Rebeccah Bechtold

Rebeccah Bechtold is an Associate Professor of English and Graduate Studies Coordinator at Wichita State University's Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of English. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on 18th and 19th century American literature and culture, with specialties in soundscape studies, sentimental literature, and women's studies. She examines how antebellum authors used sound to navigate social tensions in 19th-century America. Her work has been published in Southern Quarterly, ESQ, J19, and New England Quarterly.

Dr. Bechtold has received notable awards: the Ralph D. Gray Article Prize (2016) for her 2015 article on early American soundscapes and the Jerome Stern Article Prize (2018) for her 2017 analysis of sympathy in Making a Murderer. Her research bridges historical literary analysis with contemporary cultural criticism, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to sound and media.