About
 
Keli Masten is Assistant Professor and Writing Center Director at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University and specializes in the study of American and British literatures, particularly intersections of the gothic, crime fiction, gender, and violence.

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Masten values connection and community as cornerstones of her pedagogy, with a healthy dose of humor to help manage her rigorous standards. Each year she selects a group of three outstanding undergraduate scholars to present their research at the Midwest Modern Language Association Conference's Undergraduate Research Symposium, and she also mentors other early career researchers in their pursuit of scholarly excellence. 

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She is currently putting the finishing touches on a book about how American detective fiction grows from the American Gothic tradition, entitled Dark Logic: The American Gothic in Detective Mysteries (Lexington Books).

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Her most recent book chapter “Teaching Nineteenth Century Gothic,” offers discussion and instructional strategies for teaching the popular text The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and the more obscure The Golden Slipper and Other Problems for Violet Strange by Anna Katharine Green, and will soon appear in the edited collection Teaching Gothic Now with Routledge (2026).

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