Dr. Stephen Spencer

Associate Professor of English and
Coordinator of Humanities

Phone: Wilmington College 937-382-6661, Ext. 462
Email: sspencer@wilmington.edu

EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of Cincinnati, 1999
Areas: 20th Century American Literature, U.S. Ethnic Literature, Composition
Dissertation: " Reading and Rereading the Thirties: Historical and Social contexts and the Literary Receptions of Pearl S. Buck, Margaret Mitchell, and Zora Neale Hurston."
M.A. Comparative Literature, University of Dayton, 1989
B.A. English/History, University of Dayton, 1987

AWARDS and HONORS

• Fulbright Award, Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Culture, Universidad de Complutense, Madrid, Spain, Spring, 2004
• Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education Award for Innovations in Teaching Excellence, 2003
• Wilmington College Student Government Teaching Excellence Award, 2001
• University of Cincinnati Graduate Scholarship

SCHOLARSHIP

“Cultural Hybridity in Kiana Davenport’s Shark Dialogues.” Storytelling: A Critical

Journal of Popular Narrative. 5.1(2005): 21-28.

"The Value of Lived Experience: Zora Neale Hurston and the Complexity of Race." Studies in American Culture. 27.2 (2004): 17-33.

"Eric Jerome Dickey." Dictionary of Literary Biography: 21 st Century American Novelists. Ed. Lisa Abney and Suzanne Disheroon-Greene. Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 2004. 62-66.

"What’s White Got to Do with It?: Teaching Whiteness A Roundtable Discussion, Part II." Modern Language Studies 32.1(2002): 133-178. With Arlene Wilner, Avy Trager, Victoria Boynton, Karen J. Hall, and Dian Killian. Moderator: Andrew J. Price.

"The Discourse of Whiteness: Chinese-American History, Pearl S. Buck, and The Good Earth. " Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 1.1(2002): 1-15. http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/spring_2002/spencer.htm.

"Cultural Contexts and the Literary Reception of Their Eyes Were Watching God." Midwest Modern Language Association Conference. 9 November 2002.

"Identity Construction: An Organizational Theme for Multicultural Literature Courses." Midwest Modern Language Association Conference. 10 November 2002.

"Fables of the Reconstruction: The Plantation Myth and Racial Politics in Gone With the Wind." Society for the Study of Southern Literature Conference. 15 Mar. 2002.

"Preserving the Plantation Myth: Gone With the Wind and the (Re)Construction of Southern Identity." American Popular Cultural Association Conference. 15 Feb. 2002.

"Teaching in a Technology-Enhanced Writing Classroom." Southern Ohio Council of Higher Education Faculty Retreat. Sinclair CC. 6 April 2001.

"Popular Culture and the Rural Dream: Cultural Contexts and the Literary History of The Good Earth." Atenea 20.2 (2000): 125-137.

"’Racing’ Whiteness: American Culture and the Construction of Race." Northeast Modern Language Association Conference. 8 April 2000.

"The Enigmatic Colonel." Estuary: A Journal of Contemporary Literature and Visual Art 2.1(1999): 43-49.

"Preconceptions and Misconceptions of Teaching Composition to the Incarcerated." ERIC NO-ED412536. Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication.  Indiana University. July 1998.

"Preconceptions and Misconceptions of Teaching Composition to the Incarcerated." Conference on College Composition and Communication. 14 March 1997.

"The Democratic Classroom: A Resistance to Traditional Models." The Journal of Teaching and Learning 1.1(1996): 16-23.

"Wallace Stevens and Views of Reality: Subject/Object Relations in ‘The Comedian as the Letter C’." Conference on Language and Literature. Northern Illinois State University. 28 March 1993.

"Roland Barthes and Student Desires: Toward the Liberatory Classroom." Studies in the Humanities 18.1 (1991): 3-11.

"Who’s in Charge Here?: Issues of Authority in the Undergraduate Classroom." Conference on Language and Literature, Louisiana State University. 6 Feb. 1991.

"Roland Barthes and Student Desires: Toward the Liberatory Classroom." Society for Critical Exchange Theory/Pedagogy Conference. Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 22 Sept. 1990.

CURRENT and FORTHCOMING SCHOLARLY PROJECTS

"Just One of the Folk: Zora Neale Hurston and the Intersection of Cultural Contexts." Accepted for publication in It Ain't Over Yet: Multiethnic Literature and Canon Debates. Edited by Irma Maini. SUNY Press.

"Racing Whiteness: American Culture and the Social Construction of Race." Accepted for publication in Race in Post-Integration America. Edited by Conseula Francis.