Assistant Professor, Literature and History of Technology
Office: 613 Strode
Research Interests: David Coombs’ research and teaching interests include Victorian literature; the history of science and technology; neurocognitive science and literature; and aesthetic theory. He received his PhD from Cornell in 2011, after which he spent a year as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Humanities. He is currently at work on a book examining the role played by Victorian literature in shaping the field of neuroscience during its emergence in the nineteenth century.
“An Untrained Eye: The Tachistoscope and Photographic Vision in Early Experimental Psychology.” History and Technology 28.1, Spring 2012.
“Reading in the Dark: Sensory Perception and Agency in The Return of the Native.” ELH 78.4, Winter 2011.
“Entwining Tongues: Postcolonial Theory, Post-Soviet Literatures, and Bilingualism in Chingiz Aitmatov’s I dol’she veka dlitsia den’.” The Journal of Modern Literature 34.3, Spring 2011.