Literary and Cultural Studies

Literary and Cultural Studies

Photo credit: Craig Chandler | University Communications

Undergraduate student

Undergraduate

Graduate student

Graduate

Literature teaches us to engage with the past and with others. Whether we are looking at sonnets by Shakespeare, Science Fiction short stories, or novels by Chinua Achebe, Virginia Woolf, or Junot Diaz, we are moving across imaginative boundaries: into the past or into the literary culture of a different society. The study of literature makes us aware of our own distinctiveness, as well as the uniqueness of these other places and times. The study of literature at UNL is varied and cosmopolitan. A UNL literary student might work one semester on Milton or Renaissance London; another on the poetry of contemporary Africa; and then move back to the United States, to read Native American writing or the Harlem Renaissance. Literary study is a bridge into different imaginative realms; it encourages us to read closely and to read deeply, to lose ourselves in a created world, but then to come back to our current realities with fresh eyes.

Undergraduate Literary and Cultural Studies

Undergraduate students with interests in literature have a variety of opportunities to develop their interests in:
  • British Literature
  • American Literature
  • Ethnic Literatures (including African American, Irish, Chicana(o) American, Asian, Native American, and Jewish American)
  • World Literatures (including Canadian, African, Caribbean, and European)
  • Film History, Theory, and Criticism
  • Literary History
  • Literary Criticism and Theory
  • Literary Genres (such as poetry, drama, fiction, life-writing, and environmental literature)

Literature students may also pursue a Literary and Cultural Studies concentration.

UNL students who graduate with an English major in literature pursue a variety of career and professional work, including

  • Graduate and professional school (including law, graduate study in English, and graduate school in education)
  • Advertising
  • Publishing and editing
  • Teaching


Graduate Literary and Cultural Studies

The Department of English offers diverse and innovative graduate degree programs in many areas of Literary and Cultural Studies. Graduate students who wish to pursue Literary and Cultural Studies have opportunities to work closely with faculty and design individualized M.A. and Ph.D. programs of study. Graduate Faculty members in Literary and Cultural Studies work on varied scholarly projects, share a commitment to the analysis of literature within larger cultural, social and political contexts, and utilize a wide range of critical methodologies, such as textual recovery, archival work, digital scholarship, and theoretical analyses. We offer graduate degree emphases in the following areas of Literary and Cultural Studies:

  • Ethnic Literatures (including African American, U.S. Latina/o and Chicana/o, Native American, African, Afro-Caribbean, and Irish literatures)
  • Women’s Literature
  • Medieval and Renaissance Literatures
  • Nineteenth-Century Literatures (including American literatures and eighteenth-century, Romantic, and Victorian British literatures)
  • Twentieth-Century Literatures (including American literatures and British modernism)
  • Place-Based Writing (including literatures of the Great Plains and the American West)


Literary & Cultural Studies Faculty

Photo of Laura White; links to faculty profile

Laura White

John E. Weaver Professor of English and Coordinator of Literature
19th- and 20th- century British literature, especially the novel, Narrative theory, Genre theory, History of manners, Anglo-American modernism, Jane Austen, and Interdisciplinary 19th-century studies
Photo of Marco Abel; links to faculty profile

Marco Abel

Professor
Film Studies, Critical and Literary Theory, and Contemporary American Literature
Photo of Stephen Behrendt; links to faculty profile

Stephen Behrendt

George Holmes Distinguished Professor
British Romanticism, Later 18th-century British literature, Women writers of the Romantic period, Literature and the Other Arts, Blake, The Shelley circle, and Creative Writing (poetry)
Photo of Stephen Buhler; links to faculty profile

Stephen Buhler

Aaron Douglas Professor
The literary culture of Early Modern England, especially the works of Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton, as well as literature's connections with philosophy and the performing arts.
Photo of Peter J. Capuano; links to faculty profile

Peter J. Capuano

Associate Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Program
Victorian Literature and Culture, Dickens Studies (Dickens Project Faculty), Science and Literature, History and Theory of the Novel, Body Studies, and Digital Humanities
Photo of Joy Castro; links to faculty profile

Joy Castro

Susan J. Rosowski Professor
Memoir, Fiction, U.S. Ethnic Literatures, Women's Literatures, and Modernism
Photo of Matt Cohen; links to faculty profile

Matt Cohen

Associate Professor
American Studies, the History of the Book, Native American Studies, Early American Literature, Editorial Theory and Practice, and Digital Archives
Photo of Wheeler Winston Dixon; links to faculty profile

Wheeler Winston Dixon

Ryan Professor of Film Studies and Coordinator of Film Studies
Film History, Theory, and Criticism
Photo of Kwakiutl Dreher; links to faculty profile

Kwakiutl Dreher

Associate Professor
African American Literature (Autobiography and Contemporary Literature to present), Mass marketed popular literature, Film and Visual Culture
Photo of Gwendolyn Audrey Foster; links to faculty profile

Gwendolyn Audrey Foster

Willa Cather Professor of English and Film Studies
Film, Film Theory, Cultural Studies, and Race, Class, and Gender Theory
Photo of Amanda Gailey; links to faculty profile

Amanda Gailey

Associate Professor
Digital humanities, with a specialization in text editing and digital archives; Nineteenth-century American literature, especially Whitman, Dickinson, and late nineteenth-century children's literature; and Editorial theory
Photo of Tom Gannon; links to faculty profile

Tom Gannon

Associate Professor and Academic Advisor for the Institute for Ethnic Studies
Native American literatures, British Romantic literature, Critical Theory, Ecocriticism & "Animal-Rights" Theory, and Avian and Animal Representation in Literature
Photo of Rhonda Garelick; links to faculty profile

Rhonda Garelick

Professor
Performance, Fashion, Literature, Visual Art, and Cultural Politics
Photo of Nicole Gray; links to faculty profile

Nicole Gray

Research Assistant Professor
Nineteenth-century American literature, Book history and textual studies, Editorial theory and Digital Humanities
Photo of Melissa J. Homestead; links to faculty profile

Melissa J. Homestead

Professor
American Literature and the History of the Book from the Early Republic through the early 20th century, with a focus on women’s authorship; the American novel; Catharine Sedgwick; and Willa Cather
Photo of Maureen Honey; links to faculty profile

Maureen Honey

Professor
American Women Writers; Harlem Renaissance; Women in World War II; Popular Culture.
Photo of Matthew Jockers; links to faculty profile

Matthew Jockers

Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of English and Associate Dean for Research and Partnerships
Digital Humanities: text mining / text analysis, Irish and Irish American Literature, 20th Century British Literature, and Literature of the American West
Photo of Frances W. Kaye; links to faculty profile

Frances W. Kaye

Professor
Great Plains Studies, Native American Studies, and Canadian Studies
Photo of Tom Lynch; links to faculty profile

Tom Lynch

Professor and Place Studies Liaison
Cross-cultural ecocriticism and place-conscious literary studies, with an emphasis on bioregionalism
Photo of Amelia María de la Luz Montes; links to faculty profile

Amelia María de la Luz Montes

Associate Professor
Late Nineteenth and contemporary American Literature; Chicana and Chicano Literature; Latina and Latino Literature; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Literature; Theories of Identity; Creative writing, Fiction and Memoir
Photo of Ng'ang'a Muchiri; links to faculty profile

Ng'ang'a Muchiri

Assistant Professor
Photo of Gabrielle Owen; links to faculty profile

Gabrielle Owen

Lecturer
Children’s Literature and Culture, Histories of Adolescence and Childhood, Gender Studies / Queer Theory, and Composition / Pedagogy
Photo of Michael Page; links to faculty profile

Michael Page

Lecturer, Department Course Schedule and Laurus Faculty Advisor
Science Fiction, 19th Century British Literature and Culture, Romantic Poetry, Romantic Fiction, Victorian Fiction, and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Nineteenth-Century
Photo of Kenneth M. Price; links to faculty profile

Kenneth M. Price

Co-Director of the Center for Digital Research in Humanities
19th- and early 20th- Century American Literature, Walt Whitman, American Periodicals, Textual Scholarship, and Digital Humanities
Photo of Stephen Ramsay; links to faculty profile

Stephen Ramsay

Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of English
Digital Humanities, Theory of new media, and Theater History
Photo of Guy Reynolds; links to faculty profile

Guy Reynolds

Professor and Director of the Cather Project
Willa Cather, Modernism, American Literary history, Digital Humanities, Post-War Fiction, and US and Anglophone Literary Internationalism
Photo of Beverley Rilett; links to faculty profile

Beverley Rilett

Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor
Interdisciplinary nineteenth-century studies, Victorian and early 20th-century British literature and culture, women’s and gender studies, biography, the novel, digital humanities, and George Eliot’s life and literature.
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Kari Ronning

Research Associate Professor
Willa Cather Archive; co-director of the Willa Cather Journalism project; quilts, textiles and fashion design
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Gregory E. Rutledge

Associate Professor
African American literature and culture, including speculative fiction, literary history, the African American epic aesthetic, and folklore; and American Studies
Photo of Julia Schleck; links to faculty profile

Julia Schleck

Associate Professor and Graduate Chair
Renaissance literature, including drama, lyric poetry and prose; Travel writing and early modern colonial writings; Interdisciplinary interests include Renaissance music and history of science; Genre studies, Cultural Materialism/ Marxism
Photo of Kelly Stage; links to faculty profile

Kelly Stage

Associate Professor
Early Modern Literature, 16-17th centuries, especially drama; Theater History; Theories of Space and Urban Development; Theories of the Public and Private
Photo of Roland Végső; links to faculty profile

Roland Végső

Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of English and Vice Chair
Courtesy Appointment in Department of Communication Studies
Critical and Literary Theory, Psychoanalysis, Contemporary Political Theory, Twentieth Century Literatures, Modernism, Cold War Studies, and Translation and Translation Studies
Photo of Jack Vespa; links to faculty profile

Jack Vespa

Assistant Professor of Practice
Literature of Sensibility and Romanticism; the Wordsworth Circle; Restoration and 18th-Century literature; Victorian literature; Modernist literature; 19th- and 20th-Century American literature
Photo of Hope Wabuke; links to faculty profile

Hope Wabuke

Assistant Professor
Photo of Adrian S. Wisnicki; links to faculty profile

Adrian S. Wisnicki

Associate Professor and Digital Humanities Liaison
Victorian Studies, African Studies, Digital Humanities, Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, World Literature, and Romantic Literature