Christopher Dowd, Ph.D.
Chair, English
English Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Education
Ph.D., English Literature, University of Connecticut
M.A., English Literature, University of Connecticut
M.F.A., Creative Writing, Emerson College
B.A., English Literature & Writing, Fairfield University
About Christopher
Whether teaching a First-Year composition class, a creative writing workshop, or an upper-level literature seminar, I want students to understand their work as the forging of connections between their own immediate contexts and the many different cultures, geographies, and temporalities to which texts can give access. I focus on encouraging students to think of their scholarly work as an opportunity to make the foreign familiar and to see beyond the confines of their own historical and geographical positions. I hope that, no matter the subject of the specific course, students will come to view their English class as an entry point into a much larger intellectual debate with participants from around the world and throughout history.
Published Books and Articles
The Irish and the Origins of American Popular Culture (Routledge, 2018)
The Construction of Irish Identity in American Literature (Routledge, 2010)
"Polysemic Brotherhoods in Shakespeare’s Henry V." Studies in English Literature (SEL) 50.2 (Spring 2010): 337-353.
"An Autopsy of Storytelling: Metafiction and Neil Gaiman." The Neil Gaiman Reader. Ed. Darrell Schweitzer. Rockville: Wildside Press, 2006. 103-114.
See MoreConferences & Invited Presentations
"From Hard-Boiled Paddys to Celtic Barbarians: Irish-American Pulp Fiction," Invited Speaker, Irish Studies Seminar Series, Columbia University, April 2013
"From the Gutters of Hogan’s Alley to the Lace Curtains of Jiggs and Maggie: Irish-American Comic Strips," 43rd Annual Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, Washington, D.C., March 2013
"Self-Proclaimed Irishness in the Works of Harold Frederic," MLA National Convention, Boston, January 2013
"19th Century Melodrama and a Global Irish Identity," Invited Speaker, Irish Studies Speaker Series, University of Connecticut, November 2012
"The Weird Tales, Spicy Detectives, and Startling Stories of Irish America: Irish Identity and Authorship in American Pulp Magazines," American Conference for Irish Studies, New England Regional Meeting at Sacred Heart University, October 2012
"The Irish-American Identities of Robert E. Howard and Conan the Cimmerian," 42nd Annual Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, Boston, April 2012
"Robert E. Howard, Conan the Barbarian, and Depression-Era Irish America." American Conference for Irish Studies, New England Regional Meeting, Bridgewater State College, October 2011
"A Wild (Irish) Southern Girl: Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind." 40th Annual Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, April 2010
"‘An American Saint’: Mark Twain’s Legacy." Invited Speaker. Missouri Read More: Celebration of the Mark Twain Centennial, March 2010
Courses Taught
- ENGL 2200 Studies in Literature
- ENGL 2250 Narrative Structure in Games
- ENGL 2281 Science Fiction
- ENGL 2287 Story Structure & Narrative Form
- ENGL 3325 Irish Literature