English Language and Literature Commons^™

Reading Burney’S Mastectomy Letter: Presentist Thinking And Personal Responses In The Classroom, Heather Meek

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Frances Burney’s mastectomy letter, in its graphic and detailed depiction of the operation she underwent without anesthetic in 1811, does not always lend itself immediately to standard, scholarly classroom discussion. It tends, rather, to incite unusually intimate responses, as well as conversations about medicine and health today. In my teaching of the letter in literature courses at Université de Montréal over the course of the past 13 years, I have found that students are inclined to seize upon the subject of breast cancer as especially contemporary in its relevance and to share their own anecdotal knowledge of the disease. I …

Lifelong Learning: Approaches To Teaching Frances Burney’S The Wanderer To Adults, Miriam Al Jamil

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

The construction of a course for adult learners who are not studying for a qualification or credits but rather for enjoyment and engagement with learning for its own sake, requires an approach centered on needs which may not be entirely academic. Drawing on students’ individual life experiences while avoiding assumptions based on familiarity with the material shapes the course and offers many benefits. The essay is based on teaching Workers Education Association (WEA) courses and proposes the structure of a literature course on Frances Burney’s 1814 novel The Wanderer. It selects thematic content which resonates with older learners, such …

The Wanderers: Teaching The Literature Of Migration And Exile, Linda Zionkowski

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

In our current global landscape, exile—or forced, often permanent migration—appears a central rather than tangential experience, being driven by armed conflict, environmental destruction, economic collapse, and political repression. The climate on many university campuses reflects students’ awareness of and concern for the situation of displaced populations, and this awareness has influenced political discourse and political action inside and outside the classroom. My course titled “The Wanderers: Teaching the Literature of Migration and Exile” begins with  Frances Burney’s narration of exilic experiences in her life writings and The Wanderer. Burney’s texts offer a conceptual foundation for exploring instances of physical …

Introduction: Concise Collection On Teaching The Works Of Frances Burney, Dana Gliserman Kopans

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This short essay introduces a Concise Collection special issue on teaching Frances Burney. The collection brings together a range of texts and approaches to them and demonstrates that Burney can be successfully taught to students outside of the graduate context.

Ztc Eng 2400: Composition Ii Syllabus, Ann Marie Dorr

Open Educational Resources

Asynchronous continuation of writing studies in Composition II considering the lens of the role of the cultural critic using New York Times access as the key resource via the CUNY Library system to consider writing research based essays including personal narrative, academic research papers, and reviews.

Tomboys In Dystopia: An Analysis Of Gendered Traits In Ya Dystopian Literature, Bethany H. Jenkins

English Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

This thesis explores the world of young adult dystopian literature. Katniss (Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games), Tris (Veronica Roth’s Divergent) and Tierney (Kim Liggett’s The Grace Year) are all tomboy protagonists living in a dystopian society. Apart from the expected challenges of living in a dystopia, being a tomboy means facing conflicts that are a result of their gender non-conformity. Drawing heavily from the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, each protagonist is analyzed within the context of their own story to identify feminine and masculine traits that they express. These traits’ impact on the events of the story is …

‘It’S A Win-Win Situation’— Cultivating University & School Partnerships, Emily Wisniewski, Kelly Virgin, Pauline Skowron Schmidt

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This qualitative case study examines Writing Zones, a fifteen-year university–high school partnership that embeds preservice English teachers in secondary classrooms as writing mentors. Drawing on surveys from 20 preservice teachers and eight high school teachers, along with follow-up interviews, the study explores perceptions of preparation, support, and program impact. Findings highlight Writing Zones as a mutually beneficial model that enhances student writing through individualized support while providing authentic, field-based learning for preservice teachers. However, effectiveness was conditional, shaped by mentor preparedness, clarity of roles, communication, and scheduling. The study underscores the importance of intentional training, sustained relationships, and institutional alignment …

Dismantling Future Writing Teachers’ English-Only Assumptions: Composing Videos To Learn The Value Of Linguistic And Cultural Inclusion, Ann N. Amicucci

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article presents the results of a study of 12 students’ video composing assignments and accompanying reflections in which students, all of whom were future writing teachers enrolled in an undergraduate TESOL course, examined how well public spaces acknowledged and included multilingual individuals. Students’ videos and reflections demonstrated that the assignment dismantled these future writing teachers’ assumptions that multilingual writers learn best in an English-only environment but perpetuated perceptions of languages as discrete rather than intertwined. Findings are discussed within the context of scholarship on writing teacher education and English-only policy and practice in the U.S.

Who We Are, How We Teach: Writing Teacher Identity In The Secondary Ela Classroom, Danielle Alexander

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The journal submission guidelines stated not to include an abstract.

The Hunt For Eden: Humanity’S Journey Home Through The Epics Of Milton And Homer, Hannah Pryor

Masters Theses

This thesis argues that the recurrent theme of loss and home in the Western Literature tradition reflects humanity’s innate and theological memory of losing Eden. An examination of Homer’s The Odyssey and John Milton’s Paradise Lost in comparison with the Biblical text serve both as literary companions and ethical dichotomies. Some of the greatest pieces of Western Literature highlight the greatest tragedy and triumph the world has ever and will ever know – the loss of Paradise and the hunt for Eden. Nothing is perhaps more heartbreaking and inspiring than reading and living the story of humanity’s journey home.

Extracurricular Video Game Use And Academic Achievement: A Systematic Literature Review, Christina Hartman, Theo Makanoa, Lucas Thoms, Aidan Lowry, Kaleb Chandler

English Student Research

A good deal of research exists on the relationship between student use of video games outside the classroom and academic achievement. Our systematic review aims to identify what patterns exist across research conducted in the last 20 years. We examined 62 research studies that dealt with academic achievement and extracurricular video game use and found that most studies identify a negative association between the two. However, this isn’t the case for all students. We identified three important variables (the amount of time spent playing video games, the time of day or week spent playing, and the age of the students) …

Ruptures: A Village Child’S Diary In Colonial Algeria, Abderrahmane Azzi

Journal of Amazigh Studies

NA

King Sorrow By Joe Hill. Reviewed By Phillip Fitzsimmons, Phillip Fitzsimmons

Mythprint Book Reviews

Book review of King Sorry by Joe Hill. Reviewed by Phillip Fitzsimmons.

You Burn With Us: How Fire Functions In Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games Trilogy, Lucy Evans

University Honors Theses

This paper examines Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy and how fire behaves as a multifaceted element that constructs, exposes and transforms power. Through tracing the development of the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, this research explores how fire evolves from a weapon into a symbol for revolution. This analysis uses the framework of other dystopian novels, and previous character analysis of The Hunger Games, to understand Katniss's role in the revolution of Panem. It does so through three main behaviors: the construction of Katniss's "girl on fire" persona that commodifies her for the capitol's gain; the exposure of the state's …

Irish Identity: Symbols Of Nationalism In W.B. Yeats's Cathleen Plays, Emma Mady

University Honors Theses

William Butler Yeats was one of the leading figures of the Irish Literary Renaissance. Two of his plays, The Countess Kathleen (1892) and Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902) portrayed themes of nationalism and revivalism in strikingly different ways. Each play uses figures from folklore and mythology to establish a sense of national identity: the tale of "The Countess Kathleen O'Shea" inspired The Countess Kathleen, and the Irish Sovereignty goddess inspired the figure of legendary Cathleen ni Houlihan. The Countess Kathleen was met with harsh criticism and accusations of blasphemy, while Cathleen ni Houlihan is still widely regarded as Yeats's …

A Poet Bears Witness: An Interview With M. L. Williams On The Function Of Literary Studies In Troubled Times, Leah Toth, M. L. Williams

Critical Humanities

Dr. M. L. (Marty) Williams is a poet and professor of literature at Valdosta State University, a comprehensive university in south-central Georgia. He is the author of Game (What Books Press 2021), Other Medicines (Redbone Chapbooks 2008) and co-editor of How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets (Roundhouse Press 2001). The focus of the interview that follows is the future of literary studies in the modern neo-liberal university, a daunting topic in 2026, in the face of what many administrators refer to as the "right-sizing" of literature programs nationwide in both the U.S. and the U.K. Anybody paying attention to the …

An Interview With Mohammed Bennis, Mohammed Bennis, Amine Oudghiri-Otmani

Critical Humanities

An Interview with Mohammed Bennis

Submitted: April 4, 2026

Accepted: May 24, 2026

Reclaiming Narrative Authority: Gendered Violence And Feminist Reauthorship In Sharon Pollock's Saucy Jack, Jennifer Jones Cavenaugh

Theatre and Dance Faculty Publications

This article examines Sharon Pollock’s Saucy Jack (1994) as a feminist intervention into the narrative structures that have sustained the cultural authority of Jack the Ripper mythology. Drawing on feminist historiography, particularly Judith Walkowitz’s analysis of male violence as narrative structure and Hallie Rubenhold’s reclamation of the murdered women’s lived histories, the essay argues that Ripper narratives depend on three interlocking conventions: killer-centered focalization, the erasure of women’s lives, and the aestheticization of death as spectacle. Through close performance analysis, the article shows how Pollock dismantles these conventions by centering Kate, a music hall actress whose reenactments transform performance into …

The Permanent Emergency: The Anti-Fascist And Anti-Colonial Intersections Of James Joyce’S Ulysses And Roberto Bolaño’S 2666, Lily V. Mcmanamy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis is going to explore the (Irish) Anti-Colonial and (Spanish) Anti-Fascist parallels between James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) and Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 (2004). Using the major epic novels of two exiled authors, I hope to explore the intersections of poetic fiction and political resistance. I read these texts as bookends spanning the pre- and post-war periods, highlighting the continuities of colonialism, totalitarianism, and fascism, and the way these authors develop a post/modernist narrative that nods towards these themes. I plan to draw on Alberto Toscano’s LateFascism (2023) as a means of situating these authors’ novels with our own political moment …

The Good Knight, Elektra Koozer

University Honors Theses

The Good Knight is a comics adaptation of Sir Galahad's story through the lens of a queer retelling. This story focuses on queer relationships, struggling with depression and isolation, and death. It begins at the end of Galahad's life, where he is forced to question his legacy and who he is after completing the quest that has dictated his whole life. The story weaves through time, reflecting upon his past, thinking about his mother's expectations of him, being chosen for the grail quest, confronting his estranged father, and trying to cope with the world on his shoulders. He has to …