Katherine Fusco

Katherine Fusco is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Chair of the Gender, Race and Identity program. She holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University (2008) and a B.A. from SUNY Geneseo (2003). Her work bridges film studies and literary criticism, with a focus on silent film, feminist theory, and modernist literature. She launched the university’s cinema and media studies minor and served as Director of Core Humanities.

Her research explores intersections between film history, gender, and race, including studies of Anita Loos, W.E.B. Du Bois’s data visualizations, and racial dynamics in early cinema. She has published two books, including Kelly Reichardt: Emergency and the Everyday (2017) and Silent Film and U.S. Naturalist Literature (2016), alongside over a dozen peer-reviewed articles.

• Awards: 1921 Prize in American Literature (for “Techniques of Justice”), William Riley Parker Prize (for “Feast Your Eyes...”)
• Publications: Over 20 articles across journals like Feminist Modernist Studies, MELUS, and Modernism/Modernity.

Her current project, a biography of Anita Loos, combines archival research with cultural analysis. Fusco teaches advanced courses on modernism, cinema theory, and American literature, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches.