Jessica Conrad
Clayton State University | Department of English
JessicaConrad@clayton.edu
Academic Appointments
Assistant Professor of English (TT), Clayton State University, 2021-present
Assistant Professor of English (NTT), Kent State University at Stark, 2019-2021
Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Delaware, 2010-2017
Education
Ph.D. in English, University of Delaware, 2019
Dissertation: Boycott: Literary Interventions in the American Marketplace, 1820-1880
Director: Dr. Martin Brückner; Readers: Dr. John Ernest, Dr. Anne Boylan, Dr. Patricia Crain
M.A. in English, University of Delaware, 2012
B.A. in Literature, West Chester University, 2008
Publications
“Bottling Death and Brewing Resistance in Temperance Literature and Reform.” Elusive Archives: Material Culture Studies in Formation, edited by Sandy Isenstadt and Martin Brückner, University of Delaware Press, 2021, pp. 280-301.
“Interfering Women: Consumer Activism, Charity, and Women’s Rights in Frances Harper’s Sowing and Reaping.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, special issue on Women and Politics in Pennsylvania History, October 2020, pp. 349-374.
“Polluted Luxuries: Consumer Resistance, the Senses of Horror, and Abolitionist Boycott Poetry.” American Literature, vol. 90, no. 1, March 2018, pp. 1-26.
Honors, Awards, Fellowships
Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, Fulbright-Bostiber Visiting Professor of Austrian-American Studies, University of Graz American Studies Program, 2022
Gest Fellowship, Haverford College, Quaker and Special Collections – 2021
Outstanding Composition Instructor Award, Kent State University – 2019
Wilbur Owen Sypherd Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation, University of Delaware – 2019
Delaware Public Humanities Institute Fellowship – 2018
Graduate International Exchange Fellowship – 2017
Andrew W. Mellon Short-term Fellowship – Library Company of Philadelphia – 2015
Faculty Senate Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Delaware – 2015
Graduate Summer Research Fellowship – 2012-2015 consecutive
Conference Presentations
“Thoreau’s Nature Writing as Utopia, Utopia as Protest,” Roosevelt Institute of American Studies conference, “Environmental Justice in US History,” October 2022
“Print, Protest, and the Roots of Contemporary Activism in Apess’ Eulogy on King Philip,” British Association of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, May 2022
“Perspectives of American Protest Literature and Culture from Abroad,” Plenary Presentation, Fulbright Austria American Studies Symposium, April 2022
Panel Chair: Changing Climate and Cultural Change: The Radical Uses of Fiction and Literature in Environmental Activism, at the European Association of American Studies, April 2022
“Change is Not a Luxury: Writing for the Future in Butler’s Parable Series” at the European Association of American Studies, April 2022
“Penning Protest under Patriarchy: Frances Harper and Elizabeth Chandler’s Abolitionist Boycott Poetry” at the Northeast MLA, March 2021
“Playing the Game: Aspiration, Speculation, and Female Sociopathy in Rush’s Kelroy” at the Northeast MLA, March 2020
“‘A Flood of Demoralizing Influence’: Consumer Resistance and Moral Capital in Frances Harper’s Sowing and Reaping” at the Midwest MLA, November 2017
“An Economy of Self: From Singleness to Sovereignty in Domestic Writings of Catherine Beecher and Louisa May Alcott” at Single Lives: 200 Years of Independent Women in Literature and Popular Culture, University College Dublin, October 2017
“Bottling Death and Brewing Sanctuary in Temperance Literature and Reform” at the Refuge of Objects/ Objects of Refuge Material Culture Symposium, University of Mainz, Germany; December 2016
“Picturing Black Hawk: Paratexts of Difference in Black Hawk Frontispieces” at The Power of Stories Conference, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, September 2011
“Quitting Plagiarism: The Writing Center as a Site of Pedagogy, Not Penalty” at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association Conference, West Chester University, April 2011
Invited Presentations
Keynote Address, English Association of Pennsylvania State Universities, Oct. 2022
“Imagining Other Worlds: Narrative as Protest.” Invited guest lecture at the University of Graz, June 2022
“Change Is Not a Luxury: Writing for the Future in Butler’s Parable Series.” Invited guest lecture at Regensburg University, June 2022
“Print, Protest, and the Roots of Contemporary Activism in Apess’ Eulogy on King Philip.” Invited guest lecture at the University of Münster (WWU Münster), June 2022
“Print, Protest, and the Roots of Contemporary Activism in Apess’ Eulogy on King Philip.” Invited guest lecture at the University of Heidelberg, June 2022
“Change Is Not a Luxury: Writing for the Future in Butler’s Parable Series.” Invited guest lecture at the University of Passau, May 2022
“Interfering Women: Boycott, Women’s Rights, and Temperance Reform in the Volunteer State.” Invited public humanities lecture at Belle Meade Plantation, June 2019
“’Polluted Luxuries’: What Nineteenth-Century Poetry Can Teach Us about Buying and Selling in a Factious Political Economy.” Invited public humanities lecture at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, March 2019
“Workshop: What’s the Thing with Temperance Tales?” Invited material culture workshop at “The American Short Story: New Horizons” hosted by the American Studies Association Society for the Study of the Short Story and the Obama Institute; University of Mainz, Germany; October 2017
“Farm Fantasies: Humans and Things in Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance.” Invited symposium presentation at “Re-reading Melville and Hawthorne: Contemporary Approaches” at the University of Vienna, May 2017
“Boycott: Literary Interventions in the Marketplace, 1820-1880.” Invited graduate consortium presentation at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Free University of Berlin, May 2017
“Polluted Luxuries: Consumer Resistance, the Senses of Horror, and Abolitionist Boycott Literature.” Invited lecture at the University of Eichstätt, American Studies seminar, May 2017
“Books as Things and Things in Books, or, What Material Culture has to do with Literary Studies.” Invited lecture at the University of Heidelberg, American Studies seminar, May 2017
“Boycott: Literary Interventions in the Marketplace, 1820-1880.” Invited lecture at the University of Passau, American Studies seminar, May 2017
“Polluted Luxuries: Consumer Resistance, the Senses of Horror, and Abolitionist Boycott Literature.” Invited consortium presentation at the University of Brno, American Studies seminar, March 2017
“Polluted Luxuries: Consumer Resistance, the Senses of Horror, and Abolitionist Boycott Literature.” Invited lecture at the University of Graz, Master Research Methods seminar, American Studies, March 2017
Faculty Colloquia and Workshops
Graduate Workshop Series: PhD Stands for Purposeful Honing and Delivery, a workshop series on graduate student professionalization, University of Graz, 2022. Individual workshops on the following topics:
- Finding Your Project’s Focus and Scope
- Responding to CFPs
- Writing Fellowship and Grant Proposals
- Elevator Pitch, Abstracts, and Getting Attention Fast
- Keeping Attention: Answering the “So What?”
“Cultivating Media Literate College Writers,” Media Literacy Training Seminar, Stark English Writing Program Professional Development Event, Kent State University, May 2021
“Teaching Media Literacy,” Stark English Writing Program Professional Development Event, Kent State University, March 2021
“Fall ’20: Calibrating Essay Feedback,” Stark English Writing Program Professional Development Event, Kent State University, November 2020
“College Writing Workshop: Assessment Best Practices,” Stark English Writing Program Professional Development Event, Kent State University, October 2020
“Fall ’19: Calibrating Essay Feedback,” Stark English Writing Program Professional Development Event, Kent State University, November 2019
“College Writing Workshop: Rubrics,” Stark English Writing Program Professional Development Event, Kent State University, October 2019
“Spring ’19: Calibrating Essay Feedback,” Stark English Writing Program Professional Development Event, Kent State University, April 2019
“High-impact Teaching Strategies,” Stark English Writing Program Professional Development Event, Kent State University, April 2019
Teaching
Interests: American Literature, Women’s Studies, African American Literature, Print Culture and Book History, Material Culture, Protest Literature and Culture, Environmental Humanities, Rhetoric and Composition
Literature Courses:
American Studies 512.821 Doctoral Seminar: Spreading Awareness, Provoking Protest: Literature and Culture of Social and Environmental Justice, University of Graz
ENGL 2131: American Literature I, Clayton State University
ENG 33001: U.S. Literature to 1865, Kent State University at Stark
ENG 33002: U.S. Literature from 1865-1945, Kent State University at Stark
ENG 25004: Literature in the U.S. I (to 1865), Kent State University at Stark
ENG 33010: African American Literature to 1900, Kent State University at Stark
ENG 21002: Introduction to Women’s Literature, Kent State University at Stark
ENG 39995: Beyond Princess Leia: Womxn and Science Fiction, Kent State University at Stark (canceled due to accepting new position at CSU)
ENG 24001: Introduction to Literary Study, Kent State University at Stark
ENG 22073: Major Modern Writers, Kent State University at Stark
Composition Courses:
ENGL 1101: Composition I, Clayton State University
ENGL 1102: Composition II, Clayton State University
ENG 11011: College Writing I, Kent State University at Stark
ENG 21011: College Writing II, Kent State University at Stark
ENG 01001: College Writing Stretch, Kent State University at Stark
Honors ENGL 110: Critical Reading and Writing, “No World for Tomorrow: Science Fiction Meets Environmentalism,” University of Delaware
ENGL 110: Critical Reading and Writing, University of Delaware
Digital Humanities Projects and Exhibits
Curator, “The Fight for Black Mobility: Traveling to Mid-Century Conventions.” Colored Conventions Project
Co-founder and Digital Exhibits Committee member, Colored Conventions Project, 2012-2015.
Committees and Service
Ad Hoc Mentoring Committee, Clayton State University, 2022-Present
Arts & Sciences Smith Award, Clayton State University, 2021-Present
Writing Awards Committee, English Department, Clayton State University, 2021-Present
Sigma Tau Delta, Clayton State University, 2021-Present
Chair, Stark English Writing Program Committee; Kent State University at Stark, 2019-2021
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- Organizing professional development events to promote best practice and disseminate developments in the field, conducting observations of college writing instructors, establishing assessment normalization
Representative, Writing Program Committee, Kent State University, Kent Campus, 2019-2021
Reader, Writing Center Review, an anthology of best student essays at Kent State Stark, 2019
Co-director of the 14th Material Culture Studies Emerging Scholars Symposium, “Possessed: The Material Culture of Ownership”; University of Delaware and Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library; 2016
Chair of Site Curation Committee, Colored Conventions Project, University of Delaware, with Dr. P. Gabrielle Foreman, 2013-2015
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- Research and editing of over 80 student submissions in the pre-publication process as well as exhibit content and design
Graduate Student Co-founder, Colored Conventions Project, University of Delaware, 2012-2015
Research Associate, Development of Undergraduate Research Projects, IHRC Grant with Dr. Iain Crawford, University of Delaware, 2014
Reader, Arak Board, The John and Frieda Arak Journal: An Anthology of Student Writing at the University of Delaware, 2015
References
Provided upon request
Jessica Conrad 