Patrick Whitmarsh

Patrick Whitmarsh is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross. He holds a Ph.D. from Boston University and specializes in 20th- and 21st-century American literature, narrative prose, environmental humanities, ecocriticism, and Anthropocene and extinction studies. His research examines intersections between literature, environmental history, and planetary crises, particularly focusing on vertical spatial descriptions in fiction that reflect scientific perspectives post-World War II.

Whitmarsh’s first book, *Writing Our Extinction: Anthropocene Fiction and Vertical Science* (Stanford UP, 2023), analyzes how post-1960 novels depict vertical spaces (e.g., outer space, boreholes) to reflect emerging scientific paradigms and planetary crises. He is currently working on a second book project titled *Planetary Alienation: Materialism and Environmentalism in Crisis Culture from 2008 to the Present*, exploring class politics and environmental concerns in contemporary literature and cinema.

Recent articles include studies on ecohorror in cinema, post-apocalyptic narratives in TV series, and layered ecologies in Karen Russell’s *Swamplandia!* His work bridges literary analysis, environmental science, and speculative fiction, emphasizing the Anthropocene’s spatial and temporal dimensions.

Whitmarsh teaches courses such as *Introduction to Literary Study*, *American Realism*, and *Modern American Novel*. His scholarship has been featured in venues like *Contemporary Literature* and *Modern Fiction Studies*, and he contributes to interdisciplinary dialogues on environmental humanities and cultural responses to climate change.