarly conferences, presenting on themes like modernist language, digital pedagogy, and the global impact of war narratives. Her work bridges literary analysis with contemporary social and historical contexts.