Kevin MacDonnell

Assistant Professor, Literature

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Areas of Interest

• Eighteenth-Century British Literature
• Empire and Colonialism
• Environmental Humanities
• Science and Technology Studies

Courses Taught at Wake Forest

• ENG 150 Literary Scientists
• ENG 265 British Literature to 1800
• ENG 335 The Rise of the Novel
• ENG 337 Black and Blue in the Literatures of Empire

Selected Works

Publications

• “Olaudah Equiano, Google, and the Infrastructure of Empire.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 58, no. 1 (2024), 49-56. 
• “Figuring Jettison in Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 35, no. 3(2023), 331-353. 
• “Designing the Enlightenment Anthropocene.” In British Literature and Technology: 1600–1830. Eds. Aaron Hanlon and Kristin Girten. Lewisburg PA: Bucknell University Press (2023), 79-98.

Book Reviews

• “Review of Louis Kirk McAuley, The Ecology of British and American Empire Writing, 1704-1894.” Review of English Studies 76 (2025), 108-109.
• “Review of Peter DeGabriele, Drone Enlightenment: The Colonial Roots of Modern Warfare.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 57, no. 4 (2024), 578-581.

Conference Presentations

• “‘Where many a garden flower grows wild’: William Jones’s Pastoral Bengal after the 1770 Famine.” South-Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference. Pinehurst, NC. 2026.
• “Bengal’s Famine Landscapes and the Anglo-Indian Pastoral.” Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference. Savannah, GA. 2025.
• “Roundtable: Revisiting Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery.” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference. Toronto, ON. 2024.
• “Imperial Debris and the End of Space.” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference. Toronto, ON. 2024.