Byerly's area of specialty is the intersection of literature and other media, with research focus on Victorian literature, culture, and media; digital humanities; technology and the liberal arts.[4]
Byerly became president of Lafayette College in 2013, and in 2016 launched a 10-year plan to increase the student body by 16 percent, more than double the financial aid budget, and create 40 new faculty positions with a goal of allowing Lafayette to admit more students without regard for their ability to pay.[6] By 2019, the aid budget had grown by 30 percent, the student body by 100 students, and the faculty by 11 positions.[7][8] Under Byerly's leadership, Lafayette also launched and completed its largest-ever fund-raising effort,[9] and opened its largest capital project ever, the Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center.[10] On October 6, 2020, she announced her decision to retire at Lafayette effective the end of the school year.[11][12]
In August 2021, Byerly became president of Carleton College.[13]
Personal life
Byerly is married to Stephen Jensen, a medical editor. They have a daughter and a son.[14]
She is known to students at both Carleton and Lafayette Colleges as "Ally B."[15]
Published works
She has written Realism, Representation, and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Literature (Cambridge, 1998), and Are We There Yet? Virtual Travel and Victorian Realism (U of Michigan, 2012).[4]
