Dissertation: Sympathy and Ambivalence: Identity Politics in EarlyTwentieth-Century Anti-Imperial Novels
I argue that early twentieth-century writers, in reacting against Victorianism, return to the skeptical philosophical forays of the eighteenth century in emotional discourse to question the validity of sympathy, specifically through realistic portrayals of imperial relationships. Although anti-imperialists attempted to use sympathy as a salve for alienation through inter-personal connections, they grew increasingly skeptical of its ability to provoke benevolent socio-political change.
Committee: Sean Latham, George Gilpin, and Laura Stevens
Qualifying Exams: Modernism, Victorian Literature, Theory
M. A., English, with Distinction, GannonUniversity, 2000
B. A., English, Magna Cum Laude, MercyhurstCollege, 1998
COURSES TAUGHT AT WILKES
English 101, Composition
English 120, Introduction to Literature and Culture: Cultural Crossroads
English 190, Projects in Writing: Inkwell
English 201, Writing about Literature and Culture
English 228, Professional and Workplace Writing and Editing
English 234, Survey in British Literature II
English 308, Rhetorical Analysis and Nonfictional Prose
English 350, Studies in the English Novel
English 353, Studies in Postcolonial Literature
English 395, Senior Capstone
English 396, Independent Study: Imperial Literature and Film of Africa
English 397, Seminar: Indian Literature
PARTICIPATION IN ACADEMIC AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Member, Admissions and Financial Aid Standing Committee, Wilkes University, Fall 2007 – present
Advisor, Wilkes in the World (Humanitarian Club), Fall 2007 – present
Founder/Co-organizer, The Kirby Canon English Department Essay Contest, WilkesUniversity, Spring 2007 – Fall 2008
Organizer, The Kirby Canon (Online edition), Wilkes University, Spring 2008
Organizer, Stitch-a-thon supporting the displaced people of Sudan, WilkesUniversity, Spring 2007
Edith Nesbit Collection indexer, University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library Special Collections, 2006
Specialist Reader, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 2004
CONFERENCE PAPERS
“Nature vs. Nurture: A Roundtable with Wilkes University Faculty.”Women’s Studies Conference (Wilkes-Barre, PA, 2009).
“What about Hercules?:Elizabeth Bowen’s Silenced Children in The Last September”Seminar: Children and War.Modernist Studies Association Conference (Nashville, TN, November 2008).
“Traveling to the Interior: Laurens van der Post’s Venture into Southern Africa.”Seminar: Travel Literature.Modernist Studies Association Conference (Long Beach, CA, November 2007).
“Planning for and Implementing Writing Mentorship” Panel: The Embedded Consultant: WritingCenters and Writing Mentors.NortheastWritingCenter Association Conference (Hartford, CT, March 2007).
“(Re)fashioning Utopia in Stella Gibbons’ Cold Comfort Farm.”Seminar: Modernism and the Utopian.Modernist Studies Association Conference (Tulsa, OK, October 2006).
“’God Save the Machine’: The Limits of Religious Sympathy in Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable.” Modernist Studies Association Conference (Chicago, IL, October 2005).
“Owleries, Howlers, and Mail: The Role of Letters in Harry Potter.”South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference (Roanoke, VA, November 2004).
“E. M. Forster, Sympathy, and Liberalism.”Seminar: Only Connect? (Post)modernism and the Liberal Imagination. Modernist Studies Association Conference (Vancouver, British Columbia, October 2004).
“The Commodity of Education in ‘Scylla and Charybdis’ in James Joyce’s Ulysses.” North American James Joyce Association Conference (Tulsa, OK, June 2003).
“Fellowship(s) and Nativism in Tolkien’s Middle-earth: Racial and Local Identity in The Lord of the Rings.”Southwest and Texas/Pop Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference (Albuquerque, NM, February 2003).
“The Scope of Infidelity: Spirit vs. Letter.” Annual Graduate English Society Conference
(Lubbock, TX, February 2002).
“Mercyhurst and the Idea of a Writing Center.” National Writing Center Association Conference (Bloomington, IN, 1999).
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Embroiderers’ Guild of America, July 2009 – present
Jo’s Little Women Quilt Club, January 2010 – present
Smithsonian Institute, National Associate Member, July 2009 – present
Sierra Club, Summer 2008 – present
National Geographic Society, Fall 2008 – present
World Wildlife Federation, Spring 2008 – present
National Wildlife Federation, Spring 2008 – present
South Asian Literary Association, September 2006 - present
College English Association, December 2005 – present
Modernist Studies Association, January 2003 – present
Modern Language Association, September 1998 – present
ACADEMIC AWARDS
Type II Presentation Grant, Wilkes University, 2008
Multiculturalism in Teaching, Wilkes University, 2007 – 2008
Type II Presentation Grant, Wilkes University, 2007
Mentoring Grant funding for NEWCA conference, Wilkes University, 2006
Type II Presentation Grant, Wilkes University, 2006
Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Tulsa Writing Program, 2004
Chapman Distinguished Ph.D. Award, 2003, 2004
Chapman Travel Grant, University of Tulsa, 2001, 2003
Presidential Award for Academic Excellence, co-recipient, Mercyhurst College, 1998
Publications
PUBLICATIONS: Book Length Works
Elizabeth Bowen: An Annually-Updated Comprehensive Bibliography. (2008): <http://www.wilkes.edu/ElizabethBowen>. Updated: Spring 2010
Co-authored with S. H. Wells, M. Phillips, and H. Wells. The Guide to Writing: New and Updated for MSOffice 2007. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
Co-authored with S. H. Wells, M. Phillips, and H. Wells. The Guide to Writing. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006.
PUBLICATIONS: Articles and Reviews
“Trip to The Stitching Jubilee.” The Stitchin’ Times XXVII.3 (Winter 2009): 5.
Rev. of E. M. Dadlez. Mirrors to One Another. Emotion and Value in Jane Austen and David Hume. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. In Consciousness, Literature and the Arts (forthcoming).
Rev. of Osborn, Susan, ed. Elizabeth Bowen: New Critical Perspectives. Cork: Cork UP, 2009. In Modern Fiction Studies (forthcoming).
Rev. of Ratcliffe, Sophie. On Sympathy. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. In Consciousness, Literature and the Arts 9.3 (2008): <http://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/users/dmeyerdinkgrafe/archive/ratcliffe.html>.
Rev. of Smith, Frederick. The Self-Possessed: Deity and Spirit Possession in South Asian Literature and Civilization. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. In Consciousness, Literature and the Arts 8.2 (2007): <http://www.aber.ac.uk/cla/current/smith/html>.
“Elizabeth Bowen: A Selected Bibliography.” Modern Fiction Studies 53.2 (2007): 370 – 400.
Rev. of Rousseau, George S. Nervous Acts: Essays on Literature, Culture, and Sensibility. New York: Palgrave, 2004. In Consciousness, Literature and the Arts 6.3 (2005). <http://www.aber.ac.uk/tfts/journal/current/bookreviews.html>.
Rev. of Caldwell, Janis McLarren. Literature and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Britain: From Mary Shelley to George Eliot. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. In Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 61.2 (2006): 225 – 226.
Rev. of Kermode, Frank. Pleasure and Change: The Aesthetics of Canon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. In Consciousness, Literature and the Arts 6.1 (2005) <http://www.aber.ac.uk/tfts/journal/current/bookreviews.html>.
Rev. of Gordon, John. Physiology and the Literary Imagination: Romantic to Modern. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2003. In Consciousness, Literature, and the Arts 5.2 (2004) <http://www.aber.ac.uk/tfts/journal/current>.
Rev. of Walia,Rajni. Women and Self: Fictions of Jean Rhys, Barbara Pym, Anita Brookner. New Delhi: Book Plus, 2001. In Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 23.1 (Spring 2004): 144 – 146.
“Thai.” Student Journal of Art and Literature: U of Tulsa (2002): 92 – 93.
Co-translator with Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and Irene and Frank Letcher, “Babi Yar in Manhattan,” Yevgeny Yevtushenko.