Scholar of the Month
Mark Bracher
Professor of English
College of Arts and Sciences
1985-present
Mark Bracher is a professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on how literary studies can promote social justice and psychological development. Bracher investigates the development of capacities and habits of perception, analysis, reflection and feeling that are necessary for recognizing social injustice, understanding its root causes, formulating effective interventions to counter it and being motivated to take action against it.
He is the author of seven books, including “Educating for Cosmopolitanism: Lessons from Cognitive Science and Literature” and “Literature and Social Justice: Protest Novels, Cognitive Politics and Schema Criticism,” both published in 2013. Bracher also has co-edited three books and authored multiple book chapters and publications in peer-reviewed journals.
He is currently organizing a Why the Humanities conference at Kent State on July 9-12, 2015, highlighting the contributions that humanities education makes to personal well-being, responsible citizenship and social justice. The event will feature internationally renowned researchers in the cognitive and neurosciences.
The conference is part of a larger initiative on social cognition research that Bracher is leading with a team of colleagues in the departments of English, History, Modern and Classical Language Studies, Philosophy, Psychological Sciences and Sociology, all in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State.
Bracher received his Ph.D. and Master of Arts in English from Vanderbilt University.
About Kent State’s Scholar of the Month
Kent State’s Scholar of the Month recognizes faculty researchers and scholars whose recent work has had an important impact on their professional fields and has brought exposure to the university. Each month, a different college will have the opportunity to nominate a researcher/scholar for this recognition. There is also a month when a faculty member from the Regional Campuses will be featured.
The selection process is in the hands of the dean and his or her colleagues and faculty. Hence, this is recognition by the person’s college colleagues that is then taken up by the university. The deans communicate the person’s name to the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs for recognition as Scholar of the Month.