Dr. Carter Neal

Biography

Carter Neal earned a BA in English with a concentration in American Studies from the University of Virginia and completed his PhD in English (American Literature) at Indiana University in 2016. His graduate studies included assisting with writing program administration and teaching a broad range of communication writing courses. From 2011 to 2016, he served as a Lecturer in Business Communication at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and worked as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of South Dakota from 2016 to 2018. He joined the University of Waterloo in August 2018. Neal's research focuses on antebellum and Reconstruction American literature, particularly Emerson studies and Transcendentalism, as well as social welfare reform movements. His work examines the changing tensions in the relationships of choice, friendship, adoption, and love, within the rigid structures of social and personal organization, including gender, race, and religion. His most current projects involve revisions of parts of his dissertation, titled “The Splendid Failures of Emersonian Friendship,” which explores the epistolary friendship between Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson and the theoretical influence of Emerson on the formation of adoption agencies in 1850s New England.

Research Interests