Kat Gibson

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Ulrich Wicks Distinguished Teaching Fellow

Office: Neville 105

Email: katelyn.m.gibson@maine.edu

Kat Gibson is a third-year English graduate student at the University of Maine and the current Ulrich Wicks Distinguished Teaching Fellow. Originally from Columbus, OH, she earned her BA from Otterbein University in 2022, double majoring in English literary studies and history with double minors in French & Francophone studies and film studies. Her research interests center on examining the relationship between literature and history, reflecting both on how history informs literature and how literature works to shape and engage with history. Her current research as the Wicks fellow analyzes the mid-nineteenth-century Victorian social problem novel and how it employs rhetorical strategies to not only inform its readership about social issues but also intervene in conversations of labor reform and imagine new interclass relationships. In Spring 2025, she will teach a special topics course connected with this research titled “Literary Activism: Feminist Rhetoric and the Social Problem Novel” which is cross-listed in English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

At UMaine, Kat has become passionate about teaching through her work as an ENG 101 instructor. She enjoys working with students from a variety of backgrounds and majors with varying communication goals and helping them to grow their reading and writing skills in ways that feel personally meaningful and productive. She hopes to continue this work after the English MA program by pursuing a history PhD with a focus on public history. By working in the museum studies field, she hopes to help people make meaningful connections with history and apply its knowledge to their own lives in ways that are equitable and productive. In her personal life, Kat loves listening to rock music, watching films, reading, crafting, and spending time with her loved ones.