Frances Dickey

Frances Dickey is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Missouri, part of the College of Arts and Science. She specializes in Modernist and contemporary literature, with a focus on T.S. Eliot, American poetry, and interdisciplinary studies of literature and the arts.

Education: MA and PhD in English from Johns Hopkins University (2003), AB in English from Harvard University (summa cum laude, 1992). Research highlights include her forthcoming monograph Prelude in St. Louis: T.S. Eliot's First City (Johns Hopkins UP, 2025) and co-editing volumes like The Edinburgh Companion to T.S. Eliot and the Arts. Her work explores Eliot’s connections to St. Louis, his correspondence with Emily Hale, and intersections of modernist poetry with painting and performance.

Awards include the Distinguished Service Award from the International T.S. Eliot Society (2022) and the Purple Chalk Award for teaching (2008). She has served as President of the International T.S. Eliot Society (2016–18), edited The T.S. Eliot Studies Annual, and curated exhibits like T.S. Eliot: A Game of Chess at the World Chess Hall of Fame.

Publications span monographs, edited volumes, and over 30 articles, including analyses of Eliot’s racial consciousness in St. Louis and collaborative projects on modernist archives. Her teaching focuses on modernist literature, transatlantic studies, and critical theory.