Annie Burkhart (she/her) is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Iowa and a General Education Literature (GEL) instructor. Annie studies gender and sexuality in Victorian and fin de siècle culture, aiming to uncover queer influences in the literature of the period. Her dissertation, The “New Person”: Radical Desire in British Literature, 1880–1930, scrutinizes covert expressions of same-sex desire and gender variance as well as identification on the asexual spectrum in the era’s poetry and prose. She is currently writing under a Post-Comprehensive Research Fellowship and came to the university as an Iowa Recruitment Fellow. 

Annie has presented her work at the North American Victorian Studies Association Conference, the Midwest Victorian Studies Association Conference, the Women of Color Feminisms Symposium, and numerous graduate conferences.

Dedicated to student-centered teaching, Annie utilizes trauma-informed pedagogy to support her students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As an instructor for the English and Rhetoric departments, Annie is committed to teaching undergraduate courses centered in social justice. In 2021, Annie co-taught the graduate course “Colloquium: Teaching Rhetoric” in her capacity as a Rhetoric Professional Development Program Co-Leader. Annie received the Council on Teaching’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in 2022.

Prior to joining the University of Iowa’s English department, Annie received her Master of Arts in English and a Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from University of Colorado Boulder, where she taught upper-level literature courses and an introductory course in Women and Gender Studies. She holds a second Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa. Annie is currently pursuing 200-hour yoga teacher training in order to deepen her pedagogical perspective.