Karen Flood

Karen Flood is the Founder of Riverside College Coaching, LLC. Previously, she was the Associate Dean of the Harvard Summer School, the Allston Burr Dudley House Dean, and the Acting Director of Studies in WGS. Before joining WGS, she taught in the History and Literature concentration, where she was the Assistant Director of Studies. 

Karen received her Ph.D. from Harvard's American Studies program. She focuses on American cultural history from the nineteenth century to the present, with particular interest in beauty culture, the body, history of medicine and science, death and memorialization, and visual culture. Her revised dissertation is entitled Contemplating Corpses: The Treatment of the Dead and Conceptions of the Body in Modern American Culture. 

Her teaching interests include beauty regimens and body modification; weight and body image; reproductive technologies and reproductive politics; the history of sexuality; and gender and work. Since 2025 she has written the Substack Vain Feminist.