Karin Westman

Fields of interest:
Contemporary and 20th Century British Literature and Culture; Cultural Studies; Women's Studies (Women and Literature); Narrative; Technology and Media; Children's Literature.

Karin E. Westman specializes in Twentieth-century and contemporary British literature. She is the author of Pat Barker's Regeneration: A Reader's Guide (Continuum, 2001), and she has published on Woolf and historiography, on contemporary British culture in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, on A.S. Byatt's relationship to Woolf, on the romance novels of Georgette Heyer, and on information literacy, among other interests. Her next book is J.K. Rowling's Library: Harry Potter in Context (forthcoming, UP of Mississippi). In progress is The New Realism: Contemporary British Women Novelists. She also serves as co-editor for the children's literature journal The Lion and the Unicorn (JHUP). She teaches courses ranging from contemporary British literature to British Survey II (1660-present), Bloomsbury to women's literature, Harry Potter to Downton Abbey. She has also assisted the department in using technology for teaching and for research. Since 2007, she has served as Department Head of English.