Elise Wang is an assistant professor in the Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). Wang’s field is medieval law and literature, and her work investigates how “old” ideas of guilt and morality can expand our understanding of our contemporary world.
She has appeared on The Daily Show, contributed to documentaries for CBSand Netflix, delivered a TEDx talk, and has given over a dozen invited talks and keynotes. Wang is the author of The Making of Felony Procedure in Middle English Literature(Oxford University Press, 2024), which traces the medieval emergence of felony procedure and demonstrates how its beginnings still shape how we understand serious crime today.
Wang has also published articles about medieval death investigations, the ethics of witnessing violence in both the medieval and modern context, and trauma narratives. Before CSUF, she taught at Duke University and in New Jersey correctional facilities. She received her PhD from Princeton University, before which she studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Her project, “That’s What They Want You to Think: Identifying Dangerous Conspiracy Theories,” uses narrative analysis to identify the generic features that make a conspiracy theory likely to spread, create division, and lead to violence. While most studies of conspiracy theories focus on the believer, this project considers the story itself, offering a new perspective on the social and political function of the conspiracy theory.
May 2024
