Matthew Leporati
English Department
541 W Dealy Hall
Fordham University
Bronx, NY 10458
Email: [email protected]
9 Graywood Road
Port Washington, NY 11050
Phone: 917-836-0899
EDUCATION
Ph.D., English Literature, Fordham University, NY, 2014.
Dissertation: “Romantic-era Epic Poetry and the Mission of Empire.”
Committee: Sarah Zimmerman (chair), John Bugg, Frank Boyle.
Influenced by the long shadow of Wordsworth’s Prelude, we are used to reading
Romantic-era epic poems as explorations of the sublime mysteries of the human mind.
My project, however, argues that they both reflect and interrogate the rise of British
missionary and imperial activity across the late-eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. I reveal that authors as diverse as Robert Southey, Ann Yearsley, and
Thomas Beck turned to the epic genre both to support and to critique missionary work,
imperial expansion, and the vexed possibility of harmony between these endeavors.
Examining this understudied history of the British epic, I demonstrate how canonical
poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake, and Lord Byron also draw on the
resources of this genre in order to raise their voices more critically against aspects of
empire while still remaining influenced by some of the assumptions of British
imperialism and its evangelical turn.
M.A., English Literature, Fordham University, NY, 2007.
B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, 2005.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
“Romantic Literature and Dissent”
Fordham University, Spring 2015
This English core course of my own design studies how authors of the Romantic period drew
on the climate of religious and political dissent in order to challenge dominant ideologies.
Reading diverse writers from the expanded canon, including Ann Yearsley, Robert Southey,
and Olaudah Equiano, students discuss and write about the challenges that literature can launch
against notions of class, race, empire, gender, and more.
“The Epic and Its Echoes”
Fordham University, Fall 2014
I designed this English core course to encourage students to explore the classical epic and its
legacy across multiple art forms. My students consider classical epics side-by-side with lyric
poems, paintings, sculptures, and films that draw upon the epic tradition. They also read
excerpts of modern and understudied epics, including works by Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Ann Yearsley, and Derek Walcott. Their writing and revision is central to our discussion of the
“conversation” between these diverse works of literature.
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“Literature and Resistance”
Suffolk County Community College, Fall 2013
Examining works by a diverse selection of authors (including Mary Wollstonecraft, Phillis
Wheatley, Lord Byron, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Virginia Woolf, and Jamaica Kincaid),
students learn to analyze individual works of literature, make connections among ostensibly
disparate texts, and recognize the relationship between literature and the world outside the
classroom. I designed this class to pay special attention to writing and revision and to
incorporate online discussion that extends our classroom conversations.
“Revolutionary Writers”
Fordham University, Fall 2011
An English core course of my own design that examines the impact of the historical context of
the Romantic era on its literature. Through readings of Wordsworth, Blake, Percy and Mary
Shelley, Charlotte Smith, John Clare (and many others), students considered the various ways
that the revolutionary era both established and anticipated modern ideas such as ecology,
vegetarianism, and feminism. A particular emphasis is placed on student writing and revision.
Composition II
Fordham University, 2008-2015
An intensive course in expository writing that focuses on grammar, logic, and rhetoric,
covering research methods, revision skills, and argumentation. The small course size permits
in-depth class discussion of texts, including student essays, pop culture texts, and literature.
Composition I
Fordham University, 2009-2014
This course teaches basic writing and grammar to students under-prepared for college writing.
It stresses reading comprehension, grammar presentations, and the process of revision, and it
teaches the basics of essay structure, research, and logical argumentation.
Writing Center Tutor
Fordham University, 2005–2008
I worked with students individually on their writing, guiding them through the process of
revision. Duties included preparing grammar worksheets, organizing and conducting
presentations for new tutors, and organizing and running workshops for students. Special
experience in working with non-traditional and EFL students.
PUBLICATIONS
“Ann Yearsley’s ‘Brutus’ and the Evangelical Epic Poem,” Studies in Romanticism, under
review.
“William Blake’s Perspectives: Teaching Romanticism in the Community College Classroom,”
The CEA Critic, under review.
“Secular Evangelism in Sydney Owenson’s The Missionary and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The
Revolt of Islam,” The Keats-Shelley Journal, under review.
Review of Romantic Literature: Texts, Contexts, Connections by John Gilroy. Romanticism
19.3 (October, 2013): 333-335.
“‘Authority from Heaven’: Robert Southey’s Madoc and Epic Christian Imperialism.”
European Romantic Review (ERR) 25.2 (March, 2014): 161-180.
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PRESENTATIONS
“Social Class, Conversion, and Colonialism in Ann Yearsley’s ‘Brutus.’” British Women
Writers Conference, New York. 2015.
Roundtable Chair: “Comparative Peer Responses.” Literature and Creative Writing Pedagogies
in Community Colleges, New York. 2014.
“The Romantic-era Epic Poem and the Mission of Empire.” Wordsworth Summer Conference,
Grasmere, UK. 2011.
“Innovations of Heroism in the Romantic Epic.” International Conference on Romanticism,
Lubbock, TX. 2010.
“Writing Self and City in the Romantic Epics of Wordsworth and Blake.” International
Conference on Romanticism, New York. 2009.
“Historical Self-Representation in Lord Byron and Felicia Hemans.” Wordsworth Summer
Conference, Grasmere, UK. 2009.
“Romantic Doubts in Victorian Poetry: Browning’s ‘Childe Roland’ and Wordsworth’s
Prelude.” Fordham Graduate English Association Conference, New York. 2008.
“‘Creator and Receiver Both’”: The Role of History in Wordsworth’s Prelude.” Wordsworth
Summer Conference, Grasmere, UK. 2008.
“The Cinematic Trick Shot and Spectatorship in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.” Film/Literature
Association Conference, Kansas City. 2007.
AWARDS
Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship, Fordham University, 2014-2015
English Department Summer Award, Fordham University, 2012
Teaching Fellowship, Fordham University, 2010-2011
Teaching Assistantship, Fordham University, 2008-2014
Graduate Assistantship, Fordham University, 2005-2008
Presidential Tuition Scholarship, Fordham University, 2005-2014
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Outreach Coordinator for the New York City Romanticism Group, 2014-2015
Higher Education Opportunity (HEOP) English Department Coordinator, 2013-2015
Research Assistant for the Joseph Johnson Letterbook (John Bugg, editor. Oxford University
Press, 2014)
Editorial Assistant for Hart Crane’s The Bridge: An Annotated Edition (Lawrence Kramer,
editor. Fordham University Press, 2011)
Founder, Epic Poetry Graduate Student Reading Group, Fordham University, 2013
Coordinator, Nineteenth-Century Graduate Student Reading Group, Fordham University, 2013
Mentor, English Department Teaching Practicum, Fordham University, 2009-2014
Mentor, English Graduate Student Mentorship Program, Fordham University, 2009-2014
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TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
British Romanticism
Epic Poetry
Nineteenth-century British Culture
British Literature and Empire
Victorian Poetry
The British Novel
Writing Pedagogy
LANGUAGES
French (reading)
German (reading)
Italian (reading and speaking)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Modern Language Association
North American Society for the Study of Romanticism
North American Victorian Studies Association
College English Association
REFERENCES
Sarah Zimmerman, Professor of English, Fordham University
[email protected]
Frank Boyle, Professor of English, Fordham University
[email protected]
John Bugg, Associate Professor of English, Fordham University
[email protected]
Colin Clarke, Assistant Academic Chair; Associate Professor of English,
Suffolk County Community College
[email protected]
Moshe Gold, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Rose Hill Writing
Program, Fordham University
[email protected]