About

Caitlin Cawley is the Assistant Head of the Writing Program and an Advanced Lecturer of English at Fordham University in New York City. She specializes in 20th and 21st century American literature, composition and rhetoric, critical theory, and film and visual culture. Her current project, Occupying War: U.S. Militarism and War Culture since 1989, explores the relationship between the contemporary war genre and contemporary US militarism. It uncovers the role of occupation-style warfare, as it emerged in following the Cold War, in producing ideas and imaginaries that have allowed America’s protracted, bloody “forever wars” to escape public scrutiny.

Her scholarship has appeared in the Journal of the History of Ideas, Journal of American Studies, The Faulkner Journal, and The Oakland Review, and her project “Warviews” was awarded a digital humanities research fellowship. She has presented her work at the CCCC, MLA, ACLA, and CSA annual conferences as well as symposiums at Northwestern University and the University of California, Irvine. She has been awarded grants to the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth and the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell and was named the U.S. Army Heritage Center’s Ruth Research Fellow.  

Caitlin grew up in Old Saybrook, CT and has lived in Bethlehem, PA, Barcelona, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Outside of work, she enjoys forcing friends to play improv games, seeing live music, and surviving in New York City.

She has a PhD in English from Fordham University, an MA in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, and a BA in English from Lehigh University.

Caitlin’s CV