Department Celebrates Forthcoming Publication of Prof. Nathan Hensley’s Co-edited Book, The Barbara Johnson Collective

Professor Nathan Hensley’s coedited book, The Barbara Johnson Collective, will be officially released this November. Published by Northwestern University Press and featuring a bright pink cover, the volume is a collaborative undertaking that reassesses the work of the important literary critic and deconstructive reader Barbara Johnson in light of challenges facing humanities education today. According to its official description, the book “gathers writers and critics from a range of North American higher educational settings to engage with this essential but still often underappreciated critic in a time of renewed and deepening crisis.” Hensley notes that while the description may sound bleak, the process of making the book was anything but. “It was beautiful how it came together, actually,” Hensley says. “A group of friends and colleagues met on Zoom during the late pandemic to read Johnson’s essays and talk about them, and about how much they mattered to us.” That core connection, Hensley says, was key to putting together the project. “We never imagined it would be a book, or be anything really — we were just talking together and sharing ideas. I hope the energy of that authentic collaboration comes through in the final thing.” Hensley notes that the book’s pink cover evokes the design of well-known books in literary theory from the 1980s and 1990s. “It’s a throwback, in a way,” he says. “It’s a book about theory and ideas that returns to a critic from a previous generation, but with a difference.” A blurb for the volume, from critic Heather K. Love, underscores the ambition of this collective undertaking: “This book makes clear why language, thought, and writing matter, now more than ever.” A symposium on the project will take place at Georgetown in late January, 2027.