Critical Inquiry Critical Inquiry

Adin E. Lears is the author of World of Echo: Noise and Knowing in Late-Medieval England (2020), as well as articles and essays in Exemplaria, b2o, The Hedgehog Review, and other journals. Her current book project charts a previously unexamined medieval history of vitalism, situating early conceptions of life in a deep history of thinking on the category of the human. She is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University where she teaches courses in medieval and contemporary literature and literary theory. At VCU’s Humanities Research Center, she is codirector of the Spirituality, Care, and Culture lab, which seeks to situate the current healthcare and wellness landscape within a broad range of cultural and historical contexts and show how the humanities offer skills crucial to care work, broadly defined.

Book Reviews

• White before whiteness in the late Middle Ages by Wan-Chuan Kao
  February 12, 2026