LuElla D'Amico is Associate Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of the Incarnate Word. Her scholarly focus is on early United States literature and culture, children's literature, women's religious writing, transatlanticism, and Catholic education. The majority of her career has been spent researching girls' literature, and she has edited three volumes on this topic, including Girls' Series Fiction and American Popular Culture (Lexington, 2016), Reading Transatlantic Girlhood in the Long Nineteenth Century (with Robin Cadwallader, Routledge, 2020), and Beyond Nancy Drew: U.S. Girls' Series Fiction in the Twentieth Century (with Emily Hamilton-Honey, Lexington, 2024). Her scholarly articles on girlhood and girl culture have appeared in venues such as Children's Literature in Education, Children's Literature Association Quarterly, and Girlhood Studies, and many other places.  She is currently President of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Society. In 2022, she edited a special issue of Women's Studies about Innovations in Harriet Beecher Stowe scholarship. She is currently editing Stowe's children's writing (with Robin Cadwallader).  

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Dr. D'Amico frequently writes about her Catholic faith, literature, popular culture, and education for the public as well as for scholarly venues.  A sampling of bylines include Notre Dame's Church Life Journal, America, Busted Halo, and Christ and Pop Culture. She has led retreats about vocational discernment and spiritual writing.  She has taught a wide-range of writing and literature courses, including classes on Catholic women writers, early U.S. literature, sentimental literature, popular U.S. women's literature, transatlantic outlaw literature, and children's literature. 

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​Her upcoming book Wondrous Reading: Encountering the Catholic Faith in Children's Literature, forthcoming in 2025 from Cascade, combines her scholarly expertise in children's literature with her faith perspective as a Catholic wife and mother of two. It will be an excellent resource for parents, parishes, and educators who seek innovative approaches to teaching and thinking about the faith.