Paul Baggett

Education

Ph.D. in English, University of Miami, Coral Gables (High Honors)
M.A. in English, California State University, Long Beach
B.A. in English, University of California, Irvine

Professional Memberships:

Modern Language Association
C19: Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists
Jack London Society
International Theodore Dreiser Society
Charles Chesnutt Association
Rebecca Harding Davis Society

Academic Interests

American literature and culture, Literary naturalism, Environmental literature, Literature and Human Rights, American Indian literature, African American literature, Literature of the American West, South Dakota Literature.

Academic Responsibilities

English courses taught include Introduction to Criticism, American Literature I and II, Literature of the American West, American Renaissance, American Realism and Naturalism, Studies in American Indian Literature, Studies in African American Literature, American Literature and the "Transnational Turn," The Body in Literature and Film, and Twentieth and Twenty-First Century War Narratives, Environmental Literature, and Literature and Human Rights.

Interdisciplinary courses taught include Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies, Introduction to Global Citizenship and Diversity, Paris: Global City of Light (Honors colloquium), and Reinvigorating Intellectual Culture (Honors Colloquium).

Awards and Honors

College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Science's Award for Outstanding Service, South Dakota State University, 2019.

Outstanding Experiential Learning Educator, South Dakota State University, 2017.

J.P. Hendrickson Faculty Scholar and Herbert Cheever Jr. Liberal Arts Distinguished Lecturer, South Dakota State University, 2014.

Area(s) of Research

Selected Publications:

“Anthropomorphism Reconsidered: 'Nature Faking' in Jack London's 'All Gold Canyon'." The Nonhuman in American Literary Naturalism. Edited by Karin Danielsson and Kenneth Brandt. Lexington Books/Rowman Littlefield (forthcoming).

Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer, by Iris Jamahl Dunkle (Review). Pacific Northwest Quarterly. (forthcoming).

“Reinvigorating Intellectual Culture in Honors Composition: A Provocation,” with Michael Keller (under review).

The Complete Works of Jack London, Vol. 7 Editor [Theft: A Four Act Play, The Scorn of Women, Moon-face and Other Stories, and White Fang]. Oxford UP. (forthcoming)

"Jack London and Physical Culture." The Oxford Handbook of Jack London. Ed. Jay Williams. New York: Oxford UP, 2017. 490-504.

Literature and Photography in Transition, 1850-1915, by Owen Clayton. (Review) Studies in American Naturalism. Ed. Keith Newlin. Volume 11, Number 2 (Winter 2016). 84-88.

“South Dakota Literature.” Dictionary of Midwestern Literature. Ed. Philip A. Greasley. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016. 792-810.

“Poetry and Prose in Action: South Dakota Women Writers.” Action, Impact, Voice: Contemporary South Dakota Women. Ed. Meredith Redlin et al. South Dakota Agricultural Museum, 2015. 83-93.

“Charles Chesnutt and the ‘Province of Literature’.” North Carolina Literary Review, No. 23, 2014, 80-94.

Infinite West: Travels in South Dakota by Fraser Harrison. (review). Great Plains Quarterly, Volume 34, Number 2, Spring 2014, pp. 192-193.

“Caught Between Homes: Mary Seacole and the Question of Cultural Identity.” MaComére: Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women and Writers and Scholars 3 (2000): 45-56.

“Transcending the Boundaries of Nation: Images and Imaginings of Frederick Douglass.” In Process: A Journal of African American and African Diasporan Literature and Culture 2 (2000): 103-13.

Selected Presentations:

"Anthropomorphism Reconsidered: The Politics of 'Nature Faking' in Jack London's 'All Gold Canyon'." English Colloquium, February 27, 2023, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD.

"What We Read in 101 and Why: Stories of Curriculum, A Curriculum of Stories.” Minnesota Writing and English Conference, April 5-6, 2019, Minneapolis, MN.

"Spectacles of Empire, Empire of Spectacle: Jack London in the South Seas." American Literature Association Conference, May 2018, San Francisco, CA.

"Corporeal Conundrums of a Famous Author." Jack London Biennial Symposium, September 15-17, 2016, Napa, CA.

"Jack London and Physical Culture." “Jack London and Physical Culture.” American Literature Association Conference, May, 2016, San Francisco, CA.

“Reinvigorating Intellectual Culture in Honors,” National Collegiate Honors Council Conference, November 14, 2015, Chicago, IL.

"Pushing the Boundaries of Gender and Genre: South Dakota Women’s Literature. College of Arts and Sciences' J.P. Hendrickson Faculty Scholar award and Herbert Cheever Jr. Liberal Arts Lecture, January, 2014, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD.

“Rebecca Harding Davis’s Life in the Age of Occupy.” American Literature Association Annual Conference, May 2013, Boston, MA.

“Nella Larsen and the Ambivalence of Embodied Black Spectacle.”14th Annual Modernist Studies Association: Modernism and Spectacle.” October, 2012, Las Vegas, NV.

“Aesthetics, Politics, and the ‘Unfinished Work’ of the Korl Woman.” Craft, Critique, Culture Conference: The Art of Revolution, March 2012. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.

“Politics Through the Back Door: An Inquiry into Chesnutt’s Aesthetic Practice.” American Literature Association Annual Conference, May, 2011. Boston, MA.

“Why South Dakota Literature Matters.” Sewrey Colloquium Lecture. February, 2010. South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD.

“Aesthetic Autonomy in the Capitalist Public Sphere: Jack London’s Martin Eden.” National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, March 20, 2008, San Francisco, CA.

“The Incorporation of the Body of Jack London,” 32nd Modern Literature Conference, Michigan State University, October 23, 1999, East Lansing, MI.

“Transcending the Boundaries of Nation: Images and Imaginings of Frederick Douglass,” Creighton Conference on Language and Literature, March 20, 1998, Creighton University, Omaha, NE.

“Caught Between Homes: Mary Seacole and the Question of Cultural Identity,” 17th Annual West Indian Literature Conference, Spring, 1998, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica.