Dr. Julie McCown is an assistant professor of English at Southern Utah University. She specializes in early American literature, critical theory, animal studies, ecocriticism, natural history and science studies, and digital humanities and media theory. Her current research focuses on animal materiality in early American natural history texts. Her interests are early American literature, animal and science studies, and digital humanities/media theory. McCown had published several articles about stop-motion puppets, crocodiles, and animal bodies. She also discovered an unknown poem by the 18th century African American poet Jupiter Hammon.

McCown has a bachelor's degree in literary studies with a minor in music and gender studies from the University of Texas at Dallas, a master of arts degree in English from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and she earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at Arlington.