Dr. Jannea Thomason

Dr. Jannea ThomasonMarquette University

Marquette Hall, 008E

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of Americajannea.thomason@marquette.edu

Teaching Assistant Professor

English

My primary areas of interest include Anglophone literature of the long 19^th century, science and medicine, and Women’s Studies. My approach to these subjects is largely feminist in exploring what styles, stories, and information has been overlooked in the often patriarchal, heteronormative voice of scholarship. My own journey of decolonizing, deconstructing, and working toward reconnecting informs the perspective I bring to my scholarship and to my classroom. I primarily teach Foundations in Rhetoric. My teaching focuses on exploring how the stories and cultural mores of previous centuries inform our view of ourselves and our communities.

I just recently completed my doctoral dissertation at Marquette titled “The Development of the Conceptive Plot through Early 19^th Century English Novels,” which reads these novels through the history of midwifery and reproduction to show how authors developed a coherent set of narrative features to challenge ideas about women’s agency in reproduction. Through highlighting the medicalization of gynecology and obstetrics and the urbanization of female networks, these authors made use of a set of narrative features illustrating how different systems strip women of conceptive agency. The three chapters in the dissertation explore five different authors across the beginning of the century—including Mary Wollstonecraft’s Maria, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and George Eliot’s Adam Bede.

I am currently working on publishing my arguments about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Education

• Marquette University, PhD
• University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, MA
• Huntington University, BA

Courses Taught

• Foundations in Rhetoric
• Literature, History and Culture

Research Interests

• 19^th Century British and American Literature
• The long 19^th century in England
• Gothic Literature
• Women and Gender Studies
• Fanfiction

Publications

• Poetry and Fiction:
• “Love Confessions from a Nuerodivergent.” Marquette Literary Review no.15, 2023.
• “Condolences.” Marquette Literary Review no. 14, 2021.
• “I Love the Smell of Fresh Newspaper.” and “Upon Walking in the North Wessex Downs.”          Marquette Literary Review no. 12, 2019.
• “White Edges.” Marquette Literary Review no. 11, 2018.

Honors and Awards

• Cyril E. Smith Trust Smith Family Fellowship, Marquette University, 2022-2023                          
• Women Writers and Social Justice Travel Award, British Women Writers Association, 2022     
• Goeden Dissertation Fellowship, Marquette University, 2021-2022
• Pyle Graduate Scholarship, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 2016           

Presentations

• “Francis Trollope’s Jessie Phillips: The Narrative Need for Quick Pregnancies,” Modern            Language Association Annual Convention, Spring 2023
•  “Francis Trollope’s Jessie Phillips: The Loss of Healthcare and Support Leads to Death,”       Midwest Modern Language Association Conference, Fall 2022             
• “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Obstetric Anatomy: Redrawing the Boundaries of the Body,”       British Women Writers Association Conference, Summer 2022                
• “The Proof is in the Pudding: Narrative Prosthesis and Pregnancy,” Disability at the Intersection   of History, Culture, Religion, Gender, and Health, Marquette University, Spring 2022