Kathleen Donegan

Kathleen Donegan is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds the Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Writing. Her research focuses on early American literature, colonial Caribbean studies, and the intersections of slavery, resistance, and catastrophe in colonial contexts.

Donegan earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University. Her notable works include Seasons of Misery: Catastrophe and Colonial Settlement in Early America (2014) and her current project On the Edge of Riot: A Story of Cruelty and Resistance in the British West Indies, exploring plantation trials and enslaved resistance in Nevis. She has taught courses on early American women writers, captivity narratives, and racial formation, alongside writing seminars emphasizing narrative practice in scholarship.

Her awards include Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award, Hellman Fellowship, and the Richard Beale Davis Prize. Donegan previously served as Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities (2016-2021) and held the Fletcher Jones Foundation Scholar position at the Henry E. Huntington Library (2021-2022). Her work has been featured in PBS documentaries and academic journals, reflecting her expertise in colonial history and cultural memory.