Rachel Jamison Webster
· Professor of InstructionNorthwestern University · English
Active 1953–2026
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About
Rachel Jamison Webster is a Professor of Instruction in the English Department at Northwestern University. She is the author of Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family, published by Henry Holt in March 2023, which was chosen as a Best Book of 2023 by the New Yorker and an Editor's Pick by the New York Times. This creative nonfiction work explores themes of ancestry, race, gender, and justice in American history through present-day conversations with her cousins and researched stories about their ancestors, including a female indentured servant from England, a multiracial herbalist who fought for her children's freedom, and Benjamin Banneker, the first African American surveyor and almanac author. Her book received positive reviews, with Booklist giving it a starred review and Publisher's Weekly calling it a stunning meditation on race, identity, and achievement. Webster has also published four books of poetry and cross-genre writing, including Mary is a River, which was a finalist for the 2014 National Poetry Series, September, The Endless Unbegun, and The Sea Came Up & Drowned, a book of eco-poetics that combines erasure poems and collage artwork, which is set to be adapted into a choral opera premiering across several U.S. cities in 2026. Her poems and essays have appeared in notable journals and anthologies such as Poetry, The Yale Review, and the Bettering American Poetry Anthology. She teaches courses in creative nonfiction, poetry, literary…
Research topics
- Internal medicine
- Medicine
- Physical therapy
- Physical medicine and rehabilitation
- Political Science
- Nursing
- Emergency medicine
- Surgery
- Genetics
- Biology
Selected publications
The collective burden of childhood dementia: a scoping review
Brain · 2023-07-20 · 25 citations
reviewOpen accessChildhood dementia is a devastating and under-recognized group of disorders with a high level of unmet need. Typically monogenic in origin, this collective of individual neurodegenerative conditions are defined by a progressive impairment of neurocognitive function, presenting in childhood and adolescence. This scoping review aims to clarify definitions and conceptual boundaries of childhood dementia and quantify the collective disease burden. A literature review identified conditions that met t…
Neurology · 2022-10-28 · 23 citations
articleOpen accessBACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: variants. METHODS: variants were identified through an international collaboration. Clinical history, EEG, and imaging data were analyzed; seizure types and epilepsy syndromes were classified. We included 3 previously published individuals including additional phenotypic details. RESULTS: We report a cohort of 17 patients, including 9 with a recurrent de novo missense variant p.Arg327His, 4 with a recurrent missense variant p.Arg333His, and 4 additional novel missense…
Trials · 2023 · 10 citations
INTRODUCTION: Postoperative morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing major emergency gastrointestinal surgery are a major burden on healthcare systems. Optimal management of perioperative intravenous fluids may reduce mortality rates and improve outcomes from surgery. Previous small trials of cardiac-output guided haemodynamic therapy algorithms in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery have suggested this intervention results in reduced complications and a modest reduction in mortal…
Research Square · 2026-01-21
preprintOpen accessChildhood motor speech disorders: who to prioritise for genetic testing
Research Square · 2025-07-22
preprintOpen access
Frequent coauthors
- 205 shared
Monique M. Ryan
Royal Children's Hospital
- 186 shared
M. Tulinius
University of Gothenburg
- 186 shared
Craig M. McDonald
UC Davis Health System
- 185 shared
Paula R. Clemens
University of Pittsburgh
- 167 shared
Lauren P. Morgenroth
Children's National
- 164 shared
Peter Karachunski
University of Minnesota System
- 162 shared
Jean K. Mah
- 151 shared
Avital Cnaan
Awards & honors
- Weinberg College Alumni Teaching Award (2016)
- Hewlett Fellowship for diversities and social inequities cur…
- Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities Fellow
- Op-Ed Public Voices Fellow
- American Association of University Women Award
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