Christina Crosby facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Christina Crosby
Crosby with her dog in 2016
Born	September 2, 1953 Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Died	January 5, 2021(2021-01-05) (aged 67) Middletown, Connecticut
Occupation	Scholar, author
Education	Swarthmore College (BA, 1974) Brown University (PhD, 1982)
Notable works	The Ends of History A Body, Undone
Partner	Janet Jakobsen

Christina Crosby (born September 2, 1953 – died January 5, 2021) was an American scholar and writer. She was very interested in British literature from the 1800s and also in disability studies. Disability studies is a field that looks at disability from different angles, like social and cultural.

Crosby wrote two important books. One was called The Ends of History, which explored how history and women were seen in 19th-century British books. Her other book, A Body, Undone, was a memoir. A memoir is a true story about a part of someone's life. This book was about her life after she became paralyzed in a bicycle accident in 2003. She worked for many years as a professor of English at Wesleyan University. She also taught about women's and gender studies.

Christina Crosby's Early Life and Education

Christina Crosby was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on September 2, 1953. Her father, Kenneth Crosby, was a history professor. Her mother, Jane Miller Crosby, taught home economics. Both of her parents worked at Juniata College. Christina also had an older brother named Jefferson.

Crosby went to public schools in Huntingdon. She then attended Swarthmore College and graduated in 1974. She studied English there. While at Swarthmore, she helped start a group called Swarthmore Women's Liberation. She also wrote a column in the student newspaper called "The Feminist Slant." This column shared ideas about equal rights for women.

In 1975, Crosby went to Brown University to study for her Ph.D. in English. She finished her degree in 1982. At Brown, she was part of a group that worked on issues like domestic violence. They helped open a women's shelter called Sojourner House. This was one of the first shelters of its kind in the United States.

Christina Crosby's Career as a Professor

After getting her Ph.D., Christina Crosby became an assistant professor at Wesleyan University. She joined a group of students and teachers who wanted to make the women's studies program stronger. She stayed a key member of this program throughout her career. She became an associate professor in 1989 and a full professor in 1996.

In the 1990s, Crosby taught the writer Maggie Nelson at Wesleyan. They became friends, and both later wrote about each other. Nelson wrote about Crosby in her book The Argonauts (2015). Crosby wrote about Nelson in her book A Body, Undone (2016).

Crosby received several special awards and fellowships during her career. She had a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1984–1985. She was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1990–1991.

Later in her career, after her accident in 2003, Crosby's research interests changed. She began to focus on disability studies. She explored topics like grief and mourning in her work. Before this, her main focus was on British literature from the 1800s.

Books by Christina Crosby

Christina Crosby wrote two main books during her career.

Her First Book: The Ends of History

Crosby's first book was called The Ends of History: Victorians and "The Woman's Question". It was published in 1991. This book looked at how thinkers in 19th-century Britain understood the world through history. Crosby showed how women were often left out or seen as "the Other" in these historical views. The book was based on her Ph.D. paper from Brown University.

In the book, Crosby analyzed many different types of Victorian works. These included novels like Daniel Deronda by George Eliot and Villette by Charlotte Brontë. She also looked at historical writings, plays, and even newspaper letters. Crosby explained that all these different works shared a common way of talking about history.

Reviewers had different thoughts about The Ends of History. Ann Hobart praised the book for its "stunning new readings" of important texts. She felt it was a valuable addition to Victorian studies. However, she thought it was less important as a work of feminist criticism. James C. Q. Stewart liked the book's "fresh and courageous thought." Tricia Lootens called it an "ambitious, stimulating work."

Her Memoir: A Body, Undone

In February 2016, New York University Press published Crosby's memoir, A Body, Undone: Living on after Great Pain. She wrote this book after she had a serious spinal cord injury in a bicycle accident when she was 50 years old. She wrote the book using special voice recognition software. The title of the book comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson.

Anne Charles, a reviewer for Lambda Literary, noted that the book focused on pain. It did not follow the usual story of disability where things always get better. Instead, it showed the ongoing physical pain and emotional stress. Michael Weinstein, writing for The New Yorker, saw the book as Crosby's way of understanding herself after the accident. Her accident changed how others saw her, and the book was her effort to make sense of these big changes.

A Body, Undone was chosen as the common reading for new students at Wesleyan University in 2018.

Christina Crosby's Personal Life

On October 1, 2003, Christina Crosby broke her neck in a bicycle accident. She was 50 years old. After spending time in the hospital and a rehabilitation center, she returned to work part-time in September 2005. She remained quadriplegic, meaning she had paralysis in all four limbs.

Christina's brother, Jefferson, also became quadriplegic earlier in his life due to multiple sclerosis. He passed away in 2010.

Christina Crosby passed away from pancreatic cancer on January 5, 2021, in Middletown, Connecticut.