Associate Professor, English
- PhD, University of California, Irvine, English
- MA, University of California, Irvine, English
- BA, Boston University, English
Michele Navakas joined the USD faculty in 2026. She teaches courses in early American literature, nineteenth-century American literature, and literature and the environment. Her scholarly work has been supported by grants and awards from several foundations and institutions including the Fulbright US Scholar Program, the Beinecke Library, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress, and the Huntington Library. Before joining USD’s faculty she taught at Miami University (2014-2026) and Texas Tech University (2009-2014), and she received her Ph.D. in Literature from UC Irvine in 2009.
Scholarly Work
Navakas is the author of two books, Coral Lives: Literature, Labor, and the Making of America (Princeton University Press, 2023) and Liquid Landscape: Geography and Settlement at the Edge of Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018). Her articles and essays have appeared in publications including The Oxford Handbook of Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conversation, Early American Literature, and American Literature. Presently she is at work on a book titled Rachel Carson Reading, which draws upon the life and work of American author and environmentalist Rachel Carson (1907-1964) to defend literary study at a time of climate crisis.