Kathleen Reeves, Ph.D.

Professor of Humanities

Biography

I received a BA in English from Yale College, an MA in Humanities and Social Thought from NYU, and Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington, where I studied literature and feminist theory. For the last decade, I have taught literature, composition, and humanities to high school and college students, and I am writing a novel and a book on literature of motherhood after 1970. I have published articles in Feminist Theory and Arizona Quarterly and poems in Oversound.

Teaching Philosophy

I have two primary goals in teaching humanities: to encourage students to look more closely at cultural works, and to impress upon them that they, too, are part of cultural history. I believe that engaging with texts of all kinds changes our vision of the world. We come to see the world more clearly as we look closely at cultural works: “reading” them, thinking about their context, and considering what peers and scholars think about them. Furthermore, we come to see ourselves as embedded in a particular culture, at a particular moment in history. What do we value and what do we ignore? How does this resonate on the level of cultural works?

Areas of Interest

General humanities

American studies

Cultural studies

Feminist theory

Contemporary literature

Courses taught at ACC

HUMA 1301: Prehistory to Renaissance

HUMA 1302: Renaissance to Present

HUMA 1315: The Arts in Contemporary Society: Art of Living