Bio


Judith Richardson is a senior lecturer in English and program coordinator for American Studies. After receiving her PhD from Harvard University, Judith began teaching at Stanford in 2001, offering a range of courses on American literature, including classes on women writers, early American literature, autobiographies, and the literature of cities. The author of Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson Valley (2003) she continues to write and lecture—at Stanford and beyond—on the history and literature of New York, and on issues of place and cultural memory more broadly. She is currently working on a book about nineteenth-century America’s “plant-mindedness,” its multivalent obsession with vegetable matters.

Academic Appointments


  • Senior Lecturer, English

Administrative Appointments


  • Coordinator of American Studies Program, Stanford University (2009 - Present)
  • Senior Lecturer, Stanford University, Department of English (2009 - Present)
  • Assistant Professor, Stanford University, Department of English (2004 - 2009)
  • Lecturer, Stanford University: Department of English (2002 - 2004)
  • Lecturer, Stanford University: Program in Writing and Rhetoric (2002 - 2002)
  • Tutor, Harvard University: History and Literature Program (1997 - 1999)
  • Teaching Fellow, Harvard University: Core Program (1997 - 1997)
  • Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, Department of History (1996 - 1996)
  • Teaching Fellow, Department of English and American Literature and Language, Stanford University (1995 - 1996)
  • Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, Department of History (1995 - 1995)

Honors & Awards


  • Faculty Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center (2008-2009)
  • Finalist for the American Studies Association Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize, American Studies Association (2001)
  • Helen Choate Bell Dissertation Prize, for best dissertation on a topic in American literature, Harvard University (2001)
  • Packard Humanities Dissertation Fellowship, The Dave and Lucile Packard Foundation (1999-2000)
  • Helen Choate Bell Prize, Harvard University (1999)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Team Leader, Stanford VPUE’s Faculty College, English Department Team (2012 - 2013)
  • Member, Editorial Board, Literature in the Early American Republic
  • American Studies Honors College Faculty Leader, Stanford University (2009 - Present)
  • Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Honors College Faculty Leader, Stanford University (2013 - 2013)
  • Member, Committee-in-Charge, American Studies Program, Stanford University (2005 - Present)
  • Member, American Studies Association Annual Meeting Program Committee (2005 - 2005)
  • Resident Fellow, Junipero House, Stanford University (2003 - 2005)
  • Member, Graduate Admissions Committee, Department of English, Stanford University (2005 - 2006)
  • Graduate Admissions Committee, Department of English, Stanford University (2007 - 2008)
  • Graduate Admissions Committee, Department of English, Stanford University (2009 - 2010)
  • Undergraduate Studies Committee, Department of English, Stanford University (2006 - 2007)
  • Undergraduate Studies Committee, Department of English, Stanford University (2010 - 2011)
  • Undergraduate Studies Committee, Department of English, Stanford University (2011 - 2012)
  • Curriculum Committee, Member, Department of English, Stanford University (2004 - 2005)
  • Curriculum Committee, Member, Department of English, Stanford University (2012 - 2013)
  • Member, Senior Teaching Fellows Program, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University (1996 - 1996)

Program Affiliations


  • American Studies

Professional Education


  • Ph.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, History of American Civilization (2001)
  • A.M., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, English and American Literature and Language (1994)
  • M.A., New York University, New York, New York, American Civilization (1992)
  • B.A, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, American Studies, Art History (1991)

2023-24 Courses


All Publications


  • Nathaniel Hawthorne's Secret Garden Nathaniel Hawthorne Review Richardson, J. A. 2019; 45 (2): 171-197
  • A History of Virginia Literature (Book Review) NOTES AND QUERIES Book Review Authored by: Richardson, J. A. 2018; 65 (2): 282–83
  • Emerson and Hawthorne; or, Locating the American Renaissance The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Renaissance Richardson, J. A., Jones, G. R. Cambridge University Press. 2018: 52–65
  • Proslavery Fiction The Cambridge Companion to Slavery and American Literature Richardson, J., Jones, G. edited by Tawil, E. Cambridge UP. 2016
  • Lost in the City: Carleton Watkins’ San Francisco Photographs Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Albums Richardson, J., Jones, G. Stanford University Press. 2014
  • A History of Unrest The Spectralities Reader: Ghosts and Haunting in Contemporary Cultural Studies Richardson, J. edited by Pilar Blanco, M. D., Peeren, E. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. 2013
  • Cupola of the World—Diedrich Knickerbocker Constructs the Empire City A New Literary History of America Richardson, J. edited by Sollors, W., Marcus, G. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2009
  • Washington Irving and the Ghosting of the Hudson Valley Dutch Going Dutch: Four Centuries of Dutch Influences in the United States Richardson, J. edited by Stott, A., Goodfriend, J., Schmidt, B. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Press. 2007
  • Seeking the region in American literature and culture: Modernity, dissidence, innovation. (Book Review) JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY Book Review Authored by: Richardson, J. 2006; 93 (3): 907-908
  • The ‘Littlepages’ of History: James Fenimore Cooper and Local History of the Lower Hudson Valley Reading Cooper, Teaching Cooper Richardson, J. edited by Walker, J. New York: AMS Press. 2006
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow American History through Literature, 1820-1870. Richardson, J. edited by Gabler-Hover, J., Sattelmeyer, R. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 2006
  • Charles Brockden Brown's revolution and the birth of American gothic. (Book Review) AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Book Review Authored by: Richardson, J. 2005; 110 (2): 478-479
  • Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson Valley Richardson, J. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2005
  • Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson Valley Richardson, J. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2003
  • Rip-Van-Winkle's neighbors: The transformation of rural society in the Hudson River Valley, 1720-1850 (Book Review) NEW YORK HISTORY Book Review Authored by: Richardson, J. 2002; 83 (3): 333-335
  • Making Grades Mean More and Less with Your Students Voices of Experience: Reflections on Teaching from a Harvard Teaching Seminar Richardson, J. edited by Winkelmes, M., Wilkinson, J. New York: Peter Lang. 2001