James Searle
Department of English, University at Albany
1400 Washington Avenue
The University at Albany, SUNY
Albany, NY 12222
Education:
Ph.D. in English, SUNY Albany, 2021
Dissertation: “The Entanglements of Poetry and Science in the Modern American Imagination”
Committee: Eric Keenaghan (Chair), Jennifer Greiman (Reader), Paul Stasi (Reader)
M.A. in Literary and Cultural Studies, Carnegie Mellon, 2009
B.A. in Liberal Arts, The Evergreen State College, 2007
Areas of Specialization:
Modernism, American Literature, Poetry and Poetics, Critical Theory, American Pragmatism, Science and Literature
Publications:
- Book Reviews
“Review: Thinking Through the Imagination: Aesthetics in Human Cognition” (Review Article) Textual Practice Volume 29.5 (2015)
“Review: Life, Literature, and Modernity” (Review Article) MLN Volume 124.5 (2010)
- Book Chapters
“Against Apologetics: Vocation and the Poetics of Inquiry” (Book Chapter), forthcoming in The Return of the Text (Fordham UP)
“Mind in its Purest Play: Imagination, Politics, and Reading” (Essay), in Conference Proceedings of “The Natural History of Reading” (2010)
Conference Talks and Public Presentations:
“Du Bois’s John Brown: Freedom, Determinism, and the Cadences of Chance” at C19 Seventh Biennial Conference, April 2022
“Writing Mind: Improvisation, Imagination, and Textual Form in William Carlos Williams” at MLA, January 2021
“’music it for yourself’: Williams, Judgment, and Aesthetic Education” at The American Literature Association Conference, San Diego, California May 2020 [Cancelled due to Covid]
“The Basis of Faith in Art: On Some Kantian Themes in William Carlos Williams” at The Uses of Aesthetics Conference Karlstad, Sweden, September 2019
“Muriel Rukeyser and the Poetics of Possibility” at the 44th Annual Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, February 2016
“American Modernism and the Hidden 19th Century” at The Hidden Nineteenth Century Seminar Johns Hopkins University, July 2014
“Musement and Inquiry: Peirce’s Relevance for Literary Study Today” at Le Moyne College’s “The Return of the Text” Conference, September 2013
Panelist for “An Injury to One: Fighting the Exploitation of Graduate Student Labor,” at MLA, January 2012.
Teaching:
Spring 2011
Writing Tutor for the Writing Center at UAlbany
Spring 2012
Instructor Eng. 121 Reading Literature
Summer 2012
Instructor for Eng. 100Z Analytical Writing (Writing Intensive)
Fall 2012
Instructor Eng. 295 Classics of Western Literature
Spring 2013
Instructor Eng. 226 (Special Topics): The Labors of Reading Moby-Dick
Fall 2013-Spring 2014
Undergraduate Academic Advisor for English Department
Spring 2015
Instructor for Eng. 338 (American Lit. After 1900): Personhood and Place
Instructor for Eng. 121 Reading Literature
Fall 2015
Instructor for Eng. 240V Rewriting America (Writing Intensive)
Instructor for Eng. 358 Studies in Poetry: The Politics of Post-War Poetic
Experimentalism
Fall 2016
Instructor for Eng. 110Z Writing and Critical Inquiry in the Humanities
Fall 2017
Instructor for Eng. 205Z Introduction to Writing in English Studies
Spring 2018
Instructor for Eng. 205Z Introduction to Writing in English Studies
Fall 2018
Instructor for Eng. 272: Media Technology and Culture: Challenges in the 21st Century
Spring 2019
Instructor for Eng. 270: Living Literature: The Elegy
Fall 2019
Instructor for Eng. 359: Studies in Narrative: Literature as Equipment for Living
Spring 2020
Instructor for Eng. 205Z: Introduction to Writing in English Studies
Fall 2020
Instructor for Eng. 121: Introduction to Literature
Spring 2021
Instructor for Eng. 205Z: Introduction to Writing in English Studies
Instructor for Eng. 210: Introduction to English Studies
Service:
- Academic Service
2013-2014-Undergraduate Academic Advisor for English Department
2. Professional and Public Service
2011-2020-Chief Steward, Business Agent, and Executive Vice President for the Graduate Student Employees Union/ CWA Local 1104
2010-2011-Chair of English Department Outreach Committee & Books for Prisoners Program
Founding Member of Save Our SUNY and New York Students Rising
Awards and Scholarships:
Recipient of the 2021 University of Albany Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award
Recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Dissertation in English Award at U Albany
Recipient of the 2020 Richard Thorns Dissertation Summer Fellowship at U Albany, Summer 2020 ($1500.00)
Nominated for the Daniel and Wendy J. L. Keyser Teaching Excellence Award at U Albany, 2019-2020
Recipient of the 2016 United University Professions William Scheuerman Post-Baccalaureate Scholarship ($ 3000.00).
Professional Development Award ($ 498.00) from the UAlbany Graduate Student Association Summer 2016
Nominated for the 2015 UAlbany Faculty/Student Engagement Award by members of the graduating undergraduate class of 2015.
Recipient of the 2013 UAlbany English Graduate Student Organization Recognition Award for outstanding departmental engagement and support.
Professional Affiliations:
Modern Language Association, Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment