Jessica Berman

Jessica Berman serves as Professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she also holds affiliate appointments in Gender + Women's Studies and Language, Literacy and Culture. She directs the Dresher Center for the Humanities and previously chaired the English Department from 2006-2012. Berman earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago and her B.A. in History from Princeton University.

Her research focuses on transnational modernism, literary and feminist theory, and the intersection of literature with political thought. She has pioneered approaches that challenge conventional boundaries between 'modernist' and 'committed' writing, arguing for a continuum of political engagement across modernist texts worldwide. Her work frequently examines how narrative form connects ethical attitudes to political relationships and justice.

Berman's scholarship reveals significant patterns across her publications, demonstrating consistent engagement with transnational perspectives on modernism, the politics of community formation, and ethical dimensions of literary form. Her work consistently brings together canonical and lesser-known writers across geographical boundaries to challenge traditional narratives of modernist development.

• Whiting Foundation fellowship
• Newberry Library short-term fellowship
• Richard Halliday Prize of the Henry James Society
• Provost's Research Fellow (2007)
• Lipitz Professorship (2019-2020)
• Bearman Foundation fellow

Berman has directed significant scholarly initiatives including co-editing the Modernist Latitudes book series at Columbia University Press and serving as President of the Modernist Studies Association (2016-17). As Director of the Dresher Center, she co-PI'd the five-year Mellon Foundation-funded project 'The Inclusion Imperative' (2018-2023) focused on advancing diversity in humanities. She has supervised numerous graduate students and mentored early-career scholars through various institutional roles.

At UMBC, Berman leads the Dresher Center for the Humanities, which serves as a hub for interdisciplinary humanities research and collaboration. She has been instrumental in developing programming that connects humanities scholarship with community engagement and social justice initiatives, particularly through the Mellon-funded Inclusion Imperative project.