Curriculum Vitae
Brent M. Blackwell
Department of English 13825 Meadow Lake Dr.
Ball State University Fishers, IN 46038
Muncie, IN 47306 (317) 776-2178 (Home)
(765) 285-0022 (Office) (317) 408-9512 (Cell)
bmblackwell@bsu.edu ptah37@yahoo.com
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Purdue University, May 2004: English. Summa cum Laude.
Primary Areas: Theory and Cultural Studies, Contemporary American Literature
Secondary Areas: Jewish Studies, Science and Literature
Dissertation: Literary Topology: Modern Science and Contemporary American Fiction.
Using the mathematical metaphor of topology (e.g. the Möbius band), a kind of qualitative reading is possible in which quantitative assumptions about the consistency of a given system of cultural relations are no longer hidden within the structure of the system. As such, certain American authors, not traditionally viewed as ethnically or racially sensitive, undergo a new reading.
Committee: John N. Duvall (Co-Chair), Arkady Plotnitsky (Co-Chair), Sandor Goodhart, Robert Paul Lamb.
M.A., Purdue University, 1997: English. Magna cum Laude.
Master’s Thesis: Perverse Repetition, Empirical Chaos, and Categorical Meaning: Becoming America in Poe, Crane, and Pynchon.
Committee: Robert Paul Lamb (Chair), Wendy Stallard Flory, Daniel Morris
B.A., Purdue University, 1995: English
Minor: Medieval Studies, Philosophy
PUBLICATIONS
Articles
“Literary Topology: An Introduction to Postmodern Mathematics.” Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture 4:4 (Fall 2004) (Online Journal). n.p. ISSN: 1547-4348.
www.http://reconstruction.eserver.org/044/blackwell.htm.
“Calvino and the Little People: the Postructural Folk Tale,” Romance Language Annual XI (2000): 144-150. CD-ROM.
Book Reviews
“Joseph M. Conte’s Design and Debris: a Chaotics of Postmodern American Fiction.” Modern Fiction Studies 50:1 (Spring 2004). 860-861.
Encyclopedia Entries:
“Hedi Fried: Biography.” Facts on File Companion to the World Novel 1900 to the Present. Vol. 1. Edited by Michael D. Sollars. New York: Facts on File, 2008.
“Hedi Fried’s The Road to Auschwitz: Fragments of a Life.” Facts on File Companion to the World Novel 1900 to the Present. Vol. 1. Edited by Michael D. Sollars. New York: Facts on File, 2008.
“Primo Levi: Biography.” Facts on File Companion to the World Novel 1900 to the Present. Vol. 1. Edited by Michael D. Sollars. New York: Facts on File, 2008.
“Primo Levi’s Survival In Auschwitz.” Facts on File Companion to the World Novel 1900 to the Present. Vol. 1. Edited by Michael D. Sollars. New York: Facts on File, 2008.
“Kathy Acker’s Don Quixote.” Facts On File Companion to the American Novel. Vol. 3. Edited by Abby H. P. Werlock. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
HONORARY AND INVITED LECTURES
“Who Do You Say that I Am?: Revisiting the Jewish Question in Judaism.” The Jewish Studies Summer Workshop Public Lecture, Ball State University, May 7, 2008.
“Why Do You Care?: Some Thoughts from an Honest English Teacher.” Keynote Address, National Society of Collegiate Scholars Integrity Day, Ball State University, April 9, 2008.
“Anti-Semitism in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice?” Presentation for the Society of Open Minded Academics (SOMA), Ball State University, February 20, 2008.
“America: World Police.” Honorary Lecture, Krosno College, Krakow, Poland, May 2005.
“Shoah as the Necessary Consequence of Western Humanism.” Yom Hashoah Faculty Colloquium Presentation, Ball State University, April 2005.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“The Beginning Again of Literature: Literary Plagiarism in Hedi Fried’s The Road to Auschwitz: Fragments of a Life.” Women and the Holocaust,
Jagellonian University, Krakow, May 2005
Panel Chair, “Fascism and Literature II.” Central New York Conference on Language and Literature, SUNY Cortland, October, 2003.
Panel Chair, “Fascism and Literature.” Central New York Conference on Language and Literature, SUNY Cortland, October 2002.
“The Complementarity of the Image: Quantum Mechanics in H.D’s Trilogy,” Lost Measure: a Conference on H.D., Lehigh University, September 2002.
“Mathoepoetics: a Topological Reading of H.D.’s Trilogy,” American Literature Association Annual Conference, Long Beach, May 2002.
Discussant, Panel on “Ethics and Responsibility in the Academy,” Fourth Annual Theory and Cultural Studies Colloquium, Purdue University, March 2002.
“Against Fascism: the Critical Practice of Gilles Deleuze,” Third Annual Theory and Cultural Studies Symposium, Purdue University, September 2001.
“The Calculus of Fascism,” Second Annual Theory and Cultural Studies Symposium. Purdue University, April 2001.
“Why all the Math?: the Here and the Now of Deleuze’s ‘Many Politics,’” First Annual Theory and Cultural Studies Symposium, Purdue University, April 2000.
“Initiating and Supporting a Cross-Curricular Learning Community at Purdue,” Council of Writing Program Administrators Annual Conference, Purdue University, July 1999.
“Calvino and the Little People: the Postructural Folk Tale,” Eleventh Annual Purdue University Conference on Romance Languages, Literatures, and Film, October 1999.
“Topology and Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49,” Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America, San Antonio, October 1995.
“Concepts of Unmanliness in Old Norse Literature,” Twenty-third International Medieval Congress, University of Western Michigan, April 1993.
COMMITTEE WORK
Jewish Studies Program Advisory Board, 2004- Present
Freshmen Connections, 2003-Present
Yom Hashoah Planning Committee, 2005- Present
T-Prep (Teacher Preparation program for the English Department), 2007-Present.
Contract Faculty Committee, Co-President, 2007-Present.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Ball State University: 2002 - Present
Assistant Professor of English: Aug. 2004 - Present (responsible for entire course: syllabus design, assignments, lecturing, grading, and conferencing)
English Composition:
English 103 First-Year Composition I.
English 104 First-Year Composition II.
Literature and Introductory Courses:
English 205 World Literary Masterpieces.
English 206 World Literary Masterpieces (English Majors and Minors Only).
English 210 Introduction to Literary Studies.
English 230 Reading and Writing About Literature.
Interdisciplinary Courses
English 299X Introduction to Jewish Studies.
English 299X Introduction to the Nazi Holocaust.
Graduate Seminars
English 603X Introduction to the Nazi Holocaust.
Lecturer in English: Aug. 2002 – May 2004 (Responsible for entire course: syllabus design, assignments, lecturing, grading, and conferencing).
Composition:
English 103 English Composition I.
English 104 English Composition II.
English 114 Honors Freshmen Composition.
Purdue University: 1996 - 2002
Teaching Assistant: Aug. 1996 - May 2002 (Responsible for entire course: syllabus design, assignments, lecturing, grading, and conferencing).
Composition:
English 101: Introductory First-Year Composition.
English 102: Introductory First-Year Composition.
English 103: Advanced First-Year Composition.
Literature:
English 210: The Bible as Literature.
English 230: Introduction to Literature.
ACADEMIC HONORS
Rinker Center for International Programs Grant, 2005.
Purdue Research Foundation, Dissertation Grant, 2001.
Excellence in Teaching Award, Purdue University, 1999, 2001.
Phi Kappa Phi (Honorary fraternity for the top five percent of graduates), Purdue University, 1997.
Sigma Tau Delta (National English Honorary Fraternity), Purdue University, 1994.
LANGUAGES
Full Reading Knowledge: Spanish, Old English, Old Norse.
Reading Proficiencies: German, Biblical Hebrew, Latin.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Modern Language Association
The Society for Literature and Science
The Leibniz Society of North America
The Don DeLillo Society
The American Literature Association
The H.D. International Society
REFERENCES
Kecia Driver McBride, Chairperson and Associate Professor of English, Department of English, Ball State University.
Patrick Collier, Assistant Chairperson and Associate Professor, Department of English, Ball State University.
Webster Newbold, Director of the Writing Program and Associate Professor, Department of English, Ball State Univeristy.
Arkady Plotnitsky, Professor, Department of English, Director of Theory and Cultural Studies, Purdue University.
John N. Duvall, Professor, Department of English, Editor of Modern Fiction Studies, Purdue University.
Sandor Goodhart, Professor, Department of English, Director of Jewish Studies, Purdue University.
Robert Paul Lamb, Professor, Departments of English and American Studies, Purdue University.
Anthony Julian Tamburri, Chair and Professor, Department of Languages and Linguistics, Florida Atlantic University.
G. R. Thompson, Professor Emeritus, Departments of English and Comparative Literature, Purdue University.
Irwin H. Weiser, Chair and Professor, Department of English, Purdue University.
Wendy Stallard Flory, Professor, Departments of English and Jewish Studies, Purdue University.
DOSSIER
Available upon request from Julie Henderson, Credential Coordinator, Department of English, 500 Oval Drive, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038.