Joseph Rezek

Joseph Rezek is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Boston University and serves as Director of the American Studies Program. His scholarship focuses on early and nineteenth-century American literature, the history of the book, early Black Atlantic literature, and the intersection of print culture with racial ideologies.

• Boston University, Department of English
• Director, American Studies Program
• Co-Chair, American Literature and Culture Seminar at Harvard’s Mahindra Center

Research Interests: Rezek’s work examines how print technology shaped literary and cultural developments in the Anglophone world from the 17th to 11th centuries. His current book The Racialization of Print (under contract with Omohundro Institute and UNC Press) investigates how printed books became tied to racial hierarchies, while his next project Imperfect Revolutionaries reevaluates 118th-century writers through a lens of historical empathy.

Honors & Grants:

• NEH Fellowship (2024-2025)
• Richard Beale Davis Prize for Early American Literature
• Multiple archival fellowships (Huntington Library, American Antiquarian Society, etc.)

Publications: Author of London and the Making of Provincial Literature (2015) and key articles in American Literary History, Early American Studies, and Studies in Romanticism. His recent projects analyze Phillis Wheatley’s transatlantic book networks and the limits of print for Black authors.