English Language and Literature Commons^™

Call To Submissions Volume 74, Issue 1, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Reviving Independent Reading: A Review Of Just Read It, Cinde Wollenberg

Virginia English Journal

This is a book review of Just Read It: Unlocking the Magic of Independent Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms by Jarred Amato in 2024. Reviewed by a high school Reading Specialist, this thorough review of Amato's book for educators includes many strategies and tools for having an effective independent reading program in the classroom.

Letting Students Amaze Us: Teaching For Success In A 4th Grade Classroom, William D. Smyth

Virginia English Journal

A look back at a year in a 4th grade classroom with highly motivated students that came about when a former student, now 48 years old, returned home to visit his 4th grade teacher. According to this student, this was the seminal year that launched his engineering career that he now enjoys in Portland, Oregon. And, speaking for others, this was the turning point in his classmates' educational journeys too.

Fixing Our Failures With Data: Data Literacy And Global Issues In A Middle School Novel Study, Mary Grace Scartz

Virginia English Journal

This paper explains the rationale behind and need for teaching data literacy approaches in an English classroom. It outlines a unit of study based on the book by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohammad, When Stars are Scattered, which follows the true story of Omar as he navigates education and family responsibilities in a refugee camp in Kenya. Because of the relevant and important global challenges that arise in the story, students need a wealth of background knowledge to approach the text. This paper argues that this background knowledge is best delivered through the use of real-world data about refugees …

Language As Power In Angeline Boulley's Firekeeper's Daughter, Liz Shanks

Virginia English Journal

Angeline Boulley's Firekeeper's Daughter offers a fresh counternarrative for students in the ELA classroom, opening new doors for students to see themselves and others more accurately reflected in a thrilling, page-turning novel. This article dives into the way power manifests in educational systems, and how students can advocate for themselves in such educational settings through Boulley's novel.

The Furious Flower Poetry Center: Teaching The Worlds Of Black Poetry To High School Students, Mary Beth Cancienne Phd, Hermione Dewitt, Zoe Mcdowell, Kaleigh D. Phelps, Liz Shanks James Madison University

Virginia English Journal

This article titled The Furious Flower Poetry Center: Teaching the Worlds of Black Poetry to High School Students features lesson plans that high school English graduate candidates wrote in a high school English methods course after participating in the decennial Furious Flower Poetry Conference in September of 2024 at James Madison University. High School poetry lessons featured are based on the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, Jericho Brown, Nikki Giovanni, Sophia Elhillo, DaMaris B. Hill, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, and Yalie Kamara. Poetic themes and craft taught and discussed in the lesson plans include identity, language, culture, hope, symbolism, tone, diction, and …

A Model Research Synthesis Essay: Gender Justice In Contemporary Texts In Conversation With Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Jennifer Golobic

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Reflections From A Summer Literacy Intervention: Unlocking A Love Of Literacy In Struggling Readers, Rory K. Cantwell, Jenny M. Martin

Virginia English Journal

Summer literacy interventions offer a solution to the devastating impacts that summer literacy loss can have on struggling readers and writers. However, these interventions should consider the impact of student attitudes towards literacy on their learning and strive to develop positive associations between literacy and enjoyment. Camp Curious, a summer literacy intervention developed as a collaboration between the Virginia Association of Teachers of English and Shrine Mont, a retreat and conference center, embodies this idea. The intervention, in the form of a week-long camp experience, strives to provide third through sixth graders with positive and varied experiences related to literacy. …

Windows Into Refugee Lives: Using Graphic Novels To Cultivate Empathy And Understanding Across K-12 Classrooms, Donna Fortune, Anna Kambach

Virginia English Journal

Graphic novels, like When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar

Mohamed, provides a powerful gateway for teachers to foster empathy and understanding with K12 students. This article explores how graphic novels combine visual storytelling with text to engage learners of all ages in discussions about refugee experiences. By integrating reflective activities and critical literacy strategies adaptable across grade levels, educators can use graphic novels to build cultural awareness, deepen comprehension, and inspire students to connect with global issues meaningfully. The article offers grade-specific implementation strategies that can be scaled appropriately for elementary, middle, and high school contexts.

Vej Volume 73 Issue 2 - Letter From The Editor's Desk

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

A Real Taste For Fairy-Stories: Essays (2025), By Verlyn Flieger., Marilyn R. Pukkila

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Marilyn R. Pukkila, of A Real Taste for Fairy-stories: Essays (2025) by Verlyn Flieger.

Reading Romance As An Act Of Resistance, Amy K. Krug

English Faculty Publications

A podcast discussion about how popular romance represents many different populations, including people of color, people with disabilities, and people who are LGBTQ+. Reading these romances with diverse characters can be a powerful mode of resistance against current anti-diversity efforts becoming more prevalent in society.

Listen to the episode. The transcript is available for download.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) In Zoulfa Katouh’S As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow, Mai Hazem El Gebali

English Language and Literature

This paper aims to analyze the representation of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Zoulfa Katouh’s novel, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow (2022). Katouh, a Canadian-Syrian author who specializes in drug sciences, sets her debut novel against the backdrop of the war in Syria in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The protagonist, Salama, a teenage girl pursuing an undergraduate degree in pharmacy, faces the harrowing realities of war and volunteers as a surgical assistant amidst the chaos of bombings and sniper attacks. As a result of the war, Salama tragically loses almost all her family members, and in …

From Fort To Prison: The Production Of Iloilo City, Ram Paulo A. Anayan

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

The foundation of colonial cities in the Philippines rests on violence. The Spanish policies of the reducción forced the natives to settle in pueblos where colonial power is ensured. The resistance of some natives brought about the divide between tagabayan (town dweller) and tagabundok (mountain dweller)—respective connotations of civilization and savagery (Lumbera and Lumbera, 36). This paper examines how this centripetal-centrifugal force of simultaneous identity-production and displacement is echoed in the metonymy of the fort on which the origins of Iloilo City stand. I navigate how this movement manifests in the consciousness of the city across historical periods represented by …

Proceedings Of The Tolkien 2019 Conference (2025), Edited By Will Sherwood, Ross Smith

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Ross Smith, of Proceedings of the Tolkien 2019 Conference (2025), edited by Will Sherwood.

The Mismeasure Of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment Of Tolkien’S Demonized Creatures (2025), By Robert T. Tally, Jr., Andrew Higgins

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Andrew Higgins, of The Mismeasure of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment of Tolkien’s Demonized Creatures (2025), by Robert T. Tally, Jr.

"Cold Words, Heartless And Miserable": Tolkien's Approach To Supernatural Horror, Dylan L. Henderson

Journal of Tolkien Research

For the most part, scholars of supernatural horror do not consider J. R. R. Tolkien a contributor to that genre, a conclusion supported by many Tolkien specialists. And yet, horror plays a major role in many of Tolkien’s works, specifically The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, “Fog on the Barrow-downs” is basically a tale of supernatural horror that Tolkien has incorporated into his epic. This article examines that chapter in that context, comparing it to a similar short story by E. F. Benson, and this approach not only highlights the links between Tolkien and contemporaneous supernatural horror—the shares themes …

Nancy Drew Turns 100 In 2030!, Sally E. Parry

Faculty Publications – English

No abstract provided.

"It Is Always Too Late For Truth:" Surveillance And Masculinity In "Wide Sargasso Sea", Kaz S. Schofield

2025 Fall Honors Capstones Projects - Archive

Significant analysis has been done on Jean Rhys’ 1961 novel Wide Sargasso Sea examining gender in relation to the women in the novel, but very little analysis has been conducted on the men. Using the work of Simone Browne, who has theorized how racial categories are maintained through surveillance, I examine how three men in the novel: a white colonist and two mixed race colonial subjects are restricted or otherwise kept docile through their differing masculinity. I argue that it is not only the women in the novel who are oppressed or otherwise disenfranchised by their race and gender, but …

New Suns: Fantasy And Science Fiction For A Better World, Jennifer Rosenstein

Social Justice Week

This event is inspired by the Octavia Butler quote "There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns." We will explore examples of fantasy and science fiction from the library collection that imagine worlds that are more just and varied. To work for a more just world we need to be able to imagine it. We will briefly present each book and explain how the world of the books presents a radical reimagining of some aspect of society.

Cultural Diagnosis And The Monsters Of Victorian England, Victoria Elizabeth Kuykendall

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the representation of invisible disability and neurodivergence in nineteenth-century British literature, arguing that literary texts both reflect and shape cultural understandings of disability. While much scholarship has focused on visible or physical impairments in Victorian fiction, comparatively little attention has been given to characters whose behaviors, emotions, or identities align with what today might be described as neurodivergence.

Drawing on Disability Studies, Mad Studies, and cultural theory, I propose the concept of cultural Diagnosis as a framework for analyzing how fictional characters become “Diagnosable” within both their historical and contemporary cultural contexts. Through close readings of Arthur …

Feminist Scholarly Editing: A Provocation, Marlowe Daly-Galeano, Melissa J. Homestead, Claudia Stokes, Leila Walker

Publications and Research

This essay examines the feminist challenges posed by the protocols and history of scholarly editing. Prompted by the recent revival of bibliographical studies, the essay seeks to instigate a similar reconsideration of scholarly editing, bibliography’s counterpart in textual criticism. Scholarly editing has a vexed history with regard to women and gender: women writers were seldom the beneficiaries of editorial attention, but editors regularly used gendered metaphors to describe their work and often relied on the unacknowledged labor of women. This essay examines the history of sexism within the field of scholarly editing, illustrates the challenges and promises of editing women’s …

English 11000, Reflection Essay, Samantha Hernandez, Missy Watson

Open Educational Resources

The Reflection Essay assignment builds on a previous English Composition assignment, the Language and Literacy Narrative (LLN). The LLN asks students to write a detailed narrative about a personal experience they have had with Language and Literacy. Over the course of the semester, students are required to rewrite and revise this essay a number of times. The Reflection Essay assignment asks students to enact reflective writing and explain their experience with iterative writing. They are encouraged to expand on what works in their writing process and any concerns they have about future revisions.

English 11000, Spoken Adaptation Of Language And Literacy Narrative, Samantha Hernandez, Missy Watson

Open Educational Resources

The Spoken Adaptation assignment builds on a previous English Composition assignment, the Language and Literacy Narrative (LLN). The LLN asks students to write a detailed narrative about a personal experience they have had with Language and Literacy. Over the course of the semester, students are required to rewrite and revise this essay a number of times. This particular assignment tasks students with transforming their written work into an oral presentation.

The Inimitable And Neologistical Dickens, Peter J. Capuano

Department of English: Faculty Publications

This article traces the provenance of the adjective Dickensian and argues that Dickens both inaugurated new words, phrases, and idioms, and also popularized many obscure ones that are part of our common lexicon today.

John Domini, Fellow Traveler, George K. Guida

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Series Editors' Preface To Ssl 50.1, Patrick Scott, Tony Jarrells

Studies in Scottish Literature

Introduces the theme of this special issue on Work in 20th-21st century Scottish literature, briefly reviews plans for the remaining issues to be published in this format, and notes that the first SSL issue from its new publisher, Edinburgh University Press, has now appeared.

Jute Mill Songs: Mary Brooksbank And Industrial Tradition In A Dying Industry, Erin Farley

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article outlines some key elements of Dundee’s industrial literary tradition, primarily associated with the city’s jute industry, as expressed in the songs and poems of Mary Brooksbank (1897-1978). It also explores ways in which writers working from the 1980s onwards have used the memory of the jute industry, Brooksbank herself, and associated verse traditions to imagine place and work in post-industrial Dundee.

‘And On One Toils, Into The Hill’: Working And Walking In Nan Shepherd’S North East, Sarah Leith

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article considers the duality of working and walking in Nan Shepherd’s writings about the North East of Scotland. Exploring Shepherd’s works from the perspectives of social and intellectual history, it considers the ways in which she represented both working and walking as labour during the first half of Scotland’s twentieth century.

Labour And (Class) Struggle In James Barke’S Compositionist Imaginaries: Dreaming With Rob Roy, Marx & Burns, Arianna Introna

Studies in Scottish Literature

James Barke’s literary imagination of working lives is primarily concerned with how different modes of labour generate a tension between refusal of work and the material constraints on fully engaging in it. Putting into conversation the Marxist autonomist method of ‘compositionism’ with Barke’s own theories of art and class struggle, this article traces how Barke’s fiction represents toil on the one hand, and the yearning for a life beyond the tyranny of capital on the other, as defining the horizons of working-class life.