Heather Ostman is Professor of English, Humanities Curriculum Chair, and Humanities Institute Director at SUNY Westchester Community College in Valhalla, NY. She has previously taught at Vassar College and Fordham University. Dr. Ostman is the author of six books, and she is the editor of five essay collections. In 2024–2025, she served as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. Her work has been supported by two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as funding from the American Council of Learned Societies and the New York Council for the Humanities. She serves as president of the Kate Chopin International Society.

• Chapter 1. Nineteenth-Century America, Literature, and the Search for Grace Chapter 2. Whitman and the Politics of Mysticism Chapter 3. Hester as New Religion in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Chapter 4. Narrative of Sojourner Truth and the Personal Relationship with Divinity Chapter 5. Kate Chopin’s Religious Vision in At Fault Chapter 6. Conclusion

Heather Ostman is Professor of English, Humanities Curriculum Chair, and Humanities Institute Director at SUNY Westchester Community College in Valhalla, NY. She has previously taught at Vassar College and Fordham University. Dr. Ostman is the author of six books, and she is the editor of five essay collections. In 2024–2025, she served as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. Her work has been supported by two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as funding from the American Council of Learned Societies and the New York Council for the Humanities. She serves as president of the Kate Chopin International Society.

• Chapter 1. Nineteenth-Century America, Literature, and the Search for Grace Chapter 2. Whitman and the Politics of Mysticism Chapter 3. Hester as New Religion in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Chapter 4. Narrative of Sojourner Truth and the Personal Relationship with Divinity Chapter 5. Kate Chopin’s Religious Vision in At Fault Chapter 6. Conclusion

Heather Ostman is Professor of English, Humanities Curriculum Chair, and Humanities Institute Director at SUNY Westchester Community College in Valhalla, NY. She has previously taught at Vassar College and Fordham University. Dr. Ostman is the author of six books, and she is the editor of five essay collections. In 2024–2025, she served as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. Her work has been supported by two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as funding from the American Council of Learned Societies and the New York Council for the Humanities. She serves as president of the Kate Chopin International Society.

• Chapter 1. Nineteenth-Century America, Literature, and the Search for Grace Chapter 2. Whitman and the Politics of Mysticism Chapter 3. Hester as New Religion in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Chapter 4. Narrative of Sojourner Truth and the Personal Relationship with Divinity Chapter 5. Kate Chopin’s Religious Vision in At Fault Chapter 6. Conclusion