Lydia Burleson

Lydia Burleson is a PhD candidate in the Department of English with a minor in the comparative study of race and ethnicity. Titled “Selling Poverty,” Lydia’s dissertation offers a series of literary case studies probing the emergence of Depression-era bestselling texts, how aesthetics of reform transform in a mass media environment, and how the physiognomy of race and poverty materialize in the popular imagination. At Arcade, Lydia’s work is invested in keeping these academic conversations accessible to the broader public.