Chris Barrett
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Harvard University
cbarrett@lsu.edu
223-E Allen Hall
Biography
Chris Barrett is Associate Professor of English at Louisiana State University, and Dean's Fellow in the College of Humanities & Social Sciences. She joined the LSU faculty in 2012 after completing her doctoral degree in English at Harvard University. Her research and teaching interests include early modern English literature, poetry and poetics, ecocriticisms, and geocritical approaches to literature. Her published works--recognized by a Rainmaker Award in 2018--include the book Early Modern English Literature and the Poetics of Cartographic Anxiety (Oxford University Press, 2018), as well as articles and essays on forests, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, butterflies, whales, fire, ether, and knock-knock jokes. She is currently completing a book on the poetics of the obvious. Her research has been supported by the Council on Research, the Newberry Library, the Folger Library, the Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Collection, the Lilly Library, and the Friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. From 2013-2024, Dr. Barrett was the faculty adviser to Spectrum, LSU's largest LGBTQIA+ student organization. Additionally, Barrett has been the recipient of several teaching awards, including the inaugural Outstanding Professor Award from the LSU Student Government (2018), the Tiger Athletic Foundation President’s Award (2017), the Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award (2014), and the English Graduate Student Association Graduate Faculty Award (2014). She currently serves as acting director of the HSS Humanities Center.
Area(s) of Interest
Renaissance and early modern British literature, with special attention to Spenser and Milton, Shakespeare, and lyric and epic poetry; geocritical approaches to literature; critical animal studies and ecocriticism