Molly Keran received her PhD from the University of Michigan’s Department of English Language & Literature, where she studied the intersections of mass culture, popular literature, and sexual violence. Her dissertation, entitled “The Genre of Rape: Women’s Popular Literature and Contemporary Representations of Sexual Violence” explored the place of rape narratives in genres popular with female audiences, including romance novels and memoir.

Molly was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, and earned a B.A. in English at Stanford University, where she graduated with honors. She reads a lot (like, a lot) of romance novels, drinks a lot of tea, and is devoted to her slightly temperamental cat. You can also find her on Twitter @mjkeran, where she talks about TV shows and makes bad jokes, plus posts even more pictures of her cat.