About Philomena

Philomena Polefrone is a Core Lecturer in Contemporary Civilization. She received her PhD from Columbia University’s Department of English and Comparative Literature in 2020. Her dissertation, “Human/Nature: American Literary Naturalism and the Anthropocene,” argues that American literary naturalism is an early and essential form of Anthropocene literature, reflecting early forms of consciousness about anthropogenic environmental destruction on a planetary scale and offering essential insights into the narrative challenges of the human epoch. Her broader research focuses on the environmental humanities, speculative fiction, and queer ecology. Her articles have appeared in American Literature, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Extrapolation, and Public Books, and she is a co-writer of “Alethea,” an audio drama forthcoming from Audible.