Kara M Russell, Ph. D.

I’m a Lecturer in the English Department at Clemson University, where I teach courses in Composition & Rhetoric and contemporary literatures. I’m also a Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Instructor at East Tennessee State University.

My academic work usually focuses on queer women’s multispecies encounters and environmental humanities contexts.

I grew up in Tennessee and studied English Lit and French at Earlham College. After my BA, I taught High School French for a few years before working as a Language Assistant in Normandy. My MA in English, with a TESOL certificate, is from East TN State University, where I really fell in love with the mountains and ecopoetry. After a gap year working for Girl Scouts (Lifetime Member!), I moved to Mississippi and earned my PhD. Along the way, I got married and adopted a few pups before moving to South Carolina. My wife and I enjoy walking in the woods, waterfalls, and cozy Scrabble days. At this point in life, my only late nights are the ones where I stay awake long enough to see an Indigo Girls concert.