Download L - Shepherd Webpages

L. Michelle Baker, Ph.D.
37 Thayers Gull Drive
Martinsburg, WV 25405
Home: (304) 262-8553
[email protected]
[email protected]
Cell: (304) 886-6699
Objective: Teach and practice composition and literary analysis as rhetorical models that help to
establish a supportive base for all forms of democratic discourse.
Education
The Catholic University of America, Washington DC.
PhD, 2008, English Language and Literature
Dissertation: Blaming Helen: Beauty and Desire in Contemporary Literature.
Through the most ancient icon of beauty in the western world, Helen of Troy, a postmodern
theory of the aesthetic is developed, rooted in an anxiety between material and ideal that
reaches a tentative compromise in writers such as Yannis Ritsos, Christa Wolf, Howard
Barker, and Derek Walcott.
Comprehensive Focus: Post World War II British Literature
MA, 2004, English Language and Literature. Special Focus—The Novel
Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV. BA, 1998, English (magna cum laude)
Teaching Experience
Shepherd University. Shepherdstown, WV. Adjunct Instructor. 2002 to present.
Survey of World Literature—Special Topic, Descents to the Underworld
(taught alone and in a learning community with The Graphic Novel)
Survey of World Literature—Enlightenment to Postmodern; and Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance
Writing in the Arts & Humanities
Written English I
(taught alone and in learning communities with Introduction to Music, Research Methods and
Information Retrieval, and Introduction to Psychology)
Introduction to the Liberal Arts
The National Conservation Training Center. Shepherdstown, WV. Member, Course Design and Instructor
Team. 2007 to present.
Critical Writing / Critical Thinking—A one week, intensive course that demonstrates critical writing
and thought processes to biologists, many with advanced degrees, working for the Fish and Wildlife
Service of the Department of Interior. Team teach with other instructors, analyze and develop
curriculum, develop assessment measures, and train other reviewers in their implementation.
The Catholic University of America. Washington, DC. Teaching Assistant. 2000 to 2005.
(With full responsibility): Writing Improvement (upper level), Writing About Literature, Rhetoric and
Composition
(As TA for another professor): Rhetoric and Composition—Workshop Component; Junior Writing
Seminar, Media Studies; Introduction to Media Studies
Interests
Teaching: Postmodern European Literature; Post World War II British Novel; Aesthetic Philosophy
Research: Walcott—Structural Poetics; Underworld Voyages—Masculine vs. Feminine Imagery
Publications
“Before Reproduction: The Distortion of Generation.” Philosophia: The Quarterly Journal of Israel. 36.3
(September 2008): 299-312.
L. Michelle Baker, Ph.D.
[email protected]
“Buck, Pearl S.” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Eds. Judith Baughman, et al. NY: Facts on File,
2008.
“Byatt, A.S. The Virgin in the Garden. Possession. Angels & Insects.” Magill’s Survey of World Literature.
Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2009.
“Creative Shipwrecks: Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Byron’s Don Juan.” Romanticism
on the Net. 45 (Feb 2007): http://www.erudit.org/revue/RON/2007/v/ n45/015824ar.html
“Graves, Robert: The White Goddess.” The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry, 1900 to the present.
NY: Facts on File, 2008.
“Guy Mannering.” Cyclopedia of Literary Places. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press. 2003.
“Jung and Myth Criticism.” The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry, 1900 to the present. NY: Facts
on File, 2008.
“The Miracle that Happens When Desire’s Dead.” Modern Drama. (Under Review)
“Ozick, Cynthia. The Shawl. Rosa.” Student’s Encyclopedia of American Literary Characters. Ed. Matthew
J. Bruccoli and Judith Baughman. NY: Facts on File, 2008.
“Steinbeck, John. Cannery Row. Doc.” Student’s Encyclopedia of American Literary Characters. Ed.
Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith Baughman. NY: Facts on File, 2008.
Turgenev, Ivan. A House of Gentlefolk. Electronic production for Project Gutenberg. Released May
2004. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/hsgtf10.txt.
“Walcott, Derek. Omeros.” Magill’s Survey of World Literature. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2009.
Presentations
October 2008. “The War Within. Elizabeth Cook’s Achilles.” The Poetics of Conflict and Reconciliation.
Conference on Christianity and Literature. Bridgewater College. Bridgewater, VA.
November 2007. “Erotic Nation: ‘Helen of the West Indies’ and Walcott’s Desire for a Postmodern /
Postcolonial Theory of Beauty.” The Future of Postcolonial Literature and Theory. SAMLA.
Atlanta, GA.
March 2007. “’The great, inescapable terror of her love’: Responses to the Classical Past in Yannis
Ritsos’ Monologues.” James Madison University. Harrisburg, VA.
September 2005. “Locating the Turn: Conversion as an Objective Correlative in Eliot’s Ash Wednesday.”
26th Annual T. S. Eliot Society Conference. St. Louis, MO.
April 2005. “Creative Shipwrecks: Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Byron’s Don Juan.”
Graduate Symposium. George Washington University. Washington, DC.
November 2001. “Oral and Literate Traditions in Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock.” Mid-Atlantic
ACIS Conference. Penn State. Philadelphia, PA.
February 1998. “Machiavelli’s Influence on Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta.” 6th Annual Undergraduate
Literary Symposium. West Virginia University. Morgantown, WV.
Honors & Memberships
The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. Doctoral Scholarship.
Association of Literary Scholars and Critics (ALSC)
Conference on Christianity and Literature
Modern Language Association (MLA) & the following divisions:
20th Century English Literature
Part-Time Faculty Members
Classical Studies and Modern Literature
Philosophical Approaches to Literature
Postcolonial Studies in Literature & Culture
Prose Fiction
English Literature Other than British & American
Sigma Tau Delta (ΣΤΔ)—The English Honor Sorority
South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA)
T. S. Eliot Society