Beth Blum

Beth Blum

Harris K. Weston Associate Professor of the Humanities
(On leave Fall 2023)
beth blum

Education: B.A., Concordia University, Montreal QC (2005)
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania (2014)

Interests: Modern and contemporary literature; the history of self-help and therapeutics; sociology; medical humanities; the conduct of life; the cultural history of sensitivity

Selected Publications:

Monograph:
The Self-Help Compulsion: Searching for Advice in Modern Literature (Columbia University Press, January 2020).

Sample Articles & Essays:
“The Hidden Depths of Alex Trebek’s Banter With ‘Jeopardy!’ Contestants.” The New Yorker.com, 6 January, 2021. "The Radical History of Corporate Sensitivity." The New Yorker.com, 24 September, 2020. “Highbrows and Self-helpers.” Aeon Magazine, 22 January, 2020 “The Self-Help Hermeneutic: Its Global History and Literary Future,” PMLA 133.5 (October 2018). “Modernism’s Anti-Advice,” Modernism/modernity 24.1 (January 2017). “James Joyce’s Strategic Populism” Modern Language Quarterly 74.1 (March 2013).

 

Contact Information

Office: Barker 143
(On leave Fall 2023)