Kathryn Harlan-Gran

Kathryn Harlan-Gran is a Visiting Lecturer and PhD candidate in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University. Her academic focus includes contemporary American literature, popular culture, new media, and speculative fiction, alongside critical race theory, gender studies, and pedagogy. She holds a BA from the University of Pacific and an MA from Cornell University.

Her research examines intersections of power, identity, and relationality through speculative fiction and media. Her dissertation, "Pop Potentiality: Renegotiating Networks of Power and Relation through Contemporary Speculative Fiction," critiques oppressive hierarchies using narrative modes in American culture. A chapter from her work is forthcoming in The Routledge Research Companion to Toni Morrison.

Recognized for teaching excellence, she received the Gertrude Spencer Prize (2019) and the Shin Yong-Jin/Harry Falkenau Fellowship (2022-2023). She has collaborated with community colleges as a graduate correspondent, co-led a literary journal at Cayuga Heights Elementary School, and peer-reviewed for the Cornell Undergraduate Research Journal.