About this Collection
The books archived in this Georgia Southern Commons collection are published or edited by the faculty of the Department of English.
Faculty Research in Georgia Southern Commons
Georgia Southern University faculty members are eligible to showcase their research in GS Commons and to join the Expert Gallery hosted by the University Libraries. Their intellectual and creative works are accessible through galleries organized by College, Department, Research Center, and a customized SelectedWorks researcher profile.
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Publishing Information
GS Commons is an open-access digital repository. Copyright and licensing agreements for works published by GS Commons protect the author's rights while facilitating the sharing of research. The works in this gallery were originally published or presented under agreements with entities external to this repository. Records for each work provide the access permitted by the original copyright and licensing agreement. For additional access or questions about a work, please contact the authors or email the GS Commons team.
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The Anxiety Workbook
Christina Olson
Georgia southern faculty member, Christina Olson published The Anxiety Workbook.
The Anxiety Workbook explores contemporary anxiety, grief in its multitude of forms, and complicated familial dynamics via the lens of science and history while utilizing the language of therapy. These poems grapple with the ever-evolving collective and individual trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as seek answers and lessons from the natural world. The termination of a pregnancy, a distant father, the untimely death of a friend, our society’s obsession with Dateline and missing white girls, the estivation of the West African lungfish—The Anxiety Workbook covers these topics and much more in poems ranging from the hypernarrative to the highly lyrical, rich in voice and description.
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The Anxiety Workbook
Christina Olson
Georgia southern faculty member, Christina Olson published The Anxiety Workbook.
The Anxiety Workbook explores contemporary anxiety, grief in its multitude of forms, and complicated familial dynamics via the lens of science and history while utilizing the language of therapy. These poems grapple with the ever-evolving collective and individual trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as seek answers and lessons from the natural world. The termination of a pregnancy, a distant father, the untimely death of a friend, our society’s obsession with Dateline and missing white girls, the estivation of the West African lungfish—The Anxiety Workbook covers these topics and much more in poems ranging from the hypernarrative to the highly lyrical, rich in voice and description.
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Journal of Second Language Writing: Special Issue on L2 Writing Assessment in the Digital Age
Jinrong Li and Mimi Li
The Special Issue on L2 Writing Assessment in the Digital Age was edited by Georgia Southern faculty member Jinrong Li and Mimi Li.
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Journal of Second Language Writing: Special Issue on L2 Writing Assessment in the Digital Age
Jinrong Li and Mimi Li
The Special Issue on L2 Writing Assessment in the Digital Age was edited by Georgia Southern faculty member Jinrong Li and Mimi Li.
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Ecology, Spirituality, and Cosmology in Edwidge Danticat
Joyce White
Ecology, Spirituality, and Cosmology in Edwidge Danticat: Crossroads as Ritual examines employs nature, literary tradition, and the cosmogram to examine Danticat's fiction as textual sites imbued with ritual and conducive for healing and clarifying Africana diasporic consciousness.
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Ecology, Spirituality, and Cosmology in Edwidge Danticat
Joyce White
Ecology, Spirituality, and Cosmology in Edwidge Danticat: Crossroads as Ritual examines employs nature, literary tradition, and the cosmogram to examine Danticat's fiction as textual sites imbued with ritual and conducive for healing and clarifying Africana diasporic consciousness.
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Perspectives on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Nuanced Postnetwork Television
Amanda Konkle and Charles Burnetts
With an off-putting title and a decidedly retrograde premise, the CW dramedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a surprising choice for critical analysis. But, loyal viewers quickly came to appreciate the show’s sharp cultural critique through masterful parody, and this strategy has made it a critical darling and earned it several awards throughout its run. In ways not often seen on traditional network television, the show transcends conventional genre boundaries—the Hollywood musical, the romantic comedy, the music video—while resisting stereotypes associated with contemporary life.
The essays in this collection underscore the show’s ability to distinguish itself within the current television market. Focusing on themes of feminism, gender identity, and mental health, contributors explore the ways in which the show challenged viewer expectations, as well as the role television critics play in identifying a show’s “authenticity” or quality.
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Perspectives on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Nuanced Postnetwork Television
Amanda Konkle and Charles Burnetts
With an off-putting title and a decidedly retrograde premise, the CW dramedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a surprising choice for critical analysis. But, loyal viewers quickly came to appreciate the show’s sharp cultural critique through masterful parody, and this strategy has made it a critical darling and earned it several awards throughout its run. In ways not often seen on traditional network television, the show transcends conventional genre boundaries—the Hollywood musical, the romantic comedy, the music video—while resisting stereotypes associated with contemporary life.
The essays in this collection underscore the show’s ability to distinguish itself within the current television market. Focusing on themes of feminism, gender identity, and mental health, contributors explore the ways in which the show challenged viewer expectations, as well as the role television critics play in identifying a show’s “authenticity” or quality.
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The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler
Gregory Jerome Hampton and Kendra R. Parker
Octavia E. Butler is widely recognized today as one of the most important figures in contemporary science fiction. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars and covering Butler's complete works from the bestselling novel Kindred, to her short stories and major novel sequences Patternmaster, Xenogenesis and The Parables, this is the most comprehensive Companion to Butler scholarship available today.
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler covers the full range of contemporary scholarly themes and approaches to the author's work, including:
· Cyborgs and the posthuman
· Race and African American history
· Afrofuturism
· Gender and sexuality
· New perspectives from Religious Studies, the Environmental Humanities and Disability Studies
· New discoveries from the Butler archives at the Huntington Library
The book includes a comprehensive bibliography of works by Butler and secondary scholarship on her work as well as an afterword by the novelist Tananarive Due. -
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler
Gregory Jerome Hampton and Kendra R. Parker
Octavia E. Butler is widely recognized today as one of the most important figures in contemporary science fiction. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars and covering Butler's complete works from the bestselling novel Kindred, to her short stories and major novel sequences Patternmaster, Xenogenesis and The Parables, this is the most comprehensive Companion to Butler scholarship available today.
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler covers the full range of contemporary scholarly themes and approaches to the author's work, including:
· Cyborgs and the posthuman
· Race and African American history
· Afrofuturism
· Gender and sexuality
· New perspectives from Religious Studies, the Environmental Humanities and Disability Studies
· New discoveries from the Butler archives at the Huntington Library
The book includes a comprehensive bibliography of works by Butler and secondary scholarship on her work as well as an afterword by the novelist Tananarive Due. -
Deep River Blues
Tony R. Morris
When the body of a young girl washes up on the shores of the French Broad River, Cord McRae, newly elected sheriff of Acre County, Tennessee, suspects her death might be connected to the Glad Earth Farm, a commune just outside the small town of Falston. Guru/leader Levon Gladson and a group of a hundred and twenty-five followers have moved into an old farm that butts up to the Smokies, and Cord suspects they may be growing something more profitable than sorghum cane up in the hills. The mystery's complicated by Cord's investigation into a second recent murder, of an Afghan vet; the growing power of a local "hillbilly" mafia operated by the wily Thorn Reevers; and Cord's own marriage, which is teetering on the edge of divorce over past violence and his on-again, off-again love affair with liquor. With echoes of WINTER'S BONE and the novels of James Lee Burke, DEEP RIVER BLUES will be a worthwhile addition to the regional crime thriller genre.
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After Life as a Human
Laura Valeri
Located off of Florida's Forgotten Coast, Dog Island is a wild twin of St. George Island, a popular resort destination. Unlike St. George, however, Dog Island hosts less than 100 residents and a large nature preserve. Accessible only by boat or airplane, the island's pristine state attracts those who seek reprieve from the noise of modern life and those drawn to an ancient paradise untouched by commercial enterprises. Yet, with sea-level rising, industrial spills poisoning the wildlife, and climate change increasing the frequency of hurricanes, Dog Island is swiftly becoming a paradise lost, another casualty of humanity's reluctance to acknowledge its interconnectedness to all living things. The seven essays in this collection braid local history, environmental research, and spiritual meditations to reflect on the island's wild beauty and the heartbreaking destruction of its fragile ecology.
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After Life as a Human
Laura Valeri
Located off of Florida's Forgotten Coast, Dog Island is a wild twin of St. George Island, a popular resort destination. Unlike St. George, however, Dog Island hosts less than 100 residents and a large nature preserve. Accessible only by boat or airplane, the island's pristine state attracts those who seek reprieve from the noise of modern life and those drawn to an ancient paradise untouched by commercial enterprises. Yet, with sea-level rising, industrial spills poisoning the wildlife, and climate change increasing the frequency of hurricanes, Dog Island is swiftly becoming a paradise lost, another casualty of humanity's reluctance to acknowledge its interconnectedness to all living things. The seven essays in this collection braid local history, environmental research, and spiritual meditations to reflect on the island's wild beauty and the heartbreaking destruction of its fragile ecology.
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American Public Memory and the Holocaust: Performing Gender, Shifting Orientations
Lisa A. Costello
The recent rise of global antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and American white nationalism has created a dangerous challenge to Holocaust public memory on an unprecedented scale. This book is a timely exploration of the ways in which next-generation Holocaust survivors combine old and new media to bring newer generations of audiences into active engagement with Holocaust histories. Readers have been socialized to expect memorialization artifacts about the Holocaust to come in the form of diaries, memoirs, photos, or documentaries in which gender is often absent or marginalized. This book shows a complex process of remembering the past that can positively shift our orientations toward others. Using gender, performance, and rhetoric as a frame, Lisa Costello questions public memory as gender neutral while showing how new forms of memorialization like digital archives, YouTube posts, hybrid memoirs, and small films build emotional connections that bring us closer to the past.
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American Public Memory and the Holocaust: Performing Gender, Shifting Orientations
Lisa A. Costello
The recent rise of global antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and American white nationalism has created a dangerous challenge to Holocaust public memory on an unprecedented scale. This book is a timely exploration of the ways in which next-generation Holocaust survivors combine old and new media to bring newer generations of audiences into active engagement with Holocaust histories. Readers have been socialized to expect memorialization artifacts about the Holocaust to come in the form of diaries, memoirs, photos, or documentaries in which gender is often absent or marginalized. This book shows a complex process of remembering the past that can positively shift our orientations toward others. Using gender, performance, and rhetoric as a frame, Lisa Costello questions public memory as gender neutral while showing how new forms of memorialization like digital archives, YouTube posts, hybrid memoirs, and small films build emotional connections that bring us closer to the past.
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Some Kind of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe
Amanda Konkle
Book Summary:
Although she remains one of the all-time most recognizable Hollywood icons, Marilyn Monroe has seldom been ranked among the greatest actors of her generation. Critics have typically viewed her film roles as mere extensions of her sexpot star persona. Yet this ignores both the subtle variations between these roles and the acting skill that went into the creation of Monroe’s public persona.
Some Kind of Mirror offers the first extended scholarly analysis of Marilyn Monroe’s film performances, examining how they united the contradictory discourses about women’s roles in 1950s America. Amanda Konkle suggests that Monroe’s star persona resonated with audiences precisely because it engaged with the era’s critical debates regarding femininity, sexuality, marriage, and political activism. Furthermore, she explores how Monroe drew from the techniques of Method acting and finely calibrated her performances to better mirror her audience’s anxieties and desires.
Drawing both from Monroe’s filmography and from 1950s fan magazines, newspaper reports, and archived film studio reports, Some Kind of Mirror considers how her star persona was coauthored by the actress, the Hollywood publicity machine, and the fans who adored her. It is about why 1950s America made Monroe a star, but it is also about how Marilyn defined an era. -
Some Kind of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe
Amanda Konkle
Book Summary:
Although she remains one of the all-time most recognizable Hollywood icons, Marilyn Monroe has seldom been ranked among the greatest actors of her generation. Critics have typically viewed her film roles as mere extensions of her sexpot star persona. Yet this ignores both the subtle variations between these roles and the acting skill that went into the creation of Monroe’s public persona.
Some Kind of Mirror offers the first extended scholarly analysis of Marilyn Monroe’s film performances, examining how they united the contradictory discourses about women’s roles in 1950s America. Amanda Konkle suggests that Monroe’s star persona resonated with audiences precisely because it engaged with the era’s critical debates regarding femininity, sexuality, marriage, and political activism. Furthermore, she explores how Monroe drew from the techniques of Method acting and finely calibrated her performances to better mirror her audience’s anxieties and desires.
Drawing both from Monroe’s filmography and from 1950s fan magazines, newspaper reports, and archived film studio reports, Some Kind of Mirror considers how her star persona was coauthored by the actress, the Hollywood publicity machine, and the fans who adored her. It is about why 1950s America made Monroe a star, but it is also about how Marilyn defined an era. -
The Last Mastodon
Christina Olson
In summer of 2017, Christina Olson was invited to serve as poet-in-residence for apaleontology conference and exhibition (“The Valley of the Mastodons”) at the Western Science Center in Hemet, California. These poems, exploring the nature of history, assembly, and ownership, were inspired by that time spent among the paleontologists as well as Olson’s observations of the museum’s collections of fossils, particularly Max the Mastodon.
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The Last Mastodon
Christina Olson
In summer of 2017, Christina Olson was invited to serve as poet-in-residence for apaleontology conference and exhibition (“The Valley of the Mastodons”) at the Western Science Center in Hemet, California. These poems, exploring the nature of history, assembly, and ownership, were inspired by that time spent among the paleontologists as well as Olson’s observations of the museum’s collections of fossils, particularly Max the Mastodon.
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L’Isola del Silenzio
Laura Valeri
Non occorre spostarsi troppo per viaggiare molto. Sette miglia, appena, nelle acque verdeazzurre del Golfo del Messico, a bordo di un traghetto che fa la spola tra il villaggio costiero di Carrabelle e la sottile striscia di terra di Dog Island. In questo lembo quasi intatto della Florida meridionale, battuto da ricorrenti uragani, privo di negozi, refrattario a connessioni internet e abitato da un centinaio di coraggiosi residenti, approdano una scrittrice americana di antica stirpe mediterranea e il suo compagno fotografo. È il contesto ideale per lasciarsi alle spalle l’esasperato efficientismo del Sogno Americano e ascoltare il silenzio, scoprendo quel che rimane di se stessi nello specchio della natura incorrotta. Tra conchiglie rarissime, tartarughe marine, sciami di pellicani impettiti e sornioni, pesci guizzanti e coyote dall’ululato simile al grido della mitica strolaga, il ricordo del soggiorno sull’isola restituisce tutta la meraviglia di un paradiso perduto, che tuttavia non basta a far dimenticare la fragilità di un universo minacciato dalla criminale incoscienza della specie più forte e rapace.
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L’Isola del Silenzio
Laura Valeri
Non occorre spostarsi troppo per viaggiare molto. Sette miglia, appena, nelle acque verdeazzurre del Golfo del Messico, a bordo di un traghetto che fa la spola tra il villaggio costiero di Carrabelle e la sottile striscia di terra di Dog Island. In questo lembo quasi intatto della Florida meridionale, battuto da ricorrenti uragani, privo di negozi, refrattario a connessioni internet e abitato da un centinaio di coraggiosi residenti, approdano una scrittrice americana di antica stirpe mediterranea e il suo compagno fotografo. È il contesto ideale per lasciarsi alle spalle l’esasperato efficientismo del Sogno Americano e ascoltare il silenzio, scoprendo quel che rimane di se stessi nello specchio della natura incorrotta. Tra conchiglie rarissime, tartarughe marine, sciami di pellicani impettiti e sornioni, pesci guizzanti e coyote dall’ululato simile al grido della mitica strolaga, il ricordo del soggiorno sull’isola restituisce tutta la meraviglia di un paradiso perduto, che tuttavia non basta a far dimenticare la fragilità di un universo minacciato dalla criminale incoscienza della specie più forte e rapace.
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Chivalry in Westeros: The Knightly Code of A Song of Ice and Fire
Carol Parrish Jamison
George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire has sparked a renewed interest in things medieval. The pseudo-historical world of Westeros delights casual fans while offering a rich new perspective for medievalists and scholars. This study explores how Martin crafts a chivalric code that intersects with and illuminates well known medieval texts, including both romance and heroic epics. Through characters such as Brienne of Tarth, Sandor Clegane and Jaime Lannister, Martin variously challenges, upholds and deconstructs chivalry as depicted in the literature of the Middle Ages.
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Chivalry in Westeros: The Knightly Code of A Song of Ice and Fire
Carol Parrish Jamison
George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire has sparked a renewed interest in things medieval. The pseudo-historical world of Westeros delights casual fans while offering a rich new perspective for medievalists and scholars. This study explores how Martin crafts a chivalric code that intersects with and illuminates well known medieval texts, including both romance and heroic epics. Through characters such as Brienne of Tarth, Sandor Clegane and Jaime Lannister, Martin variously challenges, upholds and deconstructs chivalry as depicted in the literature of the Middle Ages.
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Assessment Across Online Language Education
Stephanie Link and Jinrong Li
Georgia Southern faculty member Jinrong Li co-authored Assessment Across Online Language Education.
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Assessment Across Online Language Education
Stephanie Link and Jinrong Li
Georgia Southern faculty member Jinrong Li co-authored Assessment Across Online Language Education.
