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

theory of mind In psychology and philosophy, theory of mind (often abbreviated to ToM) refers to the capacity to understand other individuals by ascribing mental states to them. A theory of mind includes the understanding that others' beliefs, desires, intent ...

. She is a Professor of English at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

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

Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule III Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule III (August 10, 1925 – November 27, 2008) was an American scholar of ancient art and curator of classical art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1957 to 1996. He was also well known as a numismatist. He also ...

, a scholar and former curator at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

. Her brother,

Adrian Vermeule Cornelius Adrian Comstock Vermeule (, born May 2, 1968) is an American legal scholar who is the Ralph S. Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. An expert on constitutional and administrative law, since 2016 he has voiced sup ...

, 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 Literat ...

, 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 Darwinian literary studies (also known as literary Darwinism) is a branch of literary criticism that studies literature in the context of evolution by means of natural selection, including gene-culture coevolution. It represents an emerging trend ...

.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 (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. In 2015, Vermeule co-founded the book review

The New Rambler ''The New Rambler'' is an online scholarly book review of new works in law, politics, and philosophy founded at the University of Chicago Law School in 2015. The publication's name is an homage to Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 Decemb ...

Education

Ph.D. English Literature,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, 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 1966 births American academics of English literature American LGBTQ academics American LGBTQ writers Educators from Cambridge, Massachusetts Living people Moral psychologists The New Rambler Stanford University Department of English faculty Vermeule family