糖心vlog

Maria Rovito

Maria Rovito

Dr. Rovito is a scholar with a PhD in American Studies from The Pennsylvania State University in Harrisburg, specializing in medical humanities, literature, disability studies, and women鈥檚 and gender studies. Her dissertation, 鈥淔ree Woman: An Autotheoretical and Feminist Disability Analysis of Endometriosis Pain in Medicine and Culture,鈥 examines the history and stigmatization of endometriosis, challenging its misrepresentation as primarily an infertility issue rather than a chronic pain disorder. By utilizing autotheory, feminist disability studies, and archival research, Dr. Rovito highlights how gender bias in medical practices has prioritized reproductive roles over patient well-being, particularly affecting women of color and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Analyzing the archival writings of early-20th century gynecologists from the Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University, the Historical Medical Library at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia, and the Center for the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, she tied the official recognition of endometriosis to eugenics and the common belief held by physicians that feminism, women鈥檚 careers, and education were leading to the decline of the white race in the post-World War II era. She has authored peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, including work on Sylvia Plath, suicide and self-harm, and the representation of mad girls in young adult literature.

Dr. Rovito is also an active public intellectual, contributing to Ms. Magazine and Diva Cup on issues related to endometriosis and medical racism and presenting medical humanities research at public awareness events. Her conference presentations and invited talks address critical topics in feminist disability studies and women’s health. Additionally, she was recognized with the Alumni Association Dissertation Award at Penn State and the Northeast Modern Language Association Summer Fellowship. Dr. Rovito currently serves as the Board Representative for the Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies Caucus of the Northeast Modern Language Association.

Education

  • PhD, American Studies, The Pennsylvania State University 鈥 Harrisburg, 2024
    • Title: 鈥淔ree Woman: An Autotheoretical and Feminist Disability Analysis of Endometriosis Pain in Medicine and Culture.鈥
    • Specializations: American literature, disability studies, medical humanities, women鈥檚 and gender studies.
  • MA, English, Millersville University of Pennsylvania
  • BA, English, Millersville University of Pennsylvania

Learn More About Dr. Rovito

鈥淭he Bleeding Edge: Cutting, Mad Girls, and the Asylum in Young Adult Literature.鈥 Madwomen in Social Justice Movements, Literatures, and Art, eds. Nicole Crevar and Jessica Lowell Mason, Vernon Press, 2023, pp. 205-217.

鈥淏lood, Verse, and Liberation: Sylvia Plath鈥檚 Poetic Exploration of Menstruation.鈥 The New Sylvia Plath Studies, ed. Dorka Tam谩s, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

Organizer/Host. 鈥溾榃hat the Heck Is Wrong with My Period?鈥: A Dinner Conversation on Endometriosis.鈥 Featuring Dr. Kari Plewniak and Prof. Jenna LeBlanc. Sponsored by Jonathan Phipps and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, 糖心vlog, Albany, NY: March 18, 2025.

  • 鈥淟aboratories of Empire: Reproductive Injustice in Puerto Rico, Colonial Legacies, and Decolonial Futures.鈥 Moderator and panel organizer. Reproductive Justice Interest Group Sponsored Session. National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico: November 14, 2025.
  • 鈥淟iterary Landscapes of Women鈥檚 Pain: The Language of Suffering.鈥 Chair and panel organizer. Northeast Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA: March 7, 2025.
  • 鈥淪ick, Sad Girls: Experiences of Chronic Illness in Women鈥檚 Poetry.鈥 Chair and panel organizer. Modern Language Association, New Orleans, LA: January 11, 2025.
  • 鈥溾業t鈥檚 All in Your Head鈥: Cultural Representations of Medical Misogyny in the Americas.鈥 Cochair and panel organizer with April Knupp. Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA: March 7, 2024.
  • 鈥淭he Wandering Womb: Writing Menstrual Pain.鈥 Chair and panel organizer. Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA: January 7, 2024
  • 鈥淏attle for Your Life: Rethinking the Endometriosis Warrior and Female Empowerment.鈥 Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA: January 3-7, 2024.
  • 鈥淎 Manifesto of Pain; or, Can Disability Studies Be Used to Heal?鈥 National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, Baltimore, MD: October 25-29, 2023.
  • 鈥淔aulty Bodies, Faulty Women: Joe Vincent Meigs and the Rise of Endometriosis, 1861-1949.鈥 Society of Menstrual Cycle Research, Bethesda, MD: July 22, 2023.
  • 鈥溾楢 Negative, Painful Experience鈥: The Omission of Chronic Illnesses in Disability Studies.鈥 Chair and panel organizer. Northeast Modern Language Association, Niagara Falls, NY: March 24, 2023.
  • 鈥溾榃hen Will My Case Be Considered an Emergency?鈥: The Problem of Misogynoir in Endometriosis Care and Activism.鈥 National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, Minneapolis, MI: November 12, 2022.
  • 鈥淩age Against the Machine: Navigating the Abolition of Systems of Care.鈥 Chair and panel organizer. National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, Minneapolis, MI: November 12, 2022. Sponsored by the Disability Studies Interest Group.
  • 鈥淲hen My Uterus Fights Back: Speaking My Endometriosis Pain.鈥 Health Humanities Consortium: March 27, 2022.
  • 鈥淚nterdisciplinary Analyses of Medicalized Human Bodies and Parts.鈥 Chair. Northeast Modern Language Association, Baltimore, MD: March 11, 2022.
  • 鈥淢entorship as Intersectional Feminist Practice (WGSC Session).鈥 Chair. Northeast Modern Language Association, Baltimore, MD: March 12, 2022.
  • 鈥淚 Want to Kill Myself: A Mad Reckoning of PMDD.鈥 American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico: October 9, 2021.
  • 鈥淪hed Walls, Don鈥檛 Build Them: Developing Critical Menstruation Studies.鈥 Panel organizer. American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico: October 9, 2021.
  • 鈥淥n Being a Borderline Instructor: Thoughts on a Mad Border Pedagogy.鈥 Society for Disability Studies: April 20, 2021.
  • 鈥淭he Lunatic Upstairs: Virginia Woolf and the Ethics of Institutionalization.鈥 Co-chair and panel organizer with Jessica Lowell Mason. Northeast Modern Language Association, online conference due to COVID-19: March 11-14, 2021.
  • 鈥淚nstitutionalization in the Era of #MeToo: Reckoning Sexual Assault in Virginia Woolf鈥檚 Life and Work.鈥 Northeast Modern Language Association: March 11, 2021.
  • 鈥淪hed Walls, Don鈥檛 Build Them: Developing Critical Menstruation Studies.鈥 Panel organizer. American Studies Association, Baltimore, MD: November 12-15, 2020. Rescheduled due to COVID-19.
  • 鈥淭he Future of Feminist Disability Studies.鈥 Chair and panel organizer. Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA: March 8, 2020.
  • 鈥淪ylvia Plath and Disabled Women鈥檚 Life-writing as a Tool of Resistance.鈥 Chair and panel organizer. Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA: March 7, 2020.
  • 鈥淔rom Bertha Mason to Girl, Interrupted: Reclaiming the Literary 鈥楽ad Queen.鈥欌 Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA: March 6, 2020.

  • Endometriosis Research Center Golden Scholar, 2025.
  • Winner of the Alumni Association Dissertation Award, The Pennsylvania State University, Spring 2024.
  • Northeast Modern Language Association Summer Fellowship, Harvard Medical School, July 2022.

Moderator and Introducer. 鈥淒own Syndrome Culture: A Talk by Benjamin Fraser.鈥 Opening Address, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), Philadelphia, PA, March 7, 2025.

  • Invited Presidential Session Panelist, 鈥35 Years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Disability Justice as Feminist Practice.鈥 National Women鈥檚 Studies Association Annual Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 15, 2025. (Session with Heidi R. Lewis, Sami Schalk, Nirmala Erevelles, and Kristina Gupta.)
  • 鈥淲hen Pain Is Proof and Still Ignored: Endometriosis, Medical Gaslighting, and the Dangers of Not Being Believed.鈥 Grand Rounds, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Peoria, IL: May 22, 2025.
  • 鈥淧athologies of Privilege: The Racial Politics of Endometriosis in Modern Gynecology.鈥 Grand Rounds, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Montefiore Medical Center, New York, NY: May 6, 2025.
  • 鈥淏ewitched, Unbothered, and Childfree: A Proud Spinsterhood of Hormonal Heresy.鈥 The Endometriosis Summit, Orlando, FL: March 28, 2025.
  • 鈥淓ndometriosis and the Problem of Curing Disability.鈥 HNUH228U鈥擜 Life Worth Living: The Legacy of Eugenics in Genetics, University of Maryland at College Park: March 14, 2024.
  • 鈥淭he Patriarchal Underpinnings of Endometriosis.鈥 The Endometriosis Summit, Orlando, FL: March 10, 2024.
  • 鈥淢ad Feminist Dialogues.鈥 Seneca Falls Biannual Convention, online meeting: October 23, 2020.

  • 鈥淟earning About Language: An In-Class Activity鈥 JSTOR Daily, https://daily.jstor.org/learning-about-language-an-in-class-activity/. October 10, 2025.
  • 鈥淔rom Isolation to Connection鈥擬aria Rovito鈥檚 Journey with JSTOR.鈥 JSTOR Educator Spotlight, https://about.jstor.org/case-study-educator-spotlight-maria-rovito/?utm_campaign=faculty_engagement&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_content=case_study. September 15, 2025.
  • 鈥淒octors Dismissed Her Pain. Here鈥檚 How She Fought Back.鈥 WebMD, https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20250715/doctors-dismissed-her-pain-heres-how-she-fought-back. July 19, 2025.
  • 鈥淢edical Gaslighting in Endometriosis: A Historical Deep Dive with Maria Rovito.鈥 Podcast with Dr. Ginger Garner, YouTube, https://youtu.be/zxWoVLvr4Qo?si=kS8qqvxfUpURfgtl. January 28, 2025.

Reimagining Endometriosis: The History, Politics, and Rhetoric of Women鈥檚 Pain. Springer Nature/Palgrave, 2026.

鈥淭oward a New Madwoman Theory: Reckoning the Pathologization of Sylvia Plath.鈥 Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, vol. 13, issue 4, 2020, pp. 317-332.

  • 鈥淩ogue Tissue, Rogue Self: A Monstrous-Feminine Manifesto from the Land of Blood and Steel.鈥 Modern Language Association, Toronto, ON: January 2026.
  • 鈥溾楢ll I Ever Wanted Was Love鈥: Lady Gaga鈥檚 Chromatica as a Feminist-Crip Manifesto of Queer Joy and Resistance.鈥 National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico: November 15, 2025.
  • 鈥淗ealing Beyond the Operating Table: Endometriosis, Feminist Disability Justice, and Collective Care.鈥 Medical Herstory鈥檚 Feminist Health Conference, online conference: November 8, 2025.
  • 鈥淪ick, Tired, and Speaking Anyway: Autotheory, Endometriosis, Reproductive Worth, and the Refusal to be Silenced.鈥 Cripping Reproductive Justice Symposium, Barcelona, Spain: October 14, 2025.
  • 鈥淲riting the 鈥楩emale Condition鈥: Harriet Martineau鈥檚 Life in the Sick-Room, Catamenia, and the Failures of 19th-Century Medicine.鈥 Narrative, online conference: April 4, 2025.
  • 鈥淚 Still Bleed: On Pain, Endometriosis, a Hysterectomy, and Learning to Love Myself Again.鈥 Northeast Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA: March 8, 2025.
  • 鈥淲hispers in Wounds: A Feminist Dialogue on Self-Harm, Reclaiming Language, and Bodily Autonomy.鈥 Northeast Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA: March 7, 2025.
  • 鈥淏lood, Verse, and Liberation: Sylvia Plath鈥檚 Poetic Exploration of Menstruation.鈥 Modern Language Association, New Orleans, LA: January 11, 2025.
  • 鈥淗azardous Histories and Reproductive Wrongs: Gynecology鈥檚 Misogynoir, Environmental Racism, and its Impact on Black Women with Endometriosis.鈥 National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, Detroit, MI: November 15, 2024.
  • 鈥淢y Vagina Will Grow Thorns: Monstrous Wombs in Television Portrayals of Endometriosis.鈥 Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA: March 8, 2024.
  • 鈥淗ystHERia.鈥 Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA: March 7, 2024.

  • 鈥溾榃omen鈥檚 Pain Is Less Important鈥: Documentary 鈥楤elow the Belt鈥 Shows Why Endometriosis Is a Feminist Issue.鈥 Ms. Magazine, https://msmagazine.com/2023/06/28/below-the-belt-reviewendometriosis-documentary/. June 28, 2023.
  • 鈥淢edical Racism in Endometriosis Diagnosis & Care.鈥 Diva Cup, https://divacup.com/endometriosis-research-study-medical-racism/. March 6, 2023.

  • Member-at-Large, National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, 2026.
  • Member of the Access and Inclusion Committee for the National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, 2025-Present.
  • Reproductive Justice Interest Group Chair for the National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, 2024-Present.
  • Reviewer for Feminist Frontiers, 2025-Present.
  • Reviewer for the International Journal of TV Serial Narratives, 2024-Present.
  • Reviewer for the Journal of Literary Studies, 2024-Present.
  • Mentor for the Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies Caucus Mentorship Program of the Northeast Modern Language Association, 2025.
  • Board Representative for the Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies Caucus for the Northeast Modern Language Association, 2023-2026.
  • President for the Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies Caucus of the Northeast Modern Language Association, 2021-2022.

  • Faculty Advisor, Sexuality and Gender Alliance

  • 鈥淣o, I Will Not 鈥楶ush Through鈥: A Crip Uprising Against Conference Norms.鈥 Workshop Leader/Facilitator, National Women鈥檚 Studies Association, online: October 28, 2025.
  • 鈥淢apping the Crip Body: Autotheory and Narratives of Feminism, Illness, and Disability.鈥 Workshop Leader/Facilitator, Feminist Perspectives on Body, Disability, and Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA: March 5, 2025.