Steve Marsden

209 LAN, Department of English, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX 75962

Education

Ph. D., English Literature, 2004 Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas MA, English Literature, 1997 Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois BA, English Literature, History Minor, 1995 Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois Summa cum Laude, Honors Scholar, Presidential Scholar, Departmental Scholar

Dissertation

“‘Hot Little Prophets’: Reading, Mysticism, and Walt Whitman’s Disciples” Dissertation Advisor: M. Jimmie Killingsworth Studies and analyzes the responses of three of Walt Whitman’s disciples, Anne Gilchrist, Richard Maurice Bucke, and Edward Carpenter, using their intense intellectual, physical, and religious responses to Whitman’s poetry to demonstrate how Whitman manipulated the act of reading to engage his audience and created roles for his readers to fill. Through biography and in-depth study of reading methods, my dissertation shows how these readers’ religious attitudes, reading habits, desires, and sense of identity shaped and were shaped by their interaction with Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

Publications

“The Hunters and the Haunted: The Changing Role of Supernatural Investigation in Versions of The Haunting of Hill House.” Essays on the Haunting of Hill House. Edited by Kevin J. Wetmore Jr., Mcfarland, 2020. “Unmasking the Lynching Subject: Gothic Fictional Structures and Reconstructing Racialism between Page and Dunbar.” Haunting Realities: The Naturalistic Gothic, Edited by Monika Elbert and Wendy Ryden. The U of Alabama P, 2017. 103-115. Peer reviewed edited collection. “Using Evernote to Encourage and Monitor Student Research.” PraxisWiki. Kairos: Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. Posted, 2016. Peer reviewed national online multimedia journal. “John Burroughs, Ways of Nature.” The Encyclopedia of the Environment in American Literature. Encyclopedia article. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2013. “'The Suitable Surroundings' and the Broken Window: Bierce, Framing Experience, and Reading Ghost Stories” accepted by The Ambrose Bierce Project Journal, Accepted Nov. 2013, pending journal resumption.(Journal defunct?) Peer reviewed national online journal. “'The Bastard Off-spring of a New-born Wit': Alsop’s 'The Author to His Book'” The Explicator 69.3 (2011): 121-124. Peer reviewed national journal. “Texts and Transformission: Teaching American Literature with Juxta.” Teaching American Literature 4.2 (Winter 2011): 38-52. Peer reviewed national online journal. “Two Sources for Pauline Hopkins’ ‘Talma Gordon.’” ANQ 23.1 (2010): 46-51. Peer reviewed national journal. “Introduction and Context.” Solicited introductory article accepted for planned edition of Karle Wilson Baker's The Garden of the Plynck by SFA Press. (tabled) A Solicited Review of Gary Schmidgall’s Conserving Walt Whitman’s Fame. Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 24.2-3 (2006-2007): 157-159. “’A Woman Waits for Me’: Anne Gilchrist Reading Whitman,” Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 23.3-4 (2005-2006): 95-125. Peer reviewed national journal. “Faint Angel Voices I Didn’t Always Savvy: T. S. Eliot and the Mystical Subtext of All the King’s Men.” RPW: An Annual of Robert Penn Warren Studies 1.1 (2000): 65-88. Peer reviewed national journal.

Other Publications and Instructional Materials

Co-Authored and Edited with Trey Gordon (graduate student). The Visible Book: An Exemplar for the Study of Descriptive Bibliography. Printed at La Nana Creek Press, 2009. (hand-printed and traditionally-bound self-explanatory example book to teach descriptive bibliography)

Presentations

“Narratology and Framing Devices in Recent Found Footage Audio Podcasts.” Fear 2000 Conference, Sheffield, England forthcoming September 2021. International online conference. “Ghost Seeing, Thought Transfer, and Psychical Romance in the works of Miss X: Ada Goodrich Freer.” British Women Writers Conference, Fort Worth, TX March 2020. International conference. “’What you’re fixin’ to see is a true story’ Teaching Place, Genre, and Audience with Bernie.” East Texas Literature and Language Conference. Lufkin, TX November 2018. “Using Evernote to Encourage and Track Student Research.” Bright Ideas Conference. Poster presentation. Nacogdoches, TX May 2016. “Clip, Tag, Share: Student Research with Evernote.” Texas Distance Learning Association, San Antonio, TX March 2016. “Screencasting Student Feedback in Literary Analysis Papers.” South Central Modern Language Association, Austin, TX October 2014. “Unmasking the Lynching Subject: Paul Laurence Dunbar Rewrites Thomas Nelson Page.” South Central Modern Language Association, New Orleans, LA October 2013. “Bierce’s 'Beyond the Wall,' against 'The Yellow Wall-Paper': Crossing Borders and Gendered Spaces in American Domestic Ghost Stories.” College English Association, Richmond, VA March 2012. “The Promises and Perils of Example Documents in Technical Writing.” South Central Modern Language Association Conference, Baton Rouge, LA October 2009. “’I Pass So Poorly with Paper and Types’: Visions of Passage in the Poems of Walt Whitman and Edward Carpenter.” College English Association, St. Louis, MO May 2008. “Reading the Divine Body through Whitman.” (solicited address) Writers in Performance: Walt Whitman Birthday Celebration, Conroe, TX May 2007. Delivered paper on a panel with three internationally prominent Whitman scholars. “Reading Whitman and Place.” South Central Modern Language Association Conference, Houston, TX October 2005. “’The Riddle and the Untying of the Riddle’: Mysticism, Reading, and Song of Myself. American Literature Association Conference. Boston, MA, May 2001. “’Faint Angel Voices I Didn’t Always Savvy’: T. S. Eliot and the Mystical Subtext of All the King’s Men.” Tenth Annual Meeting, Robert Penn Warren Circle. Bowling Green, KY, April 2000. “The Film / Literature Relationship: Problems and Concerns,” Graduate Conference on Language and Literature. DeKalb, IL, Northern Illinois University, February 1997.

Teaching Experience

Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas – Professor, 2018- Associate Professor, 2012-2018 Assistant Professor, 2006-2012 Certified Online Instructor, Summer 2011

Bibliography and Research Methods (graduate course): 7 sections Teach close reading, research, archival work, textual criticism, bibliography compilation, literary theory and criticism. Application texts have included Dracula, The Scarlet Letter, “The Yellow Wall-paper,” and The Great Gatsby Literature and Film Adaptation (graduate course): 1 section Advanced adaptation theory American Nature and Literature (graduate course): Introduction to eco-criticism, survey of American nature essays, as well as poems, short stories, and novels. Students proposed and edited online nature poetry anthology American Dark Romantics (graduate course): Short fiction of Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter American Transcendentalism (graduate course): Major and minor figures, including Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Alcott Whitman / Dickinson (graduate seminar): 2 sections (Fall 2021) Particular focus on close reading, bibliography, authors’ editing process, and biography. Students do complete research on a single poem. Graduate Independent Study: Technical Writing Pedagogy Graduate Independent Study: Horror Film and Transmedia Study of horror film and transmedia adaptions. Theory of horror cinema. Narratology and ludology. Senior Seminar: American Civil War in Literature (capstone course): Focus on textual criticism, use of electronic texts, and criticism. Focus on contemporary poetry, Whitman's Drum-Taps and Specimen Days, Melville's Battle-Pieces, Louisa May Alcott's hospital narratives, DeForest's Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty. Independent Study: Advanced Editing (upper division): 1 section Independent Study: Technical Editing (upper division): 5 sections Students learn professional editing techniques, including multiple pass editing, editing for style and reading level, editing charts and illustrations, working with clients, editing in teams. Tech. Writing Internship or Ind. Study: Tech Writing Internship (upper division): 7 sections Students work with corporate, government, or educational units, create real-world product and learn to apply skills they need for their future careers. International Gothic and Supernatural Cinema (upper division): 1 section Study of German, Soviet, Japanese, and German gothic and supernatural depictions over time Poe and Other American Horrors (upper division): 1 section Study of American horror short story from Washington Irving to present. Focus on cultural and sociological trends, complete survey of the genre. Slavery and American Literature (upper division): 1 section Study of the history of slavery in the United States, and study of fiction that engaged, defined, defended, and worked to abolish it, along with some modern novels to teach how America has dealt with the legacy of slavery since. Poe and the American Weird (upper division): 1 section Study of American horror and fantastic literature from Poe to the pulp authors, also focusing on feminist domestic ghost fiction. Focus on emerging print culture and magazine markets. Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Poetry (upper division): Intensive survey of major and minor 19th and 20th Century American poets. American Poetry Survey (upper division): 1 section Survey of major American poets, Colonial to Contemporary Emerson / Thoreau (upper division, summer): 1 section Particular focus on: Emerson’s journals, poems, and essays. Walden, “Resistance to Civil Government” Poe / Hawthorne / Melville / Stowe (upper division): 2 sections Particular focus on: Short stories, poetry, Benito Cereno, Moby Dick, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Adaptation: Film and Literature (upper division): 4 sections (Fall 2021) Adaptation theory: pairs of plays, novels, graphic novels, and films. Features Rashomon, Lolita, True Grit, The Big Sleep, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Big Sleep, Adaptation, Coraline, “The Turn of the Screw,” The Haunting of Hill House Film Topics: Genre: Horror: 1 section (s2020) Study of supernatural horror in film, theory of the horror genre, cinema history, relationship of supernatural horror film to popular beliefs and practices. Film Topics: Auteur—Coen Bros.: 1 section Study of films of Joel and Ethan Coen. Colonial American Literature (upper division): 4 sections Survey from explorers’ accounts to Freneau, includes Aphra Behn's The Widow Ranter and Charles Brockden Brown's Weiland American Renaissance / Transcendentalism (upper division): 5 sections Particular focus on: Emerson’s Essays, Walden, Margaret Fuller, The Blithedale Romance, short stories of Poe, biography, influence and relationships American Realism and Naturalism (upper division): 1 section Introduction to Narrative Film: 6 sections Introduction to film studies and film narratology. Movies included: The General, Rashomon, Sunset Boulevard, Pulp Fiction, Black Swan, Lost In Translation, Miller's Crossing, Russian Ark, Moonrise Kingdom, Get Out, I Am Not Your Negro, Amelie American Literature to 1865 (survey): 27 sections (Fall 2021) American Literature 1865-present (survey): 3 sections World Literature to the Renaissance (survey): 1 section Introduction to Literature: 11 sections Particular focus on: Othello, Watchmen, Slaughterhouse-Five, broad selection of poetry and short fiction. Film and adaptations including True Grit, Miller's Crossing Scientific and Technical Writing: 11 sections Freshman Composition (ENG 132): 2 sections Freshman Composition (ENG 131): 3 sections Thesis Research: Chaired two semesters of master’s thesis research, (Tom Reynolds, Brody Wedgeworth) sat on nine thesis committees (Tom Reynolds, Bennett Durkan, Billy Longino, Angela Valdes, James Clark, Nicole Ferrell, Shaina Hawkins, Jonathan Grant, Buddy Ketele (a student film in Art), Melissa Hutchens, Athena Hayes, Lauren Owens) Undergraduate Capstone (BAAS) Chaired capstone paper committees, (Courtney Lougee, Dylan Possoit (s2019)) MA Comprehensive Exams: Wrote and graded questions for 19th Century American and environmental literature Mentored / Sponsored Undergraduate Research: (2015) Bethanie Sterling, “Inverted: The Reversal of the Master-Slave Relationship in Benito Cereno.” Won the Top Scholar for the College of Liberal and Applied Arts in the Undergraduate Research Conference Honors Contracts: 9 successfully completed since 2010 (2 in 2019) Undergraduate honors contracts in a wide variety of classes and subjects

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas – Lecturer, Assistant Lecturer, Grad Assistant 1997- 2005

American Literature Colonial to American Renaissance: 2 sections American Literature after the Civil War (150 students): 3 sections Particular focus on: Walt Whitman, selections from Leaves of Grass; Emily Dickinson’s poems; Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Willa Cather, A Lost Lady; T. S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton”; Jean Toomer, selections from Cane, Sylvia Plath, poems from Ariel; Theodore Roethke, “The Lost Son”; Adrienne Rich, “Diving into the Wreck” Studies in American Literature, 20th Century Novels (upper level): F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men; Jack Kerouac, On the Road; Charles Johnson, Dreamer; Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club;Willa Cather, A Lost Lady Introduction to Creative Writing—Poetry: 2 sections Introduction to Literature: 9 sections, including 2 computer sections and 2 honors sections Anthology with supplementary works: Herman Melville, Benito Cereno; Ralph Waldo Emerson, selected essays; Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Willa Cather, A Lost Lady; Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones; Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient; F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club Rhetoric and Composition: 8 sections, including 2 computer sections Great ideas focus: Lao Tzu, Plato, Jung, Machiavelli, Thoreau, Douglass, and others Technical Writing (upper level): 6 sections, including 2 computer sections Taught résumés, reports, proposals, instruction manuals, and some web design Business and Scientific Writing: 7 sections including 3 computer sections Taught résumés, reports, proposals and instruction manuals

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois – Graduate Teaching Assistant 1995-1997

Rhetoric and Composition I (intensive grammar and rhetorical skills): 3 sections Rhetoric and Composition II (research paper focused): 2 sections Historical reader focusing on Southwestern history, frontier issues, and Native American writing Rhetoric and Composition (combined course for AP students): 1 section

Teaching-related Professional Development

“Camp CTL,” participant (Fall 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) Worked in lab, attended workshops on best practices and technological teaching workshops. Faculty Learning Community, “Mentored Undergrad Scholarship” (Fall 2015-Spring 2016) Two semesters of work on mentoring undergraduate scholarship and project assessment. “Camp D2L,” participant (Fall 2014) OIT Online Instructor Training (Summer 2011) Earned Certified Online Instructor status.

Departmental Service

Curriculum Committee (Fall 2020-present) Worked to create new tracks in major, changes to curriculum. Graduate Studies Committee (Fall 2012-2014, 2017-present) Worked to review curriculum and policy changes in the departmental graduate program. Speaker, Graduate Student Orientation (Fall 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021) Panel discussion on beginning graduate studies. Speaker, Graduate CV Workshop (Fall 2021) Taught graduate students to compile a CV. Executive Committee Member (Fall 2016-2020) Help determine merit, develop and revise departmental policy. Search Committee, Technical Writing Lecturer (Fall 2017-Spring 2018) Reader, Sigma Tau Delta Banned Books Week (Fall 2017, 2018) Speaker, English in the Secondary School (Fall 2017, Fall 2018) Taught future high school teachers to analyze and teach with film.

Speaker, EGSA Workshop on Assignments (Spring 2017) Presented tips for assignments students typically find difficult. Spoke on typical mistakes students make when dealing with quotation. Reader for Departmental Awards, Technical writing category. (Spring 2017) Search Committee, Technical Writing, (Spring-Fall 2016) Search failed. Master Course Rotation Committee (Fall 2011-2016) Worked to establish an equitable course rotation schedule. Chair of Assessment Committee for American Literature to 1865, (Fall 2006-2016) Speaker, Graduate Student Orientation (Fall 2016) Presented on using technical tools to keep organized and maintain work across multiple devices. Search Committee, Technical Writing (Fall 2014-Spring 2015) Reader for Departmental Awards, Literary analysis category (Spring 2010-2013, 2015) Director of Technical Writing, (Fall 2007-2015) Trained and mentored seven new teachers of technical writing, developed Technical & Professional Writing Minor, planned internship program, organized and chaired standard book selection committee, oversaw computer labs, developed model syllabus and prompts, assembled lab furniture, conducted routine lab maintenance Chair of Assessment Committee for Technical Writing, (Fall 2007-2015) Guest Speaker, Research and Bibliography class (Fall 2014) Gave presentations on technical writing, taught students advanced database searching and research skills Speaker, Graduate Student Orientation (Fall 2014) Taught graduate students how to compile a CV. Recruitment and Retention Committee (Spring 2013) Search Committee, Writing Programs Director (Spring 2013) Reader for Undergraduate Research Conference, English dept. (Spring 2013) Search Committee, Creative Writing (2013) Speaker, Graduate Student Orientation (Fall 2013) Taught graduate students to work with online note organization programs Committee for Alternate Programs (Spring 2012-Fall 2012) Worked to develop alternate program within English, to provide students with practical writing and analysis directed course of study Reader for Literary-Critical Awards, graduate division, (Spring 2010, Spring 2012) Speaker, EGSA Vita Workshop (Fall 2012) Taught graduate students how to create and maintain a CV Speaker, Composition Kickoff (Fall 2011) Trained composition teachers to use Grademark and E-rater features of Turnitin software package to offer speedier and more comprehensive feedback to writing students Committee for Graduate Curriculum Revision (2010-2011, 2012) Recommended changes in comprehensive exams, course offerings Chair of Search Committee, (Technical Writing, Spring 2010) Search Committee, 19th C British (Fall 2007) Search Committee, World Literature (Spring 2007) College and University Service

Presenter, “Social Annotation” Camp CTL (Fall 2021) Shared information about the use of social annotation technology in English courses College Full Professor / Emeritus Promotion Committee (Fall 2021) University Library Committee, (Fall 2018-) New Faculty Orientation Committee, (Fall 2017-Spring 2019) Fiscal Appeals Committee, (Spring 2010-present: intermittent) Review and judge student appeals of the out-of-state tuition charges for excessive hours over their degree plan Contest Director, SFASU Horror Short Story Contest (Fall 2012-present) Organized, planned and directed a genre fiction contest, organized judging, editing, and publishing of winning entries into The Piney Dark, a brief illustrated chapbook. Acted as judge and final editor Reader for URC, undergraduate category (2016, 2017) Instructor, Texas Certified Public Manager Program (2007-present) (compensated) Lecture community leaders / CPM students on technical writing CTL Livetext, D2L Integration Focus Group (Summer 2014) OIT D2L 10.3 Pilot (Summer 2014) Piloted course in Desire2Learn 10.3, and reported problems and impressions. Teamwork Assessment Rubric Committee, Fall 2013. Adapted rubric for use in assessing teamwork assignments University-wide Presenter, “OIT Oasis,” (Fall 2013) Helped prep a screen-casting workshop. Shared information about Evernote and Skitch, internetbased note-taking tools. Judge and Tabulator: University Interscholastic League (2012) OIT Online Content Management System Evaluation Program, (Spring-Fall 2011) Helped university decide on a new content management system, attending training, then piloting courses in Blackboard 9.1 and Desire2Learn online delivery, reporting bugs and providing feedback. Contest Director: University Interscholastic League: Poetry Interpretation (2008-2011) Recruited, organized, and trained judges, oversaw contest Search Committee for College Instructional Technology Specialist (Fall 2009) College Council, (Fall 2007-Spring 2010) Secretary, (Spring 2010) Sub-committee to revise college mission statement (Fall 2008) Wrote résumé advice, sample résumé for College of Liberal and Applied Arts students (2008) Dean’s ad hoc Committee on Instructional Technology (Fall-Spring 2007) Drafted and revised committee’s report on managing and maintaining computers, recommended creation of technology specialist position

Community and Professional Academic Service

Guest Speaker, A Christmas Carol, (2019). Lectured on Charles Dickens, Washington Irving, and the Christmas Ghost Story Tradition for donors before theater presentation. Chair Short Fiction Panel, South Central Modern Language Association Conference, Austin, Texas, (2014). Elected. Wrote CFP, solicited papers, refereed entries, organized session, held panel elections. Presented to local and regional High School teachers: “Screencasting for Lectures, Student Presentations, and Feedback.” Invited lecture. 3rd Annual Teaching Writing Summer Symposium. Nacogdoches, (August 2013). Secretary, Short Fiction Panel, South Central Modern Language Association Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, (2013) External Article Reviewer, Polymath: An Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Journal, (2012) Musician, Re-enactor, 1861 at the Old University Building, (2011) Played banjo for period dancing demonstrations—5 practices, 4 performances. Musician, Re-enactor, Nacogdoches Old University Building 150th Anniversary, (2010) Played 19th Century banjo, answered questions on 19th Century music and instruments Guest Speaker, Big River, (2008) Lectured on Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn for donors before theater presentation.

Editorial and Design Experience

Editorial Assistant, South Central Review, (2002) Assisted in copy editing, manuscript preparation, and layout Research Assistant, M. Jimmie Killingsworth, (1998-1999) Designed and edited “The Body Electronic,” a web publication by M. Jimmie Killingsworth, in conjunction with the FIPSE Whitman / Dickinson project

Other Professional Activity

Reviewed Technical Communication: Process and Product 8th ed. for upcoming revision. Paid honorarium. (2012) Reviewed Technical Communication Today 3rd ed. for upcoming revision. Paid honorarium. (2009) Read / reviewed chapters of works by Michael Robertson and M. Jimmie Killingsworth (Whitman scholars)

Honors and Awards

Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Texas A&M University, 2004-5 Competitive full-time teaching fellowship given each year to support one recently finished Ph.D. within the Texas A&M English Department Regents Graduate Fellowship, Texas A&M University, 1997-1998 Highly competitive one-year fellowship given to incoming doctoral students with exceptional qualifications

Research and Teaching Interest

American Poetry Nineteenth-Century American Literature Religion and Literature Colonial Literature Transcendentalism and Pragmatism Educational Technology Early Twentieth-Century Literature Bibliography and Research Technical Writing Ghost and Horror Fiction Film and Literature Podcasts