
Joani Etskovitz
Department
Areas of Expertise
Biography
Joani Etskovitz is an Assistant Professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College. A Marshall and a Beinecke Scholar, she earned her A.B. from Princeton, two Masters in English and History from the University of Oxford, and her Ph.D. from Harvard. Joani’s research investigates how transatlantic novel fictions shaped debates surrounding education, gender, and women’s rights over the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In her classes, students will encounter authors ranging from Sarah Fielding to Maria Edgeworth, Charlotte Brontë, Hannah Crafts, and Louisa May Alcott. As a teacher and researcher, Joani aims to reveal the processes by which popular prose genres for women and children emerged – and how these genres gave rise to still-flourishing literary forms, such as young adult fiction. Joani has published in English Literary History and Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, written for LARB and Public Books, curated exhibits for the Bodleian and Houghton Libraries, and developed outreach events for the Library of Congress and Cotsen Children’s Library. At Harvard, Joani co-founded and directed the English Department’s Literary Careers Program, which supports humanities students’ professional development.
Research Interests
- British & transatlantic literature in the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
- The novel genre.
- Feminism & women authors.
- Children's & young adult (YA) literature.
- The history of education.
- Book history.
Education
PhD, Harvard University, English, 2025.
MSt, University of Oxford, British & European History (1700-1850), 2019.
MSt University of Oxford, English Literature (1830-1914), 2018.
AB, Princeton University, English, 2017.
Research and Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
“‘Not for Mere Children’: Charlotte Smith’s Feminist Novels for ‘Young Persons.’” Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, vol. 54, no. 1, 2025, pp. 47–67. https://doi.org/10.1353/sec.2025.a951740.
“Sarah Fielding’s Feminist Literary Pedagogy, in Which Nasty Women Become Novel Writers.” English Literary History, vol. 90, no. 1, 2023, pp. 29–54. https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.2023.0001.
Public Humanities Writing
“Hurray for Inventing New Genres or Whatever: On Dr. Moiya McTier’s ‘The Milky Way.’” Los Angeles Review of Books, December 24, 2022. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/hurray-for-inventing-new-genres-or-whatever-on-dr-moiya-mctiers-the-milky-way.
“Don’t Listen to Morals, Listen to Vegetables.” Public Books, October 20, 2021. https://www.publicbooks.org/dont-listen-to-morals-listen-to-vegetables/.
“Medicine and Activism in George Eliot’s ‘Quarry for Middlemarch.’” Los Angeles Review of Books, August 29, 2020. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/medicine-and-activism-in-george-eliots-quarry-for-middlemarch.
“Making and Measuring Education at Home: From Maria Edgeworth to the Kid Interrupting Your Attempt to Read These Words.” Los Angeles Review of Books, May 6, 2020. https://lareviewofbooks.org/short-takes/making-and-measuring-education-at-home.