Dr. Mariam Wassif

Biography

Mariam Wassif is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research focuses on rhetoric, race, and material culture during the long eighteenth century and Romanticism. Wassif is currently working on a book project titled 'Poisoned Vestments,' which explores the interplay between ancient rhetoric and the commercial modernity of canonical genres such as poetry, drama, satire, and prose from 1660 to 1820. She argues that the swift political, economic, and environmental changes of the time influenced major authors like Milton, Rousseau, Wordsworth, Byron, Austen, and Wheatley Peters to reinterpret classical tropes and the figurative language of 'dress' in thought. Adopting a feminist and decolonial approach, her work aims to enhance the understanding of the inter-animating relationship between rhetoric and history. Additionally, Wassif actively engages in public-facing work as the Communications Director of the Keats-Shelley Association of America and is a co-administrator of the Woman of Color anti-racist pedagogy Facebook group. She has spent several years teaching in France and was a Research Teaching Fellow and full-time instructor at the University of Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne from 2017 to 2022.

Research Interests