Jason de Lara Molesky

Jason de Lara Molesky is an Assistant Professor of English at Saint Louis University’s College of Arts and Sciences, specializing in modern and contemporary American literature, Latinx and Indigenous studies, and environmental humanities. He holds a PhD from Princeton University, an MFA from the University of Mississippi, and a BA from the University of Florida.

• Education: PhD in English (Princeton University), MFA (University of Mississippi), BA (University of Florida)

His research interrogates the intersection of corporate environmental exploitation, socioeconomic justice, and literary representation, particularly through the lens of company towns in the Anthropocene. He co-edited Cli-Fi and Class: Socioeconomic Justice in Contemporary American Climate Fiction (2023) and is developing his monograph Company Town Archipelago, which examines how contemporary artists and writers repurpose company town legacies to envision ecological and social dissent.

Recent publications analyze climate nonfiction pedagogy in carceral spaces, Gothic toxicity in hydrofracking narratives, and migrant labor in Anthropocene fiction. His work has appeared in Modern Fiction Studies, American Literature, and The Georgia Review, with reprints in This Impermanent Earth (2021).

• Scientific Awards: Jacobus Fellowship (Princeton), Grisham Fellowship (University of Mississippi), Mahindra Center Postdoctoral Fellowship (Harvard), Blue Mountain Center Residency

Molesky’s unique experiences include working as a maintenance assistant at the largest underground coal mine in the U.S. and creating the Gotham City Well Pad Scenery project, reflecting his engagement with environmental and industrial realities.