Essays

Essay about Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in The New York Times Book Review, “No Paine, No Gain: The Pamphlet That Has Roused Americans to Action for 250 Years.” December 17, 2025.

Review in the Los Angeles Review of Books: “Structures of Belonging and Nonbelonging: On Kirsten Silva Gruesz’s Cotton Mather’s Spanish Lessons.” February 1, 2023.

Review of Daniel Hack, Reaping Something New: African American Transformations of Victorian Literature. “A Contrarian View of the Black Literary Tradition.” The Chronicle Review. January 27, 2017.

Essay in CNN Opinion Online: “A Very Musical War: The Story Behind ‘Hail to the Chief.’” January 18, 2017.

 “A Story about History: PBS Takes on the War of 1812.” Contribution to “1812: New Perspectives on an Old War.” www.Common-Place.org. 12.4 (July 2012).

Interviews

Interview in BU Today about a recent decision in American Studies at BU to change the program’s name. September 15, 2025.

Interview in The Boston Globe about a recent edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, with Nathan Wolff. July 24, 2025.

Interview in The Chronicle Review with Len Gutkin and Sarah Blackwood: The end of the English major -- or is it? April 17, 2023.

Interview in BU Today to discuss revisions to the English major at BU, which Prof. Rezek helped to develop. March 9, 2023. 

Podcast Interview with Colm Tóibín. Novel Dialogues. April 2022.

Interview on NPR’s Morning Edition, “‘Hail To The Chief’: The Official Anthem Of The U.S. President.” January 5, 2017.