Karah Mitchell researches the various relationships between literary texts and historical developments in how humans think about and interact with animals and the natural environment. She concentrates on American literature of the long nineteenth century, but she also has research interests in early European contact and colonization and how previous historical developments continue to shape our current moment. She has taught courses on animals in literature, poetry, science writing, and composition, and her research and teaching frequently emphasize interdisciplinary inquiry and collaboration. 

Her current book project, Primary Lessons: Animals, Children, and Human(e) Education in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, investigates how materials written for and by children generated and consolidated “humane” values that continue to shape animal and human lives today. Work by historians has considered how the nineteenth-century United States witnessed enormous developments in humane education and animal welfare initiatives—developments that ultimately influenced how we interact with animals today and that continue to be inculcated into children from a young age. Karah’s project contributes new knowledge to the field of literary studies by demonstrating how and why literature—and specifically children’s literature—profoundly shaped these historical developments in animal welfare and humane education; while she focuses on the United States, she also considers the transatlantic and transnational dimensions of animal welfare discourse. She has held research fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society and the Massachusetts Historical Society, and her most recent scholarship has been published in American Literature and is forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Henry David Thoreau.