Tiffany, a New York City native, holds a Master’s in English Literature from Mills College at Northeastern University. She is currently a PhD student at Northeastern University getting her degree in English Literature. She also is a member of the United Confederation of Taino People.
She focuses on race in British literature during the long eighteenth and nineteenth century. She also explores race in contemporary texts that adapt classic works, examining why there is such a strong interest in creating historical novels with these protagonist, and the significance of highlighting these people within these novels.
She is particularly interested in the constructions of genre and how they shape both classical and modern texts, especially in relation to notions of race. This fascination extends to how literature influences societal values. This showcases the importance of these perspectives, and their contribution to literature during this historical period.
Tiffany focuses on Gothic narratives for the way they probe moral and psychological complexity. Her interest in Aristotelian ethics shapes her fascination with how literature represents virtue, morality, and the formation of character under conditions of fear, secrecy, and the uncanny. This interest directly informs her current TEI project on Wuthering Heights, where she encodes and analyzes racialized language surrounding the character of Heathcliff to examine how ambiguity, otherness, and ethical questions operate within the novel’s Gothic framework. Through her work, she explores how Gothic literature sharpens readers’ moral imagination and illuminates the ethical dilemmas embedded within its narratives.
She wrote and designed an illuminated manuscript book titled “Maidens in the Moorlands: Black Women in 19th-Century British Literature” that analyzes The Woman of Colour by an anonymous author and The Blood of the Vampire by Florence Marryat. She has also presented at several conferences including, the panel on gothic literature, film, and culture at the Popular Culture Association Conference, remaking the past and the fusions of culture, time, and space panels at the Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference, and annually at the VirtualJaneCon.
She has worked as a copyeditor on the Routledge Companion to 18th-century English Literature. She is a research assistant—writing on the nineteenth century—for Mapping Black London, a digital project exploring the presence of Black people in the city. Additionally she works as the project manager for the Early Caribbean Digital Archive.
Speaking
July 2025
VirtualJaneCon. “The Sublime & the Beautiful: Exploring Edmund Burke’s Aesthetic Theory in Emma (2020)” Virtual.
March 2025
Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference. “Fusions of Culture, Time, and Space” “A Gentleman of African Extraction’: Vampirism and the Haitian Revolution in Uriah Derick D’Arcy’s The Black Vampyre: A Legend of Santo Domingo (1819)“ New Orleans, LA.
July 2024
VirtualJaneCon. “Regency History is Black History”: Exploring the Historical Easter Eggs in the 2024 Adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.” Virtual.
July 2023
VirtualJaneCon. “The Timeless, Transformative, and Turbulent Romance of Elizabeth Bennet & Mr. Darcy: Exploring Austen’s Most Beloved Couple Through the Lens of Taylor Swift’s Music.” Virtual.
April 2023
Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference. “Remaking the Past”
“The Dark, Dreary, Decay Hidden in the Walls of Hacienda San Isidro: Exploring the Gothic in Isabel Cañas Novel The Hacienda in Conversation with Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.” Sacramento, CA.
July 2022
VirtualJaneCon. “A Deep Dive into Miss Lambe: Exploring the Life of the Wealth Black Heiress in Jane Austen’s Sanditon.” Virtual
April 2022
Mellon Foundation Community Collaborator Presentation at Mills College at Northeastern University. “Maidens in the Moorland: Black Women in 19th-Century British Literature.” Oakland, CA.
Popular Culture Association National Conference: Gothic Literature, Film, and Culture Panel. “The Darkness Behind the Turban: The Moor and Islamophobia in Charlotte Dacre’s Zofloya.” Virtual.
Awards & Grants
April 2023
Ardella Mills Prize Winner for Critical Essay (Graduate Honorable Mention) English. “The Dark, Dreary, Decay Hidden in the Walls of Hacienda San Isidro: Exploring the Gothic in Isabel Cañas novel The Hacienda in Conversation with Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.” Oakland, CA.
August 2021-May 2022
Mellon Foundation. “We Are the Voices.“ Community Collaborator. Oakland, CA.
Publications
May 2022
“Maidens in the Moorlands”. Glass Cube, Mills College at Northeastern University Museum.
Tiffany Franchesca Cruz 