She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University where she received four Derek Bok prizes for excellence in teaching and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Carla has edited three books on literary and cultural studies, focusing on the history of the body, the history of psychology, and social control and the arts. Carla was awarded the English Association's Beatrice White Prize for "The Body and Parts - Fantasies of Corporeality in Early Modern Europe," which she edited and contributed to, and is currently working on the history of vocal impairment in the literature and culture of England.