Katharine Kittredge

Fellow Type
Visiting Fellow
Fellowship
James M. Osborn Fellowship in English Literature and History
Fellowship Year
2011-2012
Project Title/Topic
What the Archbishop Tried to Hide: Discoveries in the Letters of Melesina Trench
Affiliation/Department
Ithaca College
Biography

Katharine Kittredge is a Professor of English at Ithaca College where she teaches courses in women’s studies, science fiction, and children’s literature. She is also particularly devoted to her Ithaca Seminar class which allows her to draw on her past experiences as a college athlete and as a participant in the Binghamton men’s ice hockey leagues to help first-semester athletes who are transitioning to college sports. Her primary focus for her time at the Beinecke is reading the letters of Melesina Trench, a late-eighteenth century Anglo-Irish poet known for writing an early work of science fiction, eloquently recording her experiences as a grieving mother, and saying disrespectful things about Emma Hamilton and Lord Nelson. Professor Kittredge is at work on a biography/edition of Trench’s private journals. Her most recent publication is Early Blossoms of Genius: Child Poets at the End of the Long 18th Century, which appeared in the journal Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children’s Literature last summer.