Christina Wilson
Email: [email protected]
Education
Ph.D. English, University of Connecticut, expected 2016
Graduate Certificate in Human Rights, expected 2015
M.A. English, University of Connecticut, 2009
B.A. English, Honors College at the College of Charleston, 2006
Dissertation and Research Interests
Research Interests
20th- and 21st- Century American Literature, Modern Drama, Modern and Contemporary Irish
and Northern Irish (esp. Troubles) Literature, Literature and Human Rights, transnational studies
Dissertation
Scots-Irish Frontiers across 20th- and 21st- Century American Literature
Committee: Mary Burke, Brenda Murphy, Chris Vials
My dissertation traces the legibility of “Scots-Irish” as an ethnic category in the United States.
Spanning novels, film, musical theatre, and dramatic literature, I examine the renewal of the
Scots-Irish figure in the works of Sam Shepard, Ellen Glasgow, Christopher Morley, and
Roadside Theatre, among others. In the 17th and 18th centuries, immigrants from the north of
Ireland, predominantly Presbyterians, left for the United States in droves, settling on its
successive western frontiers. In the 19th century, the identity lost coherence due to the combined
effects of westward expansion, sectionalism, immigration, urbanization, assimilation, and the
Civil War. Though the legibility of the Scots-Irish remains uneven, I argue that 20th- and 21stcentury texts resurrect this category as a means of exploring the historical present, thereby
reiterating, expanding, or critiquing the violent and mythological foundations of America.
Publications
Refereed Journal and Book Entries
“Illegible Ethnicity and the Invention of Scots-Irish Narratives on the Stages of Belfast and
Appalachia.” Texts and Textures of Irish America. Spec. issue of Irish Studies Review 23.2
(2015): 194-208.
“Challenging the ‘fetish of the verbatim’: New Aesthetics and Familiar Abuses in Christine
Evans’s Slow Falling Bird.” Imagining Human Rights in Twenty-First-Century Theater: Global
Perspectives. Eds. Florian N. Becker, Paola S. Hernández, and Brenda Werth. New York:
Palgrave, (2013). 121-136.
“‘What My Own Wee Divil Bids Me’: An Interview with Damian Gorman.” Canadian Journal
of Irish Studies 36.2 (Fall 2010): 193-207. [Published 2013]
Wilson, p. 1
Reviews
Performance Review. Gray, Kevin dir. A View From the Bridge. Hartford: The Hartt School of
the University of Hartford. The Arthur Miller Journal 7.1-2 (2012): 181-185.
Rev. of ‘Because We Are Poor’: Irish Theatre in the 1990s, by Victor Merriman. Postcolonial
Text 6.3 (2011): n. pag. Web. 11 October 2014.
“Community Theaters and the Troubles.” Rev. of Theaters of the Troubles: Theatre, Resistance
and Liberation in Ireland, by Bill McDonnell. Irish Literary Supplement 30.2 (2011): 26.
Awards
2015
2014
2012
Fulbright U.S. Student Award: Research Grant for Archival Research at the National
University of Ireland, Galway.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Summer Predoctoral Award, University of
Connecticut
Predoctoral Fellowship for Advanced Graduate Students Award, University of
Connecticut
Timothy F. Moriarty Award in Irish Literature, University of Connecticut
Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, University of Connecticut
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Summer Research Award, University of
Connecticut
Conferences and Colloquia (selected)
2014
“From Belfast and Appalachia: Scots-Irish Musicals.” Ulster-America Heritage
Symposium. Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT. 18-21 June.
“Always Westward: Spatial and Temporal Considerations of the Scots-Irish Narrative.”
American Conference for Irish Studies / Canadian Association for Irish Studies,
University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. 11-14 June.
Invited Speaker. “The Glamorous ‘de-glamoriser’: Stories from Breakfast on Pluto.”
“Irish in Film” Festival: Stephen Rea. Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT. 23 April.
2013
“The Interdisciplinarity of Teaching Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities.” Copresenter with Cathy Buerger and Shaznene Hussain. Languages Graduate Student
Association Open Humanities Conference, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. 23 Feb.
2012
“‘For the answering echo.’” Living Empathy Workshop, Human Rights Institute,
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. 01-02 November.
“Texts that Teach: Narratives of Scots-Irish Heritage.” New England American
Conference for Irish Studies, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT. 19-20 October.
Wilson, p. 2
“Staging the Scots-Irish.” National Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Indiana
University of PA. 23-25 March. Student Scholarship Award.
“Troubles Fiction, the Media, and Contested Narration.” American Conference for Irish
Studies, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. 14-17 March.
2011
“Cowboys and Irishmen: Sam Shepard at the Abbey.” American Conference for Irish
Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 30 March-02 April.
Roundtable Participant. “Learning Communities in the Freshman English Classroom.”
Conference on the Teaching of Writing, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. 25 March.
2009
“The Domestic Animal in Frank Norris’s McTeague.” American Literature Association,
Boston, MA. 21-24 May.
Exhibits Organized
Curator, Mother and Daughter: Mary Lavin and Caroline Walsh, Dodd Center, University of
Connecticut, March 2013. This exhibit displayed letters and other materials from this
famed Irish-American short story writer and her daughter, the literary editor of the Irish
Times. This collection opened the Gerson Irish Reading whose speakers included Bookerprize winner Anne Enright and Booker-nominated Colm Tóibín.
Teaching Positions and Professional Experience
Teaching Assistant, University of Connecticut, 2007-2011 and 2013-present. Instructor of record
for literature and composition courses; 1-2 classes per semester, class size ranging from
16-35; supervised an Honors Conversion for one advanced English major.
Instructor, Student Support Services in the Center for Academic Programs, University of
Connecticut, 2011-2015. Instructor of record for summer composition courses for
minority, low-income, and first-generation freshmen. Part of the federal TRIO program.
Reader, Assessment of Student Writing from English for Non-Native Speakers courses, 2014
Lead Graduate Assistant Coordinator for the Learning Community Initiative, First Year
Programs and First-Year Writing, August 2011-December 2012. In this role, I oversaw
grant requirements, helped teachers utilize financial resources and personnel, arranged
and led orientations and workshops, and organized Student Symposiums.
Lead Designer, Coordinator, and Reader, Assessment of Student Writing from Learning
Community First-Year Writing Courses, 2011-2013
Founding Member of the Teaching Human Rights reading group (developed into formal
seminar), 2012
Member of the team that secured a $200,000 Davis Foundation Grant for Learning Communities,
2010
Wilson, p. 3
Designed and taught pilot classes for Learning Communities, 2008-9
Member, Implementation Committee, First-Year Writing Instructor Orientation, 2008
Courses Taught (all as sole designer and instructor of record)
Literature
American Literature Since 1880-Writing Intensive (1 section)
Preceded by industrial developments such as the Transcontinental Railroad, which enabled
greater travel within the nation, American Literature after 1880 demonstrates expanding notions
of American identity. As the geographical centers of both publishing and literature shift from the
Northeast to encompass more of the country, so too do frontiers of intellectual and cultural
engagement. This sophomore-level course surveys such expansions across a variety of prose,
poetry, and dramatic literature within the categories of realism, naturalism, modernism, and postmodernism. Authors: Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Zitkala-Ša, Kate Chopin, Zora Neale Hurston,
Alice Walker, Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Toni
Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Sam Shepard, Li-Young Lee, Julia Alvarez, and Jhumpa Lahiri.
Contemporary Irish Literature (1 section)
“I don’t come out of an oral tradition, I come out of silence.” So says novelist Colm Tóibín,
describing the conservative and, often, abusive society in which he born. Irish literature after
1960 gives voice to the once silent constituencies of women, children, religious and social
minorities, and the urban poor. Reflecting larger social changes stemming from secularization,
educational and economic reform, contemporary Irish authors are thematically preoccupied with
uncovering the silences of previous generations. This junior-level course explores these new
voices across a range of Irish and Northern Irish texts. Authors: Eavan Boland, Marina Carr,
Roddy Doyle, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Anne Enright, Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, Pat McCabe,
Colum McCann, Martin McDonagh, Edna O’Brien, Colm Tóibín, and Robert McLiam Wilson.
Modern Drama (1 section)
In both text and performance, Modern Drama functions as dissent, pushing against repressive
legislation and social norms. The course traces this tradition of subversion across the globe and
highlights significant aesthetic developments. Emphasizing the collaborative nature of the genre,
in a group dramaturgy assignment, students engage with 21st-century digital media tools to
propose a production of a play. Authors: Henrik Ibsen, Bertol Brecht, Susan Glaspell, Tennessee
Williams, John Osborne, Joe Orton, Samuel Beckett, Caryl Churchill, Wole Soyinka, Gao
Xingjian, Maria Irene Fornes, Suzan-Lori Parks, Tony Kushner, and Ayad Akhtar.
Composition
Introduction to Academic Writing (5 sections, 1 for UConn-Hartford)
This class presents academic writing as genre that produces new knowledge, a creative act, while
bound to rhetorical and stylistic conventions. Students learn and practice strategies for careful
reading, critical thinking, writing, and revision.
Wilson, p. 4
Seminar in Academic Writing and Seminar in Writing though Literature (11 sections)
These courses are identical in their aim to enable students to participate in academic inquiry.
Students work to understand, develop, and share intellectually interesting ideas through writing.
In the Seminar in Academic Writing, assignments are preceded by interdisciplinary readings
whereas the Seminar in Writing through Literature places more emphasis on literary texts. 2
sections designed for the Leadership LC and 3 for the Environmental Science LC.
Service
To the Profession
Proofreader, Postcolonial Text, 2011-2014
University of Connecticut
COO, Irish Studies Alliance, 2011-2014
I led the design and development of a website (http://irishstudiesalliance.rso.uconn.edu/),
organized talks by visiting scholars, and coordinated various panels and professional
development opportunities for graduate students. The ISA is an established
interdisciplinary study group of graduate students and faculty.
CFO, Irish Studies Alliance, 2009-2011
Hospitality Chair, English Graduate Student Association, 2009-2011
Community Co-chair, English Graduate Student Association, 2008-2009
Memberships
American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS)
American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS)
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Language
Spanish
Wilson, p. 5