Karen Li Miller teaches American culture and literature courses. Her interests include nineteenth-century, multi-ethnic, women's, children's, and material culture studies. Her dissertation, Locating Reproduction: Representations of the Chinese in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, explored the theme of reproduction in a range of perspectives, from the politics of individual women's bodies to American immigration policies to Sino-American relations. The project examined a variety of texts and materials, including canonical writings, such as Melville and Twain, historical women’s publications, children’s missionary periodicals, chinoiserie, photographs, and toys. This interdisciplinary and multi-layered research approach informs her teaching philosophy. Through interactive assignments and discussions, she works to extend students' sense of connection and authority with our texts as well as in their multiple communities, from local to global.

Articles:

• Miller, Karen Li. “The White Child’s Burden: Managing the Self and Money in Nineteenth-Century Children’s Literature.” American Periodicals Fall 2012

Presentations:

• Miller, Karen Li. "From 'Yellow Fiends' to Boy Scouts: Chinatown Youths in Juvenile Detective Stories." Children's Literature Association, Simmons College, Boston, MA, June 2012.
• Miller, Karen Li. "'Chung-Ling--' Who?: Global Masquerades of the White Magician, Missionary, and Child." Northeast Literature Association (NEMLA), St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, March 2012.
• Miller, Karen Li. Chair for Daughters of The Woman Warrior: Fighter Girls in American Literature. Northeast Modern Literature Association (NEMLA). St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, March 2012. 
• Miller, Karen. Li. Co-chair for Global Magical Realism and Speculative Fiction panel.
  “'So you want to a be a Trans-fo-ma?': The Monkey King and Other Myths in Asian American Young Adult Graphic Novels.” Northeast Modern Literature Association (NEMLA), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, April 2011.
• Miller, Karen Li. “Sounds of the City and Women’s Voices: Early Twentieth-Century Writers and Their Acoustic Environments.” Multiethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS), University of Scranton, Scranton, PA, April 2010.
• Miller, Karen Li. “‘To Run and Play’: American Commodity Aesthetics and Missionary Reform of Chinese Children.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies (INCS), Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, April 2009.
• Miller, Karen Li. “Collecting Chinoiserie, Composing Racial Narratives: The Chinese in the Nineteenth-Century American Imagination.” New England Historical Association, Polytechnic University, Worcester, MA, October 2007.
• Miller, Karen Li. “‘Slippery Souls’ and Missionaries: Women Writing about Chinese-American Politics.” American Literature Association, Boston, MA, May 2007.
• Miller, Karen Li. “Conflicts in Translation: American Foreign Missionary Women in China.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, April 2006.
• Miller, Karen Li. “‘Just come off a tay-box’: Chinese Americans and 19th-Century Parlor Politics.” Multiethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS), University of Texas, San Antonio, TX, March 2004.

• Aetna Graduate Student Writing Contest, critical essay winner, 2005.
• Aetna Graduate Student Writing Contest, critical essay winner, 2000.
• University of Connecticut Dissertation Fellowship, 2004.
• University of Connecticut Multicultural Predoctoral Fellow, 1999-2004.