DR. JOSEPH E. BYRNE

11109 Highland School Road

Myersville, MD 21773

drjebbyrne@gmail.com

301-462-9963

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. English Literature, University of Maryland, 2013
• M.F.A. Creative Writing, University of Maryland, 2003
• B.A. Loyola University (Chicago), graduated summa cum laude, 1985

DISSERTATION

Worlds Trodden and Untrodden: Political Disillusionment, Literary Displacement, and the Conflicted Publicity of British Romanticism

Directed by Neil Fraistat

Readers: Neil Fraistat, Orrin N. C. Wang, Laura Rosenthal, and Vincent Carretta

Abstract: This study tracks four first-generation British Romantic writers in their vexed attempts to engage the conflicted public sphere of the 1790s. I argue that as a result of their negative experiences with politicized media and publicity, they withdrew from the public sphere. However, a “spectral” form of publicity haunts the later works of these writers, signaling their continuing, ambivalent engagement with the public sphere. These writers were forced, in different ways, to negotiate the discursive space between publicity and privacy, and it is this negotiation—rather than a strict affiliation with public or private—that characterizes British Romantic literature. 

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

·        British Romantic Literature

·       Digital Humanities

·       Digital Pedagogy

·        New Media Studies

·        Creative Writing

·        Film

PUBLICATIONS

•  “Blake, Joseph Johnson, and The Gates of Paradise.” Wordsworth Circle. August 2013. Refereed. 5 pages.
• Worlds Trodden and Untrodden: Political Disillusionment, Literary Displacement, and the Conflicted Publicity of British Romanticism. ProQuest Theses and Dissertations Database. May 2013.
•  “William Blake’s Illustrations to Night Thoughts: Resistance to Rationalization in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Book Trade.” An essay in Book Illustration in the Long Eighteenth Century, edited by Christina Ionescu, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing (January 2011; revised for 2nd ed., October 2013). Refereed. 41 pages.
• “Wordsworth, Joseph Johnson, and the Salisbury Plain Poems.” Wordsworth Circle, Spring 2009. Refereed. 5 pages.
• “Blood.” Readers Write. The Sun Magazine. December 2008.
• “Blake’s Contraries Game.” An electronic essay published as part of the Praxis volume Digital Designs on Blake, at the Romantic Circles website. January 2005.
• “The Kiss.” Readers Write. The Sun Magazine. August 1998.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• “The Piper at the Gates of Paradise: William Blake and Joseph Johnson.” MLA (Modern Language Association) Annual Convention, January 2013, Boston.
•  “The Dialogue of Poet and Bookseller in Erasmus Darwin’s The Loves of the Plants.” SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing) Conference, July 2011 at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
• “Blogging and Writing Practice in the Undergraduate Classroom.” Writing Across the Curriculum Symposium, University of Maryland, November 2009.
• “‘A Traveller on the Skirt of Sarum’s Plain’: Wordsworth’s Flight from the Joseph Johnson Circle in the Salisbury Plain Poems.” MLA (Modern Language Association) Annual Convention, December 2008, San Francisco.
• “The Trial of Joseph Johnson and the Closure of the Enlightenment Public Sphere in Britain.” NASSR (North American Society for the Study of Romanticism), August 2008 at the University of Toronto.
• “Digital Technology, Editing, and the New Electronic Canon.” Conference of the Society for Textual Editing, March 2008 at Boston University.
• “Unfolding Darkness: William Blake’s Battle with the Book in The Book of Urizen.” International Conference on Romanticism, October 2007 at Towson University.
•  “‘Vive la bagatelle!’: Tristram Shandy and Mid-Eighteenth-Century Magazine Culture.” SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing) Conference, July 2007 at the University of Minnesota.

TEACHING

• ENGL245, “Film, Form, and Culture” (hybrid course), Fall 2011, 2012, 2013†
• ENGL329B, “English Literature on Film in the 21^st Century” (online course), Winter 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014; Summer 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014†
• ENGL212, “British Literature 1800 to the Present,” (hybrid course), University of Maryland, Fall 2010†
• CMLT280, “Film Art in a Global Society,” University of Maryland, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2013†
• ENGL295, “Literature in a Digital World,” University of Maryland, Spring 2013†
• ENGL278W, “Literature in a Digital World,” University of Maryland, Fall 2008, Fall 2010†
• Pre-English (“Introduction to Rhetorical Writing”), Academic Achievement Program, University of Maryland, Summer 2010†
• CMLT 280, “Film Art in a Global Society,” University of Maryland, Fall 2009, Spring 2010*
• CMLT214, “Film, Form, and Culture,” University of Maryland, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009*
• ENGL101X, “Introduction to Rhetorical Writing” (ESL students), University of Maryland, Spring 2001†
• ENGL101, “Introduction to Rhetorical Writing,” University of Maryland, Fall 2000†

* As TA. Responsibilities included some lecture, class discussion sections, maintaining class blog, authoring paper prompts and some exam questions, all grading.

† Primary instructor. Responsibilities included course/syllabus design, all lecture, class discussion, maintaining class blogs, authoring paper prompts and exams, grading.

RELATED PROFESSIONAL/ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

• Technical Editor and Site Manager of Romantic Circles website, 2001-2007.

Responsibilities included: Site maintenance; graphic and webpage design; technical editing; HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, Javascript encoding; copyediting and proofreading; corresponding with contributors and general editors.

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR)
• American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS)
• Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP)
• Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society