Barbara Cantalupo is an energetic and vibrant member of the Penn State Lehigh Valley faculty. In her spare time she develops new courses, with a special interest in combining the study of literature and film as creative forces.

"I've always believed that reading well is one of the most important skills we can have, and I don't just mean reading books but reading life: people, politics, relationships, nature, emotions, etc. If I can help students hone this skill, then I will have begun to teach them what literature and the arts teach: to question and to change," says Cantalupo.

She holds her doctorate in English, a master's degree in photography and English and a masters of social work from SUNY at Buffalo, as well as a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Rochester. She has developed numerous courses at Lehigh Valley: Edgar Allan Poe: Works and Contexts, Literature and Film: Multicultural Perspectives, Americans in Paris, Literary London, and American Writers in Morocco.

In 1991 she was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship to participate in Dr. Nancy Miller's "Autobiographical Acts: Gender, Culture, Writing, Theory" at CUNY Graduate Center, New York City. A year earlier, she was selected as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow to Morocco.

Her recent publications include "Emma Wolf" in Jewish American Women Writers; "From the Thirties and the Eighties: The Disruptive Strategies of Olsen & Finley" in Journal of Contemporary Thought; "The Lynx in Poe's 'Silence'" in Poe Studies: Dark Romanticism; and "Poe's Novel Universe" in A Companion to Poe Studies. She has served as associate editor of Bestia and is currently editor of The Edgar Allen Poe Review.

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This page was last modified December 13, 2001. Send questions or comments to bac7@psu.edu