Kristina K. Groover

Kristina K. Groover is a Professor in the Department of English at Appalachian State University, where she has taught since 1996. Her academic specialty centers on 20th century British and American literature with significant contributions to women's and African American literary studies.

Education

• Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• B.A. from Dickinson College

Professor Groover's research explores literary constructs of spirituality and the intersections between feminist theology and women's literary texts. Her scholarship bridges theological inquiry with literary analysis, particularly examining how authors like Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison engage with spiritual dimensions. She has edited seminal works including "Things of the Spirit" (2004) and "Religion, Secularism, and the Spiritual Paths of Virginia Woolf" (2019), establishing her as a leading voice in spirituality studies within literary criticism.

Her publication trajectory from 1999-2023 reveals consistent engagement with Virginia Woolf's modernist works, evolving toward contemporary racial justice themes in her 2023 Toni Morrison analysis. This progression demonstrates her ability to connect historical literary scholarship with urgent societal issues through frameworks of memory, trauma, and spiritual reconciliation.