Amy L. Blair is an associate professor of English at Marquette University and is co-editor, with James Machor, of the journalReception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History, the official journal of the Reception Study Society. Dr. Blair's 2012 book Reading Up: Middle-Class Readers and the Culture of Success in the Early Twentieth-Century United States, was published by Temple University Press under the auspices of the Andrew Mellon Foundation-funded American Literatures Initiative. Reading Upinvestigates, through the lens of a reading advice column that ran for the decade between 1902 and 1912 in the Ladies' Home Journal magazine, the way readerly desires for social, cultural, and financial capital affected readers' reception of the canonical works of American literary realism and the less-celebrated, genteel literary bestselling fiction of the day. Dr. Blair's current work in progress includes a study of Emily Newell Blair’s reading advice in Good Housekeeping magazine during the 1920s and 1930s; a cultural history of fan mail from the eighteenth century to 21st-century Twitterdom; and a nascent study of censorship as seen through a reception study lens.
Teaching Fields
- American Literature
- Women's Studies
- Literature and Popular Culture
Office Hours
Fall 2013
- TU 1:00-2:00
- W 10:00-12:00
Teaching Schedule
Fall 2013- 2510/103 TuTh 9:30-10:45
- Introduction to American Literature 1
- 4510/101 TuTh 11:00-12:15
- Colonial and American Literature from the Beginnings to 1798
Research Interests
- Late 19th and Early 20th-century American Literature
- Early and New Republic-Era American Literature
- History of the Book
- Reception Studies
- History of American Periodicals
- Class and Gender Studies
Selected Publications
- “Main Street Reading Main Street.” New Directions in American Reception Study. Eds. Philip Goldberg and James Machor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
- “Research Strategies on Women, Popular Culture, and Family Life in America, 1800-1920: Making Use of the Periodicals from the Everyday Life and Women in America Collection.” Everyday Life and Women in America. London: Adam Matthew Publications, 2006.
- “Misreading The House of Mirth.” American Literature 76:1 (2004): 149-175.
- “Rewriting Heroines: Ruth Todd’s ‘Florence Grey,’ Society Pages, and the Rhetorics of Success.” Studies in American Fiction 30:1 (2002): 103-128.
Honors/Awards
- National Humanities Center Summer Institute participant, 2005
- Summer Faculty Fellowship, Marquette University, 2004, 2005, 2006
- Regular Research Grant, Marquette University, 2006
- Faculty Development Grant, Graduate School, Marquette University (For travel to the Material Cultures Conference at the Center for the Book, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2005)
- Faculty hall-STAR Award, Residence Hall Honor Society, 2004 and 2007
English Department
