John A. Casey Jr., Ph.D.

EDUCATION:

Ph.D. Literature. University of Illinois at Chicago. 2010.
MA. Literature. University of Illinois at Chicago. 2002.
BA. English and Latin. University of Vermont. 2000.

PUBLICATIONS:

Books

New Men: Reconstructing the Concept of the Veteran in Late Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture. New York: Fordham University Press, 2015.  Print.

Articles

“The Civil War in Literary Memory.”  The Cambridge History of the American Civil War.  Volume 3.  New York: Cambridge University Press.  [Under Contract].

“Marked By War—Demobilization, Disability, and the Trope of the Citizen-Soldier in Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty.” Civil War History. 60.2 (June 2014): 123-51. Print.

“Veterans.” Civil War America: A Social and Cultural History With Primary Sources. Ed. Zoe Trodd and Maggi Morehouse. New York: Routledge Press, 2012. 284-292. Print.

“Searching for a War of One’s Own—Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, and the Glorious Burden of the Civil War Veteran.” American Literary Realism. 44.1 (Fall 2011): 1-22. Print.

Book Reviews and Review Essays

Review of Ambrose Bierce and the Period of Honorable Strife. Christopher Kiernan Coleman.  The Journal of Southern History.  2017. [Forthcoming.]

Review of Literary Cultures of the Civil War.  Timothy Sweet (ed.).  Civil War History. 2017. [Forthcoming.]

“The Superiority of Experience: A Review Essay of Paul Sorrentino’s Stephen Crane: A Life of Fire.” Resources for American Literary Study. 38. New York, AMS Press, 2015.  Print.

Encyclopedia Entries and Bibliographies

“Civil War Literature, 1861-1914.” Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature. Eds. Jackson Bryer, Richard Kopley, and Paul Lauter. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.  Web.  Oxford Bibliographies Online.

“Art and Warfare.” Weapons and Warfare. Volume 3. Ed. John Powell. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2010. 851-855. Print.

“Commemoration of War.” Weapons and Warfare. Volume 3. Ed. John Powell. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2010. 856-860. Print.

“Carpetbaggers.” Encyclopedia of African American History. Ed. Walter C. Rucker and Leslie Alexander. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010. 335. Print.

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS:

Honoring Our Faculty’s Excellence Award (HOPE).  UIC Campus Housing.  2017.

Faculty Summer Institute Mini Grant. Academic Computing and Communications Center. University of Illinois at Chicago. 2012.

Upton Foundation Fellowship on Civil War America. William L. Clements Library. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI. 2011.

Filson Fellowship. Filson Historical Society. Louisville, Kentucky. 2011.

Graduate Merit Award. Liberal Arts and Sciences Alumni Association. University of Illinois at Chicago. 2008.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Lecturer

August 2012-

Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Assistant Director of First Year Writing

August 2014-January 2016

Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies

August 2012-May 2014.

Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Visiting Lecturer

August 2010-May 2012

Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Adjunct Professor

August 2008-December 2011

Department of English and First Year Seminar, Columbia College Chicago.

COURSES TAUGHT:

University of Illinois at Chicago

• American Literature, 1865-1900 (Reconstruction and the Legacy of the Civil War).
• Survey of American Literature from the Colonial Period to 1914.
• Introduction to Literary Criticism and Critical Theory.
• Introduction to Literature (with a focus on literary genres).
• Introduction to British and American Prose Fiction (with a focus on the genre of Detective fiction).
• Introduction to American Literature and Culture (with a focus on the literary genre of the Western and the concept of the American Frontier).
• First Year Writing I and II. In the first half of the course, students examine the concept of genre, writing in a wide variety of forms, including the traditional college essay. The second half of the course uses Chicago history and urban planning and design as topics to help aid students in learning research skills (primary and secondary research) with the ultimate goal being a college level research paper.

Columbia College Chicago

• Writing and Rhetoric I (Introduction to the college essay through the examination of exemplary models).
• Writing and Rhetoric II (Introduction to college level research and writing with an emphasis on ethnographic research methods. Students conduct field research on a topic related to either Chicago history or urban planning and design).
• First Year Seminar (An inter-disciplinary Great Ideas course that asks students to engage such issues as ethics and community using a wide variety of creative media including film, dance, sculpture, music, writing, and photography).

CONFERENCES:

Papers Presented:

“Redefining Courage in the Age of Drone Warfare.”  Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA). Baltimore, MD.  March 23-26, 2017.

“Digital Humanities and the Concept of the Required Text.”  Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA). Hartford, CT.  March 17-20, 2016.

“First Year Writing, Contingent Faculty, and the Problem of Student Retention.”  Modern Language Association (MLA).  Vancouver, BC.  January 8-11, 2015.

“Depicting Gettysburg in Evelyn Scott’s The Wave.” Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA). Harrisburg, PA. April 3-6, 2014.

“Narrating Trauma in the Writings of Sam Watkins and Ambrose Bierce.” Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA). Boston, MA. March 21-24, 2013.

“Relics of War—The Image of the Wounded Veteran in Post-Civil War America.” The Legacy of the Civil War: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Chesnutt Hill College. Philadelphia, PA. November 10-12, 2011.

“The Return of the Natural Gentleman in John Esten Cooke’s Heir of Gaymount.” Virginia Forum. Lexington, VA. March 25-26, 2011.

“The Post-Traumatic Flashback as a Mode of Narration in Ambrose Bierce’s ‘A Resumed Identity.” Popular Culture and American Culture Association National Conference. St. Louis, MO. April 2010.

“Combating Illness in Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty.” Popular Culture and American Culture Association National Conference. New Orleans, LA. April 2009.

“The Violent Core of Masculinity: Militarism and Manhood in Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage and ‘The Veteran.’” Popular Culture and American Culture Association National Conference. San Francisco, CA. March 2008.

“Reading Huckleberry Finn as a Sentimental Novel.” Reception Studies Society Conference. Kansas City, MO. September 2007.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:

Service to the Discipline:

Anglophone/American Literature Director. Northeast Modern Language Association. 2015-2018.

As Director my tasks include selecting and promoting panels for NEMLA’s annual convention.  I also serve on committees that review manuscripts for the organization’s book award and select applicants for research fellowships.

Conference Panel Chair.  “The Symbolic Role of Agriculture in Anglophone/American Fiction.”  Northeast Modern Language Association Conference. Baltimore, MD.  March 23-26, 2017.

Conference Panel Chair.  “Teaching War Literature Since 9/11” (Roundtable). Northeast Modern Language Association Conference.  Baltimore, MD.  March 23-26, 2017.

Conference Panel Chair.  “Teaching American Literature with Digital Texts” (Roundtable). Northeast Modern Language Association Conference.  Hartford, CT.  March 17-20, 2016.

Conference Panel Chair.  “Representing Disability in American Fiction” (Two sessions).  Northeast Modern Language Association Conference.  Hartford, CT.  March 17-20, 2016.

Article reviewer for the journal Studies in American Fiction. 2015.

Article reviewer for the journal Mosaic. 2015

Book reviewer for Resources for American Literary Study. 2014.

Conference Panel Chair. “High Water Mark of the Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg in Fiction and Film.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference. Harrisburg, PA. April 3-6, 2014.

Conference Panel Chair. “The Civil War in American Culture.” The Legacy of the Civil War: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Chesnutt Hill College. Philadelphia, PA. November 2011.

Referee for the journal Feminist Studies. 2011.

Conference Panel Chair. “Disability and the Civil War.” Popular Culture and American Culture Association National Conference. New Orleans, LA. April 2009.

Departmental and University Service:

Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies

Originally, this position was called “English Advisor” and focused primarily on undergraduate advising as well as career counseling. Under my guidance, this position shifted to include in addition to these duties a broad range of initiatives to recruit and retain English Majors at UIC.

Assistant Director of First Year Writing

Duties for this job include both instructional support for faculty teaching first year writing and program support to address issues relating to student enrollment and the program’s relationship to the department, college, and university.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS: 

The American Literature Association (ALA)

The American Studies Association (ASA)

C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists (C19)

The Modern Language Association (MLA)

National Council for College Teachers of English (NCTE)

The Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA)

The Society of Civil War Historians (SCWH)

REFERENCES:

Judith Kegan Gardiner: Professor Emerita, Department of English and Gender and Women’s Studies Program, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Robin Sandra Grey: Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Christopher Grimes: Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Walter Benn Michaels: Department Head and Professor, Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Christian Messenger: Professor Emeritus, Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Andrew Slap: Associate Professor, Department of History, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.