Shari Goldberg

Shari Goldberg is an Associate Professor of English specializing in nineteenth-century American literature and related interdisciplinary fields. Her academic work bridges literary studies with psychology, disability studies, and ethics, establishing her as a distinctive voice in contemporary literary scholarship.

Her primary research interests include:

• Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture
• Care and Care Practices
• Illness and Disability Studies
• History of Psychology, particularly Hypnotism and Trauma
• Witnessing and Human Rights
• Literary Theory
• Restivism: the advocacy of rest through restorative means

Goldberg's scholarly trajectory reveals a remarkable intellectual arc from her early work on Emerson's antislavery testimony through her foundational book Quiet Testimony to her current explorations of restivism and enslaved narratives. Her publications consistently demonstrate an interdisciplinary methodology that connects historical literary analysis with contemporary theoretical concerns about embodiment, testimony, and care ethics. She has made significant contributions to understanding how literature processes trauma, constructs care practices, and represents invisible illnesses, particularly through her analyses of Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Herman Melville.

Her work appears across prestigious venues including American Literature, Nineteenth-Century Literature, The Henry James Review, and Literature and Medicine, reflecting her ability to bridge traditional literary scholarship with medical humanities and disability studies. Goldberg's development of the concept of 'quiet testimony' has established a theoretical framework that continues to influence discussions of witnessing in literature and beyond.