Gesa Kirsch

Assistant Professor Term

About

Gesa E. Kirsch is the Thomas R. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor and a Professor of English at Bentley University in Waltham, MA.  Her research focuses on feminist rhetorical studies; ethics in qualitative and archival research; and on innovation and creativity studies.  Kirsch has authored, coauthored, edited and co-edited nine books and numerous articles, including More than Gold in California: The Life and Work of Dr. Mary Bennett Ritter (a critical edition of a historically significant memoir by an early woman physician); Feminist Rhetorical Practices: New Horizons for Rhetoric, Composition and Literacy Studies, co-authored with Jacqueline Jones Royster (winner of the Winifred Bruce Horner Outstanding Book Award), and Beyond the Archives: Research as a Lived Process, co-edited with Liz Rohan.  She has won the Bentley Innovation in Teaching Award (twice) and the Mee Family Prize for a life-time of distinguished research, Bentley University’s highest distinction.  Her current research explores the rhetorical strategies, professional networks, and social activism of early twentieth-century women physicians with an eye toward implications for 21st women in the innovation and start-up sectors.  

Professor Kirsch is delighted to join the English Department and welcomes all inquiries about her research and teaching.