Melissa J. Strong, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of English

Coordinator, American Studies

Northeastern State University

“…do your thing, and I shall know you.  Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself.”

-  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Office: Seminary Hall 324 · E-mail: strong01@nsuok.edu · Phone: (918) 444-3613

Spring 2012 Office Hours:

T&Th 3:30-5, W 1-4, F 11-1 (online) & by appointment

BIOGRAPHY

Melissa J. Strong joined the NSU faculty in 2009.  Her teaching and research interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature and culture, women writers, multiethnic U.S. literature, and gender studies.  She is working on a book manuscript entitled Mutual Rewards: Philanthropy, Power, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America.

COURSES

American Literature to 1865, American Literature 1865 to the Present, Intro to Literature, The Civil War in Fact and Fiction, Science Fiction by Women, American Women Writers, African American Writers, Intro to Women’s & Gender Studies, Louisa May Alcott, Native Americans and Film, Graduate Research and Writing, American Writers in Paris

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in English, designated emphasis in Feminist Theory & Research, University of California, Davis, 2009

M.A. in English, University of California, Davis, 2004

B.A. in English, minor in Women’s Studies, Central Connecticut State University, 2001

PUBLICATIONS

· In progress: “Nature vs. Culture in Huckleberry Finn.”

· In progress: “‘Even Better than the Real Thing’: Simulacra, Reality, and Representation in Henry James and Sherman Alexie.”

· “The New (Working) Woman in Gilman’s Herland.”  Women and Work.  Ed. Christine Leiren Mower and Susanne Weil.  Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011.

· “The Limits of Newness: Hybridity in Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling,” Femspec 11.1, 2010.

· “Uncle Tom.”  The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore.  Greenwood Press, 2006.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

· “The Economy of Philanthropy in Huckleberry Finn,” Economies of Waste, special session accepted for MLA 2012.

· “The Art and Science of Transcendentalism and American Romanticism,” accepted for CCHA roundtable What Works? A Roundtable on Integrating Culture into Lower Level English and Foreign Language Courses at MLA 2012.

· “Gerty Farish’s Girls’ Club and the Work of Class Mediation in The House of Mirth,” PAMLA 2011.

· Moderator, “Twenty Years of Sherman Alexie,” MLA Convention, January 2011.

· “The Peabody Sisters,” Booked for Lunch, South Windsor (Connecticut) Public Library, October 2010.

· “Race, Erased? Hybridization in Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling,” National Women’s Studies Association,    November 2009.

· “Unnatural Disasters: The Plight of the Worker in Industrial Reform Literature,” Nineteenth Century Studies Association, March 2009.

· “From Nursing to Authorship: Women’s Civil War Writing,” Civil War Area panel, Popular Culture/American Culture Association, April 2007.

· “The Silent Speech of Cross-Class Desire in The House of Mirth,” American Literature Association, May 2006.

HONORS AND AWARDS

· Course Development Award for “Science Fiction by Women,” Center for Teaching and Learning, Fall 2011

· Suzanne and Caleb Loring Short-Term Research Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2011-2012

· Faculty Research Council grant for Mutual Rewards, Spring 2011

· Course Development Award for “The Civil War in Fact and Fiction,” Center for Teaching and Learning, Spring 2011

· Faculty Development Travel Award, NSU, 2011, 2010 and 2009

· Undergraduate Instructional Improvement Program Mini-grant, UC Davis, Spring 2009 and Summer 2009

· Ethel O. Gardner Scholarship, P.E.O. Foundation, 2007-2008

· Marshall Fishwick Research Grant, Popular Culture/American Culture Association, 2007

· Professors for the Future Fellow, Graduate Studies, UC Davis, 2006-2007

· Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award, Friends of English, UC Davis, December 2005

LINKS FOR STUDENTS

A few thoughts on the writing process from Dr. John Stenzel

Midwest Modern Language Association

South Atlantic Modern Language Association

National Women’s Studies Association

Mid-America American Studies Association

“Science and Science Fiction” Conference at ORU in April 2012

John Hope Franklin Center’s 2012 Symposium, “Politics and Reconciliation”