Christa M. Tiernan is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her doctoral research focuses on the intersections between literature, visual culture, and material culture in Victorian England. Her primary areas of interest are the realist novel, the rise of photography, domestic interiors and the decorative arts, and nineteenth-century museum culture.

Christa is currently working on her dissertation, “The Novel in the Age of the Museum,” which examines fictional representations of collections, collectibles, and practices of collecting in the novels of Bronte, Gaskell, Dickens, Eliot, and James.

In 2007, Christa was awarded the Chair’s Ph.D. Essay Prize by the Department of English for her paper entitled, “‘Human Warious’ and Other Specimens: Dickens in the Age of the Museum.” She presented portions of this essay at the 2007 North American Victorian Studies Association conference in Victoria, British Columbia.

Christa holds a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of California, San Diego (2003) and a M.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia (2006). She fell in love with nineteenth-century museum culture while studying literature at Regent’s College in London (2005). Christa has recently completed a doctoral minor in Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008).