Dr. Pamela J. Rader
Professor of English; Director, Center for Teaching & Learning
School:
School of Arts, Sciences, and Education
Department:
English & Interdisciplinary Studies
Office Location:
Mercedes 204 (yellow house with a porch)
Office Hours:
Fall 2024: TBD
Educational Background
- Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of Colorado at Boulder
- M.A. in Comparative Literature, University of Colorado at Boulder
- B.A. in French Studies and Art History, University of Delaware
Professional Experience
- Director, Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL; May 2024 to present)
- Professor of English (2003 to present)
- Faculty Research Fellow (summer 2016 to present)
- Faculty Advising Fellow (summer 2016-May 2019)
- Faculty Led Study Abroad, Co-Leader, Walking the Wicklow Way, Ireland; Creative Writing (March 2017)
- GCU Convocation Speaker (2015)
- Faculty Led Study Abroad Leader, Literary Paris (March 2015)
- Department Chairperson (May 2013-May 2017)
- Reviewer for MELUS, Label Me Latina/o, and The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature
Research / Creativity Interest Area
- Current Research and Teaching interests include:
- Literary Mappings, e.g. toponymy, myths, and story maps
- Contemporary North American fiction, e.g., US and Canadian multi-ethnic literature
- includes indigenous writers; immigrants and refugees
- Postcolonial fiction, e.g., writers from anglophone and francophone Africa; Australian writing
- Contemporary poetry, e.g., Marilyn Chin, Alice Oswald, Eavan Boland, Yusef Komunyakaa, Ada Limon, Layli Longsoldier,
- Environmental/eco-writings, e.g., Rachel Carson, Ed Abbey, Octavia Butler, Terry Tempest Williams, Robert Macfarlane, and others
- Literature not written in English, especially autofiction, e.g., Marguerite Duras, Annie Ernaux
- Courses Taught at GCU (Co-developed#/developed*):
- Writing, e.g., EN111, EN221 Honors Argument: Rhetoric & Research
- American and World Literature Surveys, e.g., EN190/Topics in Postcolonial Literature*
- Electives: Women in Literature; Short Story; Topics in Environmental Literature*
- EN300/Gateway to Literary Studies#
- EN313/Medieval Literature
- EN322/American Realism
- EN370/Asian American Literature*
- EN375/Multi Ethnic Literatures of the US*
- EN376/Native American Literature*
- EN380/African Diaspora (e.g., African American literatures)*
- EN420/Special Topics: Unearthing Voices, Celtic Places: Walking the Wicklow Way (Faculty Led Hiking & Creative Writing in Ireland 2017)
- EN429/Bookends: A Global Literature Seminar#
- EN430/Senior Seminar 2
- GEN400/Visioning a Future: Justice, Compassion, and Service for the Bridge General Education Program#
- Scholarly Publications (Peer Reviewed)
- Journal articles
- “ ‘This is water’s world/And the works of men are vanishing’: Hydronymy & Anonymity Honour Water in Alice Oswald’s Dart & Memorial.” Onoma: Journal of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences 58 (2023): 79-92. doi:10.34158/ONOMA.58/2023/5
- “The ‘Strange Graft’ and ‘Sumptuous Garden of Marilyn Chin’s Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen.” The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 76.2 (2022): 244-260.
- “ ‘yellow crowfoot in the pond,/not lotus, not lily’: Mapping the River, Mapping Voices. Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies 7 (2016): 70-77. Web/PDF
- “The Murder of a Tale.” Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation 7.2 (2013). Web/PDF.
- ” ‘Trawling in Silences’: Finding Humanity in the Páginas en Blanco of History in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Label Me Latino/a (March 2012). pp. 1-23. Web/PDF.
- “What the River Knows: Productive Silences in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones and ‘1937’,” Antípodas 20 (Fall 2009). pp. 27-46.
- “ ‘Deux arcs alternés’: Reframing Spatial Aesthetics in Assia Djebar’s Ombre Sultane.” Atenea 31.1 & 2(2011/2012). pp.121-132.
- Book Chapters in Edited Collections
- “The Literature of Peace: A War Refugee’s “Orphaned Voice” in The Sympathizer” In The Oxford Handbook for Peace History. Edited by Charles F. Howlett, Christian Peterson, Deborah Buffton, and David L. Hostetter. Oxford University Press, 2022. pp. 687-702. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197549087.013.33
- “Life has got awfully dramatic all of a sudden, hasn’t it? Just like a fiction”: The Art of Writing Life in Donna Tartt’s novels. In Writing the Self: Essays on Autobiography and Autofiction: Essays. Eds. Kerstin Shands et al. Stockholm: Södertörn University English Studies Series. 2015. pp.315-327.
- “Iconoclastic Readings and Self Reflexive Rebellions in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Persepolis 2,” In Crossing Boundaries in Graphic Narrative: Essays on Forms, Series and Genres. Eds. Jake Jakaitis and James F. Wurtz. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. pp.123-137.
- “Boys to Men: Redefining Masculinities in Woman Hollering Creek” in Dialogue. Ed. Cecilia Donohue. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi Press, 2010. pp. 131-149.
- “Images of Masculinity: Author Dialogue” with Phillip Coleman in Dialogue. Ed. Cecilia Donohue. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi Press, 2010. pp.151-152.
- “Dis-robing The Priest: Gender and Spiritual Conversions in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse” in The Catholic Church and Unruly Women Writers: Critical Essays. Eds. Jeanna DelRosso, Leigh Eicke, and Ana Kothe. New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2007. pp.221-35.
- Book Reviews in Peer Reviewed Journals
- Review of Asian American Players by Audrey Wu Clark. For The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 77.2 (fall 2023) pp. 213-216.
- Review of Sage by Marilyn Chin. For The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 77.1 (spring 2023). pp. 90-93.
- Review of At Home in the Anthropocene by Amy T. Propen. For The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 77.1(spring 2023). pp. 120-122.
- Review of Eszter Szép. Comics and the Body: Drawing, Reading, and Vulnerability. Ohio State UP, 2020. 206p. For The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 76.2 (fall 2022). pp 351-354.
- Review of The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Grove Atlantic Press, 2021. For The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 75.1 (spring 2021) pp.12-128.
- Review of Environment and Narrative: New Directions in Econarratology. Ohio State UP, 2020. For The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 75.1 (spring 2021) pp. 118-120.
- Review of Cartoons and Extremism: Israel and the Jews in Arab and Western Media, by Joël Kotek. Trans. Alisa Jaffa. Edgware, UK/Portland, OR: Mitchell Vallentine & Company, 2009. For Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 29.2 (Winter 2011) pp.177-9.
- Review of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, by Monica Miller. Durham: Duke UP, 2009. For MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 35.4 (Winter 2010) pp. 192-194.
- Published Poetry
- “After Rain,” Red Savina Review poetry 6.2 (Fall 2018)
- “Hair the Color of Oak Leaves,” Red Savina Review poetry 4.2 (Fall 2016)
- “The Little-Known History of Pencils,” Fountain Spray Magazine, Georgian Court, Spring 2016.
- “To An Old Broom,” Fountain Spray Magazine: Centennial Edition. Georgian Court, Fall 2008/Spring 2009.
Additional Information
- Technology & Teaching Award, 2022
- The Virginia Graham ’31 Award for Teaching Excellence, 2015
- Co-moderator, Sigma Mu, Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society, 2013-Present