Carla J. Mulford

Professional Bio

My research and teaching areas cross several fields: early modern studies with a particular emphasis on British and European empires and their relationship to North America; American (including African American and Native) studies before 1900; and contemporary Native studies. Across my career, I have published eleven books (including anthologies, scholarly editions, edited collections, and a monograph) and well over sixty articles and chapters in books on a variety of subjects. I'm very grateful to have been named the 2018 Honored Scholar in Early American Literature by the MLA Forum in American Literature to 1800, a lifetime achievement award for research and professional accomplishments. My scholarship and my teaching enhance each other, as evidenced by my having been honored with two teaching awards, the Malvin and Lea P. Bank Outstanding Teaching Award, 2016, and the College of the Liberal Arts Teaching Award, 2005.

Research Interests

The British Empire remains the focus of my work, most recently from my perspective as a scholar of Benjamin Franklin. I've just completed my second monograph related to Franklin, this time in the history of science, taking into account the role of Franklin's scientific fame in negotiations with Britain and his diplomacy in France. I'm returning now to a third monograph on Franklin, this one treating Franklin's understanding of the relationship obtaining among imperialism, piracy, and enslavement.

Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire (Oxford University Press, 2015; paperback, 2019), my first extended study of Franklin, examines Franklin's attitudes about trade and populations in the context of the growing number of debates about what it meant to be both liberal and British during the eighteenth century. The book's favorable reviews have amply rewarded the two decades I spent writing the book. I am very happy that Academic Studies Press has recognized its merits for readers of the Russian language. It will be published in Russian in 2025.

My second monograph, Benjamin Franklin's Electrical Diplomacy, embraces my intersecting interests in the histories of science and politics and their relationship to imperial contests over liberty. I have delivered talks related to this book at several locations, including the American Philosophical Society (Franklin's society), Library Company of Philadelphia (Franklin's library), the Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland, Pa., and conferences of the Organization of American Historians, the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, and the Pennsylvania Historical Association.

My monograph in progress, Benjamin Franklin, Mediterranean Piracy, and American Slavery, examines Franklin's views about enslavement and the relationship between imperialism and piracy. It pays particular attention to Franklin's years of diplomacy in France and his late-life writings.

My scholarship on Franklin has benefited from fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Library Company of Philadelphia. Most recently, I received an Alexander von Humboldt / Yale Macmillan Center History Network fellowship to assist my research toward the monograph on Franklin and the Mediterranean.

Additional work on Franklin includes The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin (2009) and over twenty essays, chapters in books, and review essays on Franklin.

I was awarded the 2012 Bibliographical Society of America's William L. Mitchell Prize, for scholarship in early British periodicals. The prize was awarded for my essay, "Benjamin Franklin's Savage Eloquence: Hoaxes from the Press at Passy, 1782," published in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 152, iv (Dec. 2008), 490-520.

Service to the Profession

I have served a number of professional societies, including the Society of Early Americanists (SEA), which I developed and eventually served as Founding President. I also served the American Literature to 1800 Division of the Modern Language Association. I am currently serving the Advisory Council of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, a group centered at the University of Pennsylvania. And I have served two double terms on the Council of the Pennsylvania Historical Association. The journal editorial boards I have served include American Literature, Early American Literature, Early American Studies, Eighteenth-Century Studies, and The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. I am a member of the American Antiquarian Society and a shareholder in the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Teaching

Undergraduate teaching has enabled me to test my research and pedagogical capabilities in classes that range from the "great traditions" courses for freshmen to the senior seminar in English.  Areas I'm currently teaching embrace the range of my interests - Native studies, the British novel to Austen, the American novel to 1900, and early American literature. I like to challenge students to think about ethical matters as these relate to literature and culture. In addition to having served the department for four years as an English honors director, I have supervised sixteen honors theses for the Schreyer Honors College.  Some of these students went on to graduate school, some entered the business world, some became teachers, one entered the Peace Corps, and another was awarded a Fulbright international scholarship.

My courses at the graduate level have introduced students to topics in conversation among scholars, and many students who take my classes have gone on to publish their essays in scholarly journals. Indeed, twenty students from former seminars have published papers originally written in my classes.  But publication is only one goal of my pedagogy. My primary goal is that students develop mastery of the field by engaging collaboratively in their learning experiences.