It all started with a simple question: Why do we read?
For Anna Muenchrath, assistant professor of English, that question has guided a lifetime of curiosity—and a career devoted to uncovering how literature is made, shared and understood.
“I’ve always been a big reader,” Muenchrath says. “But what really interested me was the question of ‘why?’ Why do I enjoy this so much? Why do people like different books? What’s actually happening when we read?”
That curiosity grew into a career. After earning her Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Muenchrath spent three years as a visiting assistant professor at Appalachian State University before joining Florida Tech. Today, she focuses on literary sociology—the study of the people, institutions and systems that shape the books we read. Specifically, her work examines how world literature is constructed in the United States, including which global texts get translated, published and promoted—and why.
Muenchrath’s work is captured in her two recent books: Selling Books with Algorithms and Making World Literature. The former introduces readers to how recommendation systems work on platforms like Amazon and how they change the way we encounter literature compared to traditional bookstores. The latter is an expansive study of how global books get selected, translated and circulated in the U.S. She explores what institutions and individuals make those decisions and the protocols—rules, standards and market forces—that shape them.
While Selling Books with Algorithms is aimed at a broader audience, Making World Literature is a field-specific work intended for scholars of literary sociology and world literature.
To write it, Muenchrath visited archives across the country, piecing together how everything from World War II book programs to Oprah’s Book Club and Amazon’s translation imprint have contributed to what readers think of as world literature.
“I went through a number of archives and read documents about how selections of world literature were made and why,” Muenchrath says. “I tried to reconstruct some of the publishing networks and figure out how those networks changed over time—how decisions were made and by whom.”
Her work has earned national recognition, and Muenchrath was named a 2025 Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. Selected from a pool of more than 2,300 applicants, she was one of just 62 scholars chosen to receive up to $60,000 in funding for six to 12 months of full-time research and writing. It’s the second time her work has been recognized by the council.
Muenchrath will use the fellowship to help further her research on algorithms, specifically how algorithmic influence on humanmade data drives literature translation and, ultimately, culture in the United States.
“It means a great deal that my peers thought this project was worth funding and recognized its value,” Muenchrath says. “It feels especially meaningful because I’m at a STEM-focused school, where the spotlight is often on STEM scholarship. So, in that sense, it’s doubly rewarding to have my humanities research recognized.”
Muenchrath’s project, “Amazon Crossing: Translation Publishing, Algorithmic Data, and the Future of the Literary Marketplace,” will directly investigate how algorithmically produced and processed data affects the U.S. translation market. Muenchrath will use her findings to explore how humans use algorithms to replace their own judgment and selections and the implications that could have on our culture.
“I think one of the reasons I was a good fit for Florida Tech is that my research has focused more on how algorithms influence what we’re reading,” Muenchrath says. “We usually think of algorithms as mathematical or technological, but I’m interested in how they intervene in our culture. In a way, I’m bridging STEM and the humanities.”
This piece also appeared in the spring 2025 issue of COPLA Connections.
