Jamison Kantor focuses on Romantic literature and the black diaspora in the 18th and 19th centuries. He is also interested in literary depictions of materialism—whether they are social practices (dueling), physical agents (viruses) or technology (steam powered printers)—and their relationship to modern political movements like Marxism, Liberalism and Conservatism.

His first book, Honor, Romanticism, and the Hidden Value of Modernity (Cambridge, 2022), argues that the Romantics transformed honor into an equalizing value, even while reckoning with its typical connection to hierarchy or domination. Drawing on slave narratives—as well as gothic mystery, topographical poems and the financial novel—the book also addresses an ongoing political problem, where abstractions about individual liberty overwhelm real, social forms of dignity. Kantor’s book-in-progress considers automation and the idea of historical inevitability in art and literature from 1750 to 1850. Both books address a fundamental modern predicament identified early by Romantic writers and philosophers: how rich social phenomena—racial difference, artistic production and knowledge work—are hollowed out by formalization, proceduralism and automation. 

Kantor also writes about popular film, its politics and genres. His recent essays and reviews have been featured in Critical Inquiry, The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, Jump Cut, and PMLA. 

Before coming to The Ohio State University, Kantor was a visiting assistant professor at Colby College and lecturer at Georgetown University. He is delighted to work with students at all levels on projects, traditional and non-traditional.

Selected Publications

Curriculum Vitae