Mary Catherine Foltz

Mary Catherine Foltz is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Lehigh University, where she has taught since 2009. Her work bridges literary scholarship with community-based public humanities initiatives focused on LGBTQ+ history and social justice.

Education

• PhD, University at Buffalo, SUNY, 2009

Foltz's research explores intersections of queer theory, feminist theory, and environmental crises in post-1945 American literature. She pioneers excremental culture studies and LGBTQ+ community archiving, creating accessible public history projects that amplify marginalized voices in the Lehigh Valley. Her methodology centers collaborative university-community partnerships to address health inequity and social justice.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2014-2022) reveals three dominant trends: sustained engagement with reproductive justice through literary analysis (notably Jesmyn Ward's work), systematic documentation of LGBTQ+ history via oral archives, and annual critical surveys of 20th-century American fiction. These threads coalesce in her innovative public humanities approach that transforms academic research into community resources.

Scientific Awards

• Northeast Modern Language Association Book Award for Literary Criticism (2019)
• ACLS Scholars and Society Fellowship (2021)
• Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center Leadership Awards (2018, 2023)
• Lehigh University Pride Center OUTstanding Initiative Awards (2019, 2020)

Foltz has secured over $300,000 in competitive grants as PI or Co-PI, including a $100,000 NEH Collaborative Research Grant for the Gloria Naylor Archive project and a $75,000 ACLS fellowship. Her grant portfolio demonstrates exceptional skill in aligning academic research with community needs through the South Side Initiative, where she mentors undergraduate researchers on digital archiving and public programming projects that directly serve the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center.

As a core leader of Lehigh's South Side Initiative since 2016, Foltz co-developed the Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archive and directed multiple Mountaintop student teams in creating digital exhibitions, oral history collections, and community events that preserve regional LGBTQ+ history from AIDS activism to marriage equality.