Bethany Swann is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Writing Program at Haverford College. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.Div from Yale Divinity School. Her research focuses on Asian American and Asian Diasporic Studies, contemporary poetry and poetics, and the digital humanities. Her dissertation project, “The Spatial Logics of Lyric Torsion” borrows the concept of torsion—defined as the act of twisting, the force that causes twisting, or the state of being twisted—to explore how contemporary Asian American poets unsettle a critical genealogy of the lyric subject underwritten by Western empire. Bethany’s most recent publication is “Korean Art Reminds, No Rise to Power Comes Without Cost” in American Quarterly (September 2025). At the Beinecke Library, she will explore the seam of techne and poiesis in the personal papers of Chinese American poet, Arthur Sze.
