Nathaniel Lewis Director: English Program, Professor of English

Bio

Ph.D. Harvard University
M.A. University of North Carolina
B.A. Yale University

I offer courses on aesthetics, literary and cultural theory, environmental writing, and Jane Austen. In my teaching, I value “beginner’s mind,” our capacity to experience the world anew. I strongly believe that literature, like all the arts, can open us up to wonder and possibility. When I’m not reading, writing, or listening to music, my first preference is to hit a woodsy trail with my dogs.

Research

My research focuses on the intersections of place (home, region, nature) and aesthetics (language, representation, beauty). My books include Unsettling the Literary West (recipient of the Western Literature Association’s Best Book of 2004 award) and Morta Las Vegas: CSI and the Problem of the West (co-authored with Stephen Tatum), as well as a collection of essays, True West (co-edited with William Handley).

Awards & Recognition

I am the co-editor of True West: Authenticity and the American West and the author of Unsettling the Literary West, which won the Western Literature Association’s 2004 Thomas J. Lyon award for Best Critical Book in the field. I serve on the editorial board of the Postwestern Horizons series for the University of Nebraska Press and am a past member of the Western Literature Association’s Executive Council.