Lisa Koch

Professor

Teen/Young Adult Literature; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Multi-Ethnic American Literature; African American Literature; Women Writers; Harry Potter

Dr. Lisa Koch is a GMU Teaching Excellence Award recipient. She teaches literature, research & writing, and humanities courses, including 21st-Century Young Adult Novels, Teen Culture, American Women Writers at the Movies, and Humanities College to Career.

Professor Koch developed and is director of the Harry Potter Program. In Summers 2022 and 2023, she brought students to Scotland and England for a month where they studied Harry Potter literature, film, and culture.

An interdisciplinary expert, Professor Koch has co-taught courses with faculty from History, Sociology, Film Studies, and Career Services; she has taught courses for the Honors College, Women and Gender Studies, the Individualized Study Program, and Living/Learning Communities.

Professor Koch was featured on Philadelphia’s WURD to discuss racial representations, casting controversies, and pedagogical approaches to The Hunger Games novels and films. She was interviewed in response to the Me Too Movement about representations of women in film and fiction for Voice of America Television. Dr. Koch is co-founder of the Mid-Atlantic Society for the Study of American Women Writers.

Education

Dr. Koch earned her PhD and MA from University of Maryland, College Park and her BA from Washington University in St. Louis.