Home

Alan-Office-Sm

Education

  • Ph.D., Rutgers University (Literature)
  • M.A., Rutgers University (Literature)
  • M.A., Southern Illinois University (Zoology)
  • B.Sc., McGill University (Biology)

Books 

  • Sloth – Reaktion Books, December 2023.
  • Dolphin– Reaktion Books, 2014.
  • England in 1815: A Critical Edition of The Journal of Joseph Ballard – Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.
  • Useful Knowledge: The Victorians, Morality, and the March of Intellect – Duke University Press, 2001.
  • The Mummy!: A Tale of the Twenty- Second Century (1827), by Jane Webb (Reprint) – U. Michigan Press, 1994.
  • One Culture: Essays in Science and Literature. Ed. George Levine. Asst. Ed. Alan Rauch – U. of Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Essays

  • “Gendered Abjection in Gaskell’s Gothic Stories,” with Erin Dulin, in Approaches to Teaching Elizabeth Gaskell, MLA (Forthcoming).
  • “Science, Women, and the Mother Tongue: Translating Knowledge for 19th Century Readers,” Women’s Studies, 52:7, 796-815, 2023.
  • “Gaskell and Science,” Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell, ed. Elizabeth Ludlow, Palgrave,  Forthcoming.
  • “Empire and Zoology,” ed. Pamela Gilbert, The Palgrave Handbook of Nineteenth Century Literature and Science, Palgrave, Forthcoming.
  • “Maria Barton Hack (1777–1844)” in Ed. Lesa Scholl, The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing.  London: Palgrave, 2022.
  • “Death as a Sacrament in Kingsley’s Water-Babies” in Jonathan Conlin and Jan Marten Ivo Klaver (eds.), Charles Kingsley: Faith, Flesh, and Fantasy. Routledge Studies in Cultural History, 2021. Pp. 184-201.
  • “The Sukotyro: On the Extinction of a Nonexistent Animal,” Configurations, Vol. 28 (1) 2020: 51-88.
  • “Ocean of Whales and Dolphins,”  RISE: A Children’s Literacy Journal. Spring/Summer 2017.
  • “Science and Literature.” Blackwell Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature. Dino Felluga, Linda Hughes, and Pamela Gilbert, Eds. London, 2015.
  • “Ecce Emendator: The Cost of Knowledge for Scholarly Editors,” Chronicle of Higher Education, [https://chroniclevitae.com/news/285-ecce-emendator-the-cost-of-knowledge-for-scholarly-editors].
  • “Scholarly Publishing: Hindsight Toward a Digital Future.”,J. of Scholarly Publishing, Vol. 42, Number 1 / October 2010, 56-67.
  • “The Pupil of Nature: Science and Natural Theology in Maria Hack’s “Harry Beaufoy.” In Laurence Talairach-Vielmas, Ed.,  Science in the Nursery, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholar’s Press, 2011.
  • “The Scholarly Journal: Hindsight Toward a Digital Future,” Journal of Scholarly Publishing, Vol. 42, Number 1 / October 2010, 56-67.
  • “The Sins of Sloths: The Giant Ground Sloth as a Paleontological Parable,” Victorian Animal Dreams, Deborah Morse, Martin Danahay. Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2007. Pp. 215-228.
  • “Mentoria: Women, Children, and the Structures of Science.” Nineteenth Century Contexts, Volume 27, Number 4, (December 2005), pp. 335-351.
  • “Great Work. You’re Fired.” [Program-Building and Disposable Labor: A Neglected Fourth Dimension in Evaluating Faculty], The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 1 2005.
  • “The Lacunae of Science: Observing the Unobserved in the Practices of Knowledge.” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, Volume 28, No. 3, September 2003, pp. 209-216.
  • “Victorian Poetry and Science.” In The Blackwell Companion to Victorian Poetry, ed. Richard Cronin, Antony Harrison, and Alison Chapman. London: Blackwell, 2002.
  • “Cetacean Culture: Resisting Myths and Addressing Lacunae.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2001 Vol. 24 (2): 352-353.
  • “Parables and Parodies: Mrs. Gatty’s Interpretations of Nature,” Children’s Literature (Yale University Press), edited by Mitzi Myers and U. C. Knoepflemacher, Vol. 25 (1997):137-152.
  • Forum on Interdisciplinarity. PMLA, March 1996: 273-274.
  • “Looking for Home: Canada and the Major Leagues,” in William Humber and John St. James, eds. All I Thought about was Baseball; Writings on a Canadian Pastime. Toronto: U. Toronto Press, 1996. 246-249.
  • “The Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 34. (Summer, 1995): 227-253.
  • “The Tailor Transformed: The Notion of Change in Charles Kingsley’s Alton Locke.” Studies in the Novel, Summer 1993, Vol. 25(2): 196-213.
  • “‘Preparing the Rising Generation’; Romanticism and Sir Richard Phillips’s ‘Juvenile Library.”‘ Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 1991, Vol 15 (1): 3-27.
  • “A World of Faith on a Foundation of Science: Science and Religion in British Children’s Literature, 1761-1878.”Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Spring 1989, Vol. 14 (1): 13-19.
  • “Bruce Springsteen and the Dramatic Monologue.” American Studies, Vol. xxix (1), Spring 1988: 29-49.

Curated Exhibit & TedX Presentation

  • “All Real Animals are Imaginary,” TedX – Charlotte. Feb. 6, 2021[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZqadvWIbJo]
  • Subverting the Natural Order: Women and Science, Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, University of Florida, November 2 – December 18, 2021.

Areas of Interest

  • Science, Technology, and Culture
  • The Long 18th Century, Romantic, & Victorian Literature & Culture
  • Codifications of Knowledge
  • Animal Studies
  • The Graphic Novel
  • Material Culture – The Meaning of Things
  • Women’s Studies
  • History of the Book including New Media, Visualization, & Digital Publishing

Courses Taught

  • ENGL 6680: The Victorians and Empire
  • ENGL 4750 (Honors): Women & Science in the Early 19th Century
  • ENGL 4072/5072: The Bible as Literature
  • ENGL 6680: British Women Writers in the 19th C.
  • ENGL 6070: Dickens Bicentennial Seminar
  • ENGL 6126: The Victorian Era
  • ENGL/Honors 3050: Animals, Culture, and Society
  • ENGL 3050: Jewish Identity & The Graphic Novel
  • LBST 2213: Science, Technology, and Society
  • HONR 3701:Science, Technology, and Human Values
  • LBST 2102: Global and Intercultural Connections
  • ENGL 3302: British Literature Survey II

Professional Activities

  • Advisory Board, Publications of the Modern Language Association (PMLA) -2019-2023
  • Board of Directors, Charlotte Folk Society , 2023 – 
  • Chapter Head, Sigma Xi:  The Scientific Research Honor Society (2020 – 2023)
  • President: Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) (2012-2015)
  • Editor: Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology (Johns Hopkins) (2001-2010)
  • Past- President: Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts
  • BOOK SERIES EDITOR, Intersections in Literature and Science, University of Wales Press, 2008-
  • ADVISORY BOARD, Penn State University Press –Animalibus: Of Animals and Cultures, a series edited by Nigel Rothfels and Garry Marvin – 2011-2013
  • Modern Language Association, National Program Committee, 2008-2011
  • MLA Ad-Hoc Committee to Study the Feasibility of Changing the Convention Dates,” 1995-96

Fellowships and Awards

  • Visiting Fellowship, Princeton University 2023
  • Mellon Fellowship, Library Company, Philadelphia  2019
  • Chancellor’s Diversity Grant, “Jewish Identity & the Graphic Novel,” UNC Charlotte, 2008-09
  • Gilder Lehrman Institute of American Studies Fellowship, New York Public Library, New York, 2007
  • Boston Athenaeum Bicentenary Fellow, Boston 2006
  • Franklin Fellowship, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 2005
  • Trent Dames Fellow in the History of Civil Engineering, Huntington Library, 2003-04
  • Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, Fellow, Cambridge University, 2003
  • C. P. Snow Fellowship, Harry Ransom Research Center, University of Texas, 2002
  • Fellowship for College and University Teachers, National Endowment for the Humanities 1992-93
  • Advanced Institute in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, Fellow, 1992

Community Service

  • Charlotte Folk Society, Board of Directors; Writer of “Ballad Broadsides” Monthly Essay.
  • Charlotte Observer – Guest Writer
  • Sunrise Assisted Living – Occasional Guest Speaker
  • Charlotte Area Science Network (CASN)
  • Carolina Actors Studio Theatre (CAST)
May 21, 2023