Christopher Matthews

Raised in California and mostly educated in Michigan, Dr. Matthews has taught at the Residential College since 2017. With an MFA in creative writing (Warren Wilson College) and a PhD in English Literature with a focus on 19th-century British culture (University of Michigan), his teaching and writing interests include Romantic, Victorian, and Modern literature, culture, and aesthetics; art, film, and visual culture; and the rich history of “the gothic,” ghost stories, and tales of monstrosity in folkloric, literary, and popular traditions.

One cornerstone of Dr. Matthews’ RC teaching is "Literary Monsters: Power, Culture, & the Meanings of Monstrosity" and its companion study-abroad course "Monsters in London." In "Literary Monsters" students study key texts that remain central to ideas of “monstrosity” in British and American cultural imagination, alongside some folkloric traditions as well as modern reconsiderations and revisions of such tales. "Monsters in London" then enables students to travel to the UK in May and build on their studies by exploring modern and historical London—the home of Mary Shelley, Mr. Hyde, a certain Count looking for a bit of modern excitement, and many others. The class typically visits Highgate Cemetery, Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare's Globe, the ruins of Whitby Abbey, amazing out-of-the-way London museums, and much more. For more information, see Monsters in London.

Dr. Matthews also teaches "On Haunting," "Frankenstein 360," "Narration," "Thinking in Novels," and a range of intensive creative-writing tutorials. His poetry has appeared widely in such publications as Copper Nickel, The Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Oxonian, Plume, Shenandoah, and elsewhere.