Tracey Cummings

Tracey Cummings is a Professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Writing at Mansfield University. Her academic work focuses on 19th-century American literature, composition and rhetoric, and contemporary American literature.

Education:

• Ph.D., English (19th-century American literature), Lehigh University
• M.A., English, Lehigh University
• B.A., English, King’s College

Research Interests: Cummings specializes in 19th-century American literature, with particular emphasis on authors like Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Alcott. Her work explores themes such as death in 19th-century literature, haunted texts, and symbolism in nature. She also investigates the intersection of literature and urban environments through the lens of New York City narratives.

Publication Trends: Her research spans literary analysis of medieval intertextuality in the 1990s to environmental symbolism studies in contemporary contexts. Notable collaborations include work on Chaucer’s use of medieval drama and ecological motifs in Thoreau and Alcott’s writings.

Courses Developed:

• America's Haunted Texts
• Death in 19th-Century American Literature and Culture
• Text and the City: Stories of NYC
• Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Alcott