Gustavus Stadler
Department Chair and Associate Professor of English
Biography
I was born in New York City, attended Yale as an undergrad, and completed my doctorate at Duke University. Beyond literature, my abiding interests are in music and politics, though generally not at the same time.
Education
B.A., Yale University
Ph.D., Duke University
Research
I published Troubling Minds: The Cultural Politics of Genius in the US, 1840-1890 (Minneapolis: U of Minn Press) in 2006. The book examines changes in theories and definitions of genius in the context of cultural and historical forces spanning the beginning of a mass-mediated abolitionist movement through the immediate post-Reconstruction era.
Although I continue to be interested in the history of the categories "culture," "authorship," and "genius", I have lately become immersed in theories and histories of sound and listening. I am currently editing a special issue of the journal Social Text the cultural politics of sound recording.