Katherine Fama

Katherine Fama is a tenured Assistant Professor of American Literature in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin (UCD). She holds leadership roles including Deputy Head of School (2024–2027), former Director of Graduate Research (2021–2024), and Co-Director of the Fictional Spaces research substrand under UCD’s Thresholds of Knowledge research initiative. She co-founded the Single Lives Research Group and helped establish the International Singles Studies Association (ISSA). Her work bridges literary studies, feminist theory, architectural criticism, and creative pedagogy.

Dr. Fama earned her PhD in English and American Literature from Washington University in St. Louis in 2013, with a certificate in American Culture Studies. She also holds an MA from New York University and a BA from Swarthmore College. Her postgraduate training includes a Digital EDI Ambassador Badge and participation in the Research Supervisor Support and Development programme at UCD.

Her research centers on singleness, architecture and narrative, feminist theory, sexuality studies, and the history of emotions in modern American literature. She explores how domestic spaces shape identity, particularly for single women, and investigates the emotional and material dimensions of literary form. Her book project, The Architecture of Singleness, examines early 20th-century novels, domestic architecture, and the figure of the single woman in America. Her interdisciplinary approach is reflected in collaborations across film, media, and studio arts.

Her recent publications span journals such as Emotions: History, Culture, Society, MELUS, Studies in American Naturalism, and Journal of Modern Literature. She co-edited Single Lives: Modern Women in Literature, Culture, and Film (Rutgers University Press, 2022), and her work increasingly integrates creative practice, including printmaking and community art projects focused on environmental regeneration.

• College of Arts and Humanities Teaching Excellence Award (2024)
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow
• Volkswagen Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow
• NEH Research Fellow
• W.M. Keck Foundation Fellow
• Everett Helm Visiting Fellow

Katherine Fama supervises PhD and MA students, including Chloe Green, whose research examines illness in the contemporary workplace novel. She founded the Graduate Futures workshop to support PhD candidates in academic and non-academic career development. Her funded research projects include 'Architecture and Narrative: The Built Environment in Modern Culture' and 'Print Exchanges: Site-specific Creative-Critical Responses to Extractivist Landscapes'. She has received grants from the NEH, Winterthur Museum, Huntington Library, Smith College, and the Marie Curie programme.

She co-directs the Fictional Spaces substrand of the Thresholds of Knowledge research strand and collaborates with Dr. Jorie Lagerwey on the Single Lives Research Group. She is also active in the UCD Centre for Gender, Feminisms & Sexualities and has held leadership roles in the Irish Association for American Studies.