Sarah Mesle

Sarah Mesle (PhD, Northwestern) has taught in the Writing Program at USC since 2014. Prior to USC, she held post-doctoral fellowships in English at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mesle’s writing and research focuses on the long history of American popular culture, particularly the intersections of race, femininity, fantasy, and gender, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Game of Thrones to Football Night in America. She hates the word “influencer” but loves when her students teach her about the latest important influencers. She encourages all students interested in learning how to write carefully and meaningfully about media and culture to enroll in her classes. 

Mesle is Editor at Large at the Los Angeles Review of Books where she was Senior Humanities Editor from 2013-2016. She is editor and co-founder of the LARB Channel Avidly and the short book series Avidly Reads. She is a regular contributor to a variety of on-line and print publications and is regularly invited to speak in graduate and faculty seminars about the future of academic writing and the possibilities of public intellectual life. Mesle is represented by Tanya McKinnon at McKinnon Literary. 

For a complete list of invited talks, conference presentations, and courses taught, please download her CV. Her personal website is www.sarahmesle.com.