James C. McKusick is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His research and teaching interests include British Romanticism, literary theory, environmental studies, and the history of science. His books include Faustus: From the German of Goethe, Translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, co-edited with Frederick Burwick (Oxford University Press, 2007); Green Writing: Romanticism and Ecology (Palgrave, 2000), Literature and Nature: Four Centuries of Nature Writing, co-edited with Bridget Keegan (Prentice-Hall, 2001), and Coleridge's Philosophy of Language (Yale University Press, 1986). He has also published numerous scholarly articles and book reviews.

James McKusick has been the recipient of grants and scholarships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fletcher Jones Foundation, and the Maryland Humanities Council. He currently serves as President of the Wordsworth-Coleridge Association and Executive Director of the John Clare Society of North America.

James McKusick completed his B.A. in English and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College, and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in English at Yale University. Dr. McKusick was a member of the English Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, from 1984 to 2005; during that time he served as Chair of English (1998-2002) and Director of the Honors College (2002-2005). He served as Dean of the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana, 2005-2015, and he served as Dean of the Honors College at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (2015-2021).