Douglass H. Thomson
 Professor of English
Department of Literature and Philosophy

Director of Graduate Studies in English
P.O Box. 8023
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460-8023
Newton 1122C x478-5579; dhthom@georgiasouthern.edu

Web Site: http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/~dougt/

Go here to find current syllabi . . . Go to the Humanities I and II website . . . Go here to Gothic web pages . . . For general student resources, go to Glossary of Literary Terms, The Major Greek Gods and Myths, and The Philosophy of Composition (strategies for writing about literature) . . . For Thomson's publications, go here

 

CURRICULUM VITAE

EDUCATION

1983 Postdoctoral study at the School of Criticism and Theory, Northwestern University

1981 Ph.D. in English, the University of Rochester
Dissertation : "Beyond Soliloquy: A Study of Wordsworth's Conversation Poetry." Directed by James Rieger

1976 M.A. in English, the University of Rochester

1975 B.A. in English, the University of Rochester

RESEARCH INTERESTS

British Romanticism; Literary Gothic; History of Literary Criticism

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

  •  2000-  . Professor, Department of Literature and Philosophy. Georgia Southern University.
  •  1989-2000 . Associate Professor. Department of Literature and Philosophy. Georgia Southern University.
  •  1981-1989.  Assistant Professor.  Department of English. Georgia Southern University.
  •  1980-1981. Visiting Assistant Professor. Union College, Schenectady, NY.

PUBLICATIONS

 

  • At the press: a critical edition of Matthew Gregory Lewis’s Tales of Wonder (1800) for Broadview Press.

 

 

 

 

 

  • “Gothic Fiction." The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture. Ed. Dennis Hall and M. Thomas Inge. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. Volume II: 779-808.
  • "Terror High and Low: The Aikins' 'On the Pleasure Derived From Objects of Terror.'" The Wordsworth Circle 29 (1998): 72-75.
  • "Coming to Terms: Plato's Cratylus in the Light of Postmodernism." Plato and Postmodernism. Ed. Steven Shankman. Glenside, PA: The Aldine Press, 1994. 122-133.
  • "William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism." Humanities in the South 13 (1988): 6-9.
  • "Rhetoric Meets Philosphy: The Place of Description in Literary Criticism." Philosophy and Rhetoric 21 (1988): 77-102.
  • "'The Sport of Transmutations': The Evolution of Wordsworth's 'To Lycoris.'" Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 27 (1987): 581-593.
  • "The Passing of Another's Shadow: A Third Ending to Great Expectations." Dickens Quarterly 1 (1984): 94-95.
  • "From Words to Things: Margaret's Progress in Howards End." Studies in the Novel 15 (1983): 122-134.
  • "Wordsworth's Warning Voice: A Miltonic Echo in Book II of The Prelude." The Wordsworth Circle 12 (1981): 123.
  • "Wordsworth's Lucy of 'Nutting.'" Studies in Romanticism 18 (1979): 287-298.

REVIEWS

  • Pleasure in the Eighteenth Century. Ed. Roy Porter and Marie Mulvey-Roberts. NYU Press, 1997. The Wordsworth Circle 29 (1998):
  • Romanticism and the Androgynous Sublime by Warren Stevenson. Fairleigh Dickinson U Press, 1996. The Wordsworth Circle 28 (1997): 262-263


ONGOING PROJECTS


LECTURES AND PAPERS DELIVERED TO PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (since 1986)

  • "Teaching in the Age of Electronic (Re)Production." Computers and the Curriculum Conference. Georgia Southern University. Dec. 10, 1997.
  • "The Aikins' Idea of the Sublime." Wordsworth Summer Conference, Grasmere, UK. 3 August 1997.
  • "The Politics of Wordsworth's Anti-Gothicism." Wordsworth Summer Conference, Grasmere, UK. 14 August 1994.
  • "Coming to Terms: Plato's Cratylus in the Light of Postmodernism." Plato and Postmodernism Conference, University of Oregon. 16 November 1991.
  • "Paradoxes in the Age of English Romanticism." Guest Lecturer for Georgia College's GEH/NEH Program "The Age of English Romanticism." 23 January 1990.
  • Invited Respondent to Romantics Session of the Western Conference for British Studies. University of Arizona. 12 March 1990.
  • "Developing Public Programs for 'Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism.'" Romanticism and Us Conference. University of Illinois-Chicago. 23 April 1988.
  • “English Romantic Poetry and the Spirit of Music." Outreach Programs for NEH/GEH's "William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism." 15 January 1988 (Bulloch Hall of the Roswell Historical Society); 5 April 1988 (Dublin-Laurens Museum); 12 September 1988 (Albany Museum of Art); 15 November 1988 (Herbert Memorial Institute of Art, Augusta GA); 22 February 1989 (Madison-Morgan Cultural Society). (non-peer-reviewed)
  • "But for Such Faith: The Moral Force of Romantic Ambiguity." Romantics Session of SAMLA, Atlanta. 22 November, 1986.

MASTERS THESES DIRECTED

 

  • 2007: Jeffrey Kozee. The Dangers of Credulity: Mary Robinson’s The Trope of Victimization   
  • 2000:  Anne Elizabeth Carson.  Traversing the "Bright Labirinth":  The Evolution of Mary Darby Robinson's Poetry.
  • 1998: Tina Bandy. Hazlitt Against Coleridge: A Study in the Anxiety of Influence
  • 1996: Kathryn Smith. A Feminist Reading of "Christabel"
  • 1995: John Kluttz. The Art of Forgiveness: Blake's Reading of Dante.
  • 1995: Wade Kreuger. "Thought's Eternal Flight": The Evolution of Shelley's Representations of the Wandering Jew.
  • 1995: Ray P. Murphy. Opening the Doors of Perception: A Comparative Study of William Blake and Thomas Merton.
  • 1994: Rhonda Lee Brock. Contemporary Gothicism: Straub's Shadowlands.
  • 1992: Devan Cook. Lamia's Dramatic Metamorphoses.

I have also served as a reader or member of the committee for over 20 other theses.


WEB PROJECTS DESIGNED TO ENHANCE CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

 


SERVICE TO THE STATE

  •  Director of NEH/GEH Project "William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism" for the State of Georgia, 1986-1989. Managed $15,000 grant from GEH and coordinated university and statewide programs of the exhibit, recitals, and lecture series. Cited as a model program by Humanities, publication of the National Endowment of the Humanities, vol. 8 (1987): 16.

SERVICE TO THE INSTITUTION (since 1990)

University:

·  working with Greg Roell, director of the M.A. program in history, to develop a  “Summer Institute in American Studies” in conjunction with other CLASS departments, scheduled to fit calendars of public school and of international students, and recruit students from Central China Normal University and the University of Derby (2007-   ).

·  member, CLASS Dean’s Faculty Advisory Council (2005-2007)

·  created and teach with Greg Harwood (Music) and Roy Sonema (Art) the new Area C core classes Humanities I and II

·  Chair of the Humanities Division Subcommittee for the University Assessment Taskforce, 1992-94. Determined General Education Outcomes for Area I (now C) of the Core.

·  member of the Task Force on reorganization of the Department of English, 1997-98.

·  secretary, Computers and Curriculum committee, 1994-1998

·  department representative for "A Day for Southern" (1997)

·  member of the Teacher Education committee, 1990-1991

·  member, the Humanities Forum  

Department:

·  Director of Graduate Studies in English (2004-   )

·  member, ad hoc committee addressing policies for on-line and remote teaching and various other department committees

·  Chair, Committee on revising the department "Manual," a handbook of departmental policies, tenure and promotion criteria, and governance procedures. 2003-2004.

·  Chair,  Search for Shakespeare / Renaissance Drama position. 2000-2001.

·  Department's Y2K representative.1999-2000

·  Pagemaster: Created and maintained Literature & Philosophy homepage, which includes such pages as the Center for Irish Studies site, the World Literature page, the Greek Mythology site and many others of my design. 1996-1999

·  Chair, Committee on revising the new department "Manual," a handbook of departmental policies, tenure and promotion criteria, and governance procedures. 1998-1999.

·  Member, Task Force for the reorganization of the Department of English (1996-98)

·  Chair of the General Program Committee (World Literature classes). 1996-2001

·  Chair of the committee overseeing semester conversion in Area C of the Core. Made the case for the continuing requirement of a World Literature class in the core. 1996-97

·  Chair of the Library Committee, 1982-97.

·  Member of the Graduate committee, 1987-

·  Chair of the subcommittee for revising M.A. requirements. 1995-96.

·  Member, Major Program committee, 1990-96.

·  Chair, commitee on Workload. Compiled and submitted to the Dean data on the unique workload of the Department of English. 1994-95.

·  Chair, Search for Contemporary Poetry position. 1990

·  Advisor for English undergraduate and graduate majors

AWARDS, HONORS

· Received Educational Leave for research activity, Spring 2001.

·  Received $500 grant from Faculty Development and Welfare to develop a slide series to accompany World Literature classes (1982)

·  Received $1500 grant from Faculty Development and Welfare to attend the School of Criticism and Theory (1983)

·  Fellow, School of Criticism and Theory, Northwestern University (one of 15 attendees to receive tuition remission) (1983)

·  Recieved and managed $15,000 grant from GEH for "Romanticism and Its Legacy" (1987-88)

·  Nominated for Teacher of the Year (1986)

·  Bell Honors Teacher: Senior Colloquium (1984-88); Honors 131, The Human Dawn (1989-1998)
I have also received and been grateful for various reassigned-times for research and, most recently, for development of the new Humanities sequence.

MEMBERSHIPS

·  Friend of Dove Cottage

·  member, the Wordsworth-Coleridge Society and the International Gothic Association