Benjamin Bergholtz, Ph.D.

Benjamin Bergholtz is Associate Professor and the Mildred Saunders Adams Memorial Endowed Professor of English at Louisiana Tech University. He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University and previously worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Bergholtz's scholarship has helped reimagine the "maximalist" novel, a genre of contemporary fiction most frequently associated with writers such as Thomas Pynchon, Salman Rushdie, and Zadie Smith. Countering theorizations of the genre as excessively esoteric and exclusively American, Bergholtz's book, Swallowing a World: Globalization and the Maximalist Novel (Nebraska 2024), argues that maximalism is an aesthetic response to globalization and a global phenomenon in its own right. His analysis of the political implications of maximalist form parallels broader interests in the intersections between form and content, literature and politics, art and life.

These interests also inform Bergholtz's work as a teacher and colleague. Bergholtz has taught a wide range of classes to a diverse cross-section of students, but his basic goals remain the same: he aims to cultivate engaged and reflective students, and he also models this behavior in the classroom, where he teaches with enthusiasm, passion, and patience. Bergholtz himself engages widely with students and colleagues across the university. His service includes leading committees to revise the curriculum, course rotation, and mission statement for the School of Literature and Languages; acting as faculty sponsor of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society; and serving on the Senate's Executive Committee, the group responsible for setting the agenda for the University Senate. A father of three children under ten (Frankie, Dirk, and Scottie), Bergholtz's time outside of work consists primarily of parenting, cooking, cleaning, and, occasionally, visiting with his wife, Tristen.