Emily Dickinson Blake "Blakey" Vermeule (born July 14, 1966) is an American scholar of eighteenth-century British literature and

theory of mind In psychology, theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them (that is, surmising what is happening in their mind). This includes the knowledge that others' mental states may be different fro ...

. She is a Professor of English at Stanford University.

Biography

Vermeule is the daughter of classicist

Emily Vermeule Emily Dickinson Townsend Vermeule (August 11, 1928 – February 6, 2001) was an American classical scholar and archaeologist. She was a professor of classical philology and archaeology at Harvard University. Early life and education Emily Dickins ...

and former Museum of Fine Arts curator Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule III. Her brother,

Adrian Vermeule Cornelius Adrian Comstock Vermeule (, born May 2, 1968) is an American legal scholar who is currently the Ralph S. Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. He is best known for his contributions to constitutional law and admi ...

, is a professor at Harvard Law School. Her wife is

Terry Castle Terry Castle (born October 18, 1953) is an American literary scholar. Once described by Susan Sontag as "the most expressive, most enlightening literary critic at large today," she has published eight books, including the anthology ''The Literatu ...

, also a professor of English at Stanford. Her research interests include British literature from 1660–1800, critical theory, major British poets, post-Colonial fiction, the history of the novel, the cognitive underpinnings of fiction, and human evolutionary psychology. Her recent scholarship has focused on Darwinian literary studies.Lisa Zunshine, 'Fiction and Theory of Mind: An Exchange." Philosophy and Literature 31.1 (2007) 189-196
/ref> Vermeule previously taught at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. In 2015, Vermeule co-founded the book review The New Rambler.

Education

Ph.D. English Literature,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, 1995
B.A. English, summa cum laude,

, 1988

Works

*''Action versus Contemplation: Why an Ancient Debate Still Matters'' (University of Chicago Press, 2018) *''The Party of Humanity: Writing Moral Psychology in Eighteenth-Century Britain'' (2000) *''Why Do We Care about Literary Characters?'' (2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vermeule, Blakey Stanford University Department of English faculty Living people 1966 births Vermeule family Moral psychology American academics of English literature The New Rambler People from Cambridge, Massachusetts LGBT academics American LGBT writers