Gabby Kiser

Hi! I'm Gabby, and I'm a PhD candidate originally from the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia. I research 20th century American literature with primary interests in narrative and history of science/medicine. My dissertation is about American modernist responses to diagnostic language in early 20th-century psychiatry. Other areas of interest are Appalachian studies, historiography, and aesthetics.

I was co-chair of the 2025 English Department Graduate Symposium, themed “Space & Place." You can find my first foray into public-facing scholarship, “If the Slipper Doesn’t Fit,” on History News Network. Outside of Bryan Hall, I am a foodie, ambitious traveler, occasional short story writer (Susurrus, MudRoom), and cat mom to my sweet Spam.

I received my B.A. in English from the University of Richmond in 2021, where I wrote my honors thesis on Allen Ginsberg's (sometimes deceptive) representations of Naomi Ginsberg, Carl Solomon, and the psychiatric systems that governed them in "Howl" and "Kaddish." I received the 2021 Charles T. Norman Award, presented to the outstanding senior English major at U of R, and the 2020 Margaret Owen Finck Award for Creative Writing.