Katarina Gephardt

Katarina Gephardt serves as an Associate Professor of English at Kennesaw State University, where she contributes significantly to the Department of English through teaching and research. Her academic profile reflects deep expertise in nineteenth-century British literature, travel writing, Central European literature, and health humanities.

Dr. Gephardt's research interests focus on the relationship between genre and geography in nineteenth-century British women's travel writing on Eastern European destinations, as well as health humanities topics. Her scholarly work examines how British writers conceptualized Europe through travel narratives, with particular attention to polarized imaginative geographies of the continent. She has made substantial contributions to understanding Victorian representations of Eastern Europe and the intersections between travel writing and national identity formation.

Her publication record shows remarkable consistency and evolution over two decades, with recent work (2020-2025) increasingly focusing on health humanities, pandemic consciousness, and medical literature within Victorian contexts. Earlier work (2003-2015) established her expertise in travel writing and British representations of Europe, culminating in her monograph The Idea of Europe in British Travel Narratives, 1789-1914 (Routledge, 2014). Her research demonstrates interdisciplinary reach, connecting literary studies with medical history, cultural geography, and postcolonial theory.

Dr. Gephardt teaches a range of courses that reflect her research specialties, including ENGL 4620: The World of the Brontës, ENGL 4470: Jane Austen and Popular Culture, ENGL 4470: Bad Girls in Victorian Fiction, ENGL 3105: Mobility and Place in U.S. Travel Writing, and ENGL 2110: Literary Journeys. Her teaching appears designed to connect historical literary contexts with contemporary cultural concerns, particularly regarding travel, identity, and representation.