LeeAnn Hunter (PhD, University of Florida, 2010) is a Scholarly Professor of English at Washington State University. Her academic interests center on questions of work, wellness, and community. These interests have found expression in Victorian Studies in her research on professions for women, care economies, and self-help; in the health humanities in her work on mental health and decolonizing wellness; and in professional development in her efforts to prioritize mentoring, wellness, and connection.
Hunter aspires to build a community around her students that will empower them to practice emotional discipline and courage in their academic and extracurricular endeavors. She promotes creativity and expression in her classrooms and mentoring activities, integrating personal storytelling, narrative psychology, and literary analysis to help students define what core values move them to make a difference in their world. She draws upon this approach in every encounter she has with students to help them find the motivation they need to keep creating, writing, and revising.
Research Interests
Hunter’s interests and areas of expertise include: Victorian literature, work and wellness, health humanities, mental health, access and disability, self-help narratives, women writers, Indigenous literatures, inclusive pedagogies, and mentoring.
Selected Publications
- “The Family Artist: Women’s Narratives of Self-Help and Self-Sacrifice in Victorian England.” Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies 19.1 (2023).
- “The Integrative English Major: Cultivating Growth, Transformation, and Possibility.” ADE Bulletin (Published by the Modern Language Association), no. 155, 2018, pp. 36-41.
- “The Embodied Classroom: Deaf Gain in Multimodal Composition and Digital Studies.” Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy 8 (2015).
- “Communities Built from Ruins: Social Economics in Victorian Novels of Bankruptcy.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 39.3 (2011): 137-152.
Recent Presentations
- “Disability, Folk Medicine, and the Social Body in ‘The Withered Arm’ and ‘The Handless Maiden.’” Midwestern Medical Humanities Conference. Western Michigan University. Kalamazoo, Michigan. Online. October 3, 2025
- “Reproduced without Permission: Women’s Work and Sexual Trauma in Edith Johnstone’s A Sunless Heart.” British Women Writers Conference. University of Colorado, Boulder. May 28-30, 2024
- “Embodying Your Calling: A Contemplative Workshop for Professionals.” Mindfulness Conversations Conference. Niagara University. A 60-Minute Interactive Workshop. Online. October 14-15, 2023
- “Learning from the Buffalo: Indigenous Stories of Abundance and Sustainability,” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, March 24-27, 2022