James Searle
Department of English, University at Albany
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:
I. Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Williams’s Profundity: Pragmatic Naturalism and Distributed Poetic Thinking” William Carlos Williams Review 39.2 (2022)
ii. 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)
iii. 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” (Book Chapter), in Conference Proceedings of “The Natural History of Reading” (2010)
Conference Talks and Public Presentations:
“A New Naturalism: Niche Construction and/as Poetic Thinking,” Panel Presentation at NeMLA, Buffalo, New York, March 26, 2023
“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:
“Analytical Writing” (Eng. 100Z): Summer 2012
“Writing and Critical Inquiry” (Eng. 110Z): Fall 2017, Spring 2017
“Reading Literature” (Eng. 121): Spring 2012, Spring 2015, Fall 2020
“Introduction to Writing in English Studies” (Eng. 205Z): Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2021
“Introduction to English Studies” (Eng. 210): Spring 2021, Fall 2021
“Short Story” (Eng. 223): Fall 2022
“Special Topics: Moby-Dick” (Eng. 226): Spring 2013
“Science Fiction” (Eng. 242): Fall 2021
“Living Literature” (Eng. 270): Spring 2019
“Media, Technology, and Culture” (Eng. 272): Fall 2018
“Classics of Western Literature” (Eng. 295): Fall 2012
“Studies in Writing About Texts” (Eng. 305Z): Spring 2022
“American Literature After 1900” (Eng. 338): Spring 2015, Spring 2023
“Studies in Poetry” (Eng. 358): Spring 2015, Fall 2022
“Studies in Narrative” (Eng. 359): Fall 2019, Fall 2022
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