Rachel Slaughter

Lecturer in College Writing
PHD, Washington University in St. Louis
BA, Amherst College
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    • College Writing Program
    • MSC 1096-153-122
    • Washington University
    • 1 Brookings Drive
    • St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
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    Rachel Slaughter received her PhD in English Literature from Washington University.  Her dissertation, “The Aristocracy of Consciousness:  Connoisseurship in Modern Literature” (2007), examines the role of aesthetic judgment in American ex-patriot literature. She contributed as a research assistant to Langdon Hammer’s James Merrill:  Life and Art (2015), the first biography of the well-known formalist poet.  In addition she published a portfolio of Merrill’s “The Doodler” in The Paris Review and a digital resource for scholars of Merrill, “‘Lost in Translation’:  Revision as Complication.”  Since 2001, at Washington University and elsewhere, she has taught a variety of writing courses as well as literature courses on Jane Austen, Illness in Literature, Humor in Literature, and Class Consciousness.  She is currently working on a family and life-narrative course.

    Featured Courses

    College Writing: Power & Commodity Culture

    "Commodity culture" refers to what aspects of culture can be evaluated in terms of supposed "worth" or economic value. Readings will explore a range of cultural texts and topics--whether it’s the popularity of Grey Poupon in hip hop or racial tension in the St. Louis restaurant scene, the role of smartphones and social media in the rise of self-branding, or the blurred line between high art and Instagram.