Matthew Leporati

English Department 9 Graywood Road 541 W Dealy Hall Port Washington, NY 11050 Fordham University Phone: 917-836-0899 Bronx, NY 10458 Email: [email protected]

EDUCATION Ph.D., , Fordham University, NY, 2014. Dissertation: “Romantic-era Epic Poetry and the Mission of Empire.” Committee: Sarah Zimmerman (chair), John Bugg, Frank Boyle. Influenced by the long shadow of Wordsworth’s Prelude, we are used to reading Romantic-era epic poems as explorations of the sublime mysteries of the human mind. My project, however, argues that they both reflect and interrogate the rise of British missionary and imperial activity across the late-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. I reveal that authors as diverse as Robert Southey, Ann Yearsley, and Thomas Beck turned to the epic genre both to support and to critique missionary work, imperial expansion, and the vexed possibility of harmony between these endeavors. Examining this understudied history of the British epic, I demonstrate how canonical poems by , , and also draw on the resources of this genre in order to raise their voices more critically against aspects of empire while still remaining influenced by some of the assumptions of British imperialism and its evangelical turn.

M.A., English Literature, Fordham University, NY, 2007. B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, 2005.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE “Romantic Literature and Dissent” Fordham University, Spring 2015 This English core course of my own design studies how authors of the Romantic period drew on the climate of religious and political dissent in order to challenge dominant ideologies. Reading diverse writers from the expanded canon, including Ann Yearsley, Robert Southey, and Olaudah Equiano, students discuss and write about the challenges that literature can launch against notions of class, race, empire, gender, and more. “The Epic and Its Echoes” Fordham University, Fall 2014 I designed this English core course to encourage students to explore the classical epic and its legacy across multiple art forms. My students consider classical epics side-by-side with lyric poems, paintings, sculptures, and films that draw upon the epic tradition. They also read excerpts of modern and understudied epics, including works by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ann Yearsley, and Derek Walcott. Their writing and revision is central to our discussion of the “conversation” between these diverse works of literature. Leporati CV 2

“Literature and Resistance” Suffolk County Community College, Fall 2013 Examining works by a diverse selection of authors (including , Phillis Wheatley, Lord Byron, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Virginia Woolf, and Jamaica Kincaid), students learn to analyze individual works of literature, make connections among ostensibly disparate texts, and recognize the relationship between literature and the world outside the classroom. I designed this class to pay special attention to writing and revision and to incorporate online discussion that extends our classroom conversations. “Revolutionary Writers” Fordham University, Fall 2011 An English core course of my own design that examines the impact of the historical context of the Romantic era on its literature. Through readings of Wordsworth, Blake, Percy and , Charlotte Smith, (and many others), students considered the various ways that the revolutionary era both established and anticipated modern ideas such as ecology, vegetarianism, and feminism. A particular emphasis is placed on student writing and revision. Composition II Fordham University, 2008-2015 An intensive course in expository writing that focuses on grammar, logic, and rhetoric, covering research methods, revision skills, and argumentation. The small course size permits in-depth class discussion of texts, including student , pop culture texts, and literature. Composition I Fordham University, 2009-2014 This course teaches basic writing and grammar to students under-prepared for college writing. It stresses reading comprehension, grammar presentations, and the process of revision, and it teaches the basics of essay structure, research, and logical argumentation. Writing Center Tutor Fordham University, 2005–2008 I worked with students individually on their writing, guiding them through the process of revision. Duties included preparing grammar worksheets, organizing and conducting presentations for new tutors, and organizing and running workshops for students. Special experience in working with non-traditional and EFL students.

PUBLICATIONS “Ann Yearsley’s ‘Brutus’ and the Evangelical Epic Poem,” Studies in , under review. “William Blake’s Perspectives: Teaching Romanticism in the Community College Classroom,” The CEA Critic, under review. “Secular Evangelism in Sydney Owenson’s The Missionary and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Revolt of Islam,” The Keats-Shelley Journal, under review. Review of Romantic Literature: Texts, Contexts, Connections by John Gilroy. Romanticism 19.3 (October, 2013): 333-335. “‘Authority from Heaven’: Robert Southey’s and Epic Christian Imperialism.” European Romantic Review (ERR) 25.2 (March, 2014): 161-180. Leporati CV 3

PRESENTATIONS “Social Class, Conversion, and Colonialism in Ann Yearsley’s ‘Brutus.’” British Women Writers Conference, New York. 2015. Roundtable Chair: “Comparative Peer Responses.” Literature and Creative Writing Pedagogies in Community Colleges, New York. 2014. “The Romantic-era Epic Poem and the Mission of Empire.” Wordsworth Summer Conference, Grasmere, UK. 2011. “Innovations of Heroism in the Romantic Epic.” International Conference on Romanticism, Lubbock, TX. 2010. “Writing Self and City in the Romantic Epics of Wordsworth and Blake.” International Conference on Romanticism, New York. 2009. “Historical Self-Representation in Lord Byron and Felicia Hemans.” Wordsworth Summer Conference, Grasmere, UK. 2009. “Romantic Doubts in Victorian Poetry: Browning’s ‘Childe Roland’ and Wordsworth’s Prelude.” Fordham Graduate English Association Conference, New York. 2008. “‘Creator and Receiver Both’”: The Role of History in Wordsworth’s Prelude.” Wordsworth Summer Conference, Grasmere, UK. 2008. “The Cinematic Trick Shot and Spectatorship in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.” Film/Literature Association Conference, Kansas City. 2007.

AWARDS Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship, Fordham University, 2014-2015 English Department Summer Award, Fordham University, 2012 Teaching Fellowship, Fordham University, 2010-2011 Teaching Assistantship, Fordham University, 2008-2014 Graduate Assistantship, Fordham University, 2005-2008 Presidential Tuition Scholarship, Fordham University, 2005-2014

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Outreach Coordinator for the New York City Romanticism Group, 2014-2015 Higher Education Opportunity (HEOP) English Department Coordinator, 2013-2015 Research Assistant for the Joseph Johnson Letterbook (John Bugg, editor. Oxford University Press, 2014) Editorial Assistant for Hart Crane’s The Bridge: An Annotated Edition (Lawrence Kramer, editor. Fordham University Press, 2011) Founder, Epic Poetry Graduate Student Reading Group, Fordham University, 2013 Coordinator, Nineteenth-Century Graduate Student Reading Group, Fordham University, 2013 Mentor, English Department Teaching Practicum, Fordham University, 2009-2014 Mentor, English Graduate Student Mentorship Program, Fordham University, 2009-2014

Leporati CV 4

TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS British Romanticism Epic Poetry Nineteenth-century British Culture and Empire Victorian Poetry The British Novel Writing Pedagogy

LANGUAGES

French (reading) German (reading) Italian (reading and speaking)

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Modern Language Association North American Society for the Study of Romanticism North American Victorian Studies Association College English Association

REFERENCES

Sarah Zimmerman, Professor of English, Fordham University [email protected]

Frank Boyle, Professor of English, Fordham University [email protected]

John Bugg, Associate Professor of English, Fordham University [email protected]

Colin Clarke, Assistant Academic Chair; Associate Professor of English, Suffolk County Community College [email protected]

Moshe Gold, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Rose Hill Writing Program, Fordham University [email protected]