Dr. Kimberly A. Wells
contact information available on request by writing
kimwells[at]womenwriters[dot]net

Education

Ph.D., English Literature May 2007.
Texas A&M University College Station, TX. GPR: 3.666. Specialties: American Literature, Contemporary and Women's Literature in English, Feminism, Film Studies.
Dissertation: Screaming, Flying, and Laughing: Magical Feminism's Witches in Contemporary Film, Television, and Novels. (Requires Adobe PDF )
Dissertation Advisor: Sally Robinson.

M.A. English Literature, 1995-1998
Southwest Texas State University San Marcos, TX
M.A., English. 4.0 GPA. Specialization: American Women's Writing. Thesis, Transcendental Actress: Louisa May Alcott and the Roles of a Lifetime.
Thesis Advisor: Claudia Nelson.

B.A. English Literature, 1993-1995
Western Washington University Bellingham, WA
4.0 GPA In Major, 3.72 overall, Honors Student, top 5% graduating class

Degree Seeking English Literature, 1992-1993
University of West Florida Pensacola, FL
Honors Program President, Honors Newsletter editor, published in college chapbook (Troubadour) and local magazine (IUG)
4.0 GPA in major, 3.61 overall

Professional Experience

January 2007-current

Adjunct Faculty. Louisiana State University, Shreveport. Current teaching load full time. Courses included: ENGL 105, English Composition and ENGL 115, English Composition 2. Courses stress exposition and argumentation and introduce students to library research. Employs selected readings to illustrate a variety of rhetorical strategies and to enhance critical reading skills. Course concentration is heavily on building arguments while using literature, nonfiction, and multimedia texts. ENGL 210, Introduction to American Lit. Course is a survey of major American authors from the colonial through the modern periods. Emphasizes such writers as Edwards, Whitman, Morrison, Hawthorne, Dickinson, London, Eliot, Cisneros, Frost, Stevens, Jewett, Jacobs, Melville, Hughes. Particular concentration in this course is on using multimedia and popular culture texts to illuminate “the canon” and on using multi-ethnic texts to illuminate the “major” canonical authors.

January 2001-January 2004

Adjunct Faculty. Southwest Texas University. Taught full-time and 50% teaching loads for multiple semesters.
Courses included: ENGL 1310, Composition I. Course concentration is heavily on building arguments while using literary and other texts. ENGL 3303, Technical Writing. Course concentration is on professional communication and technical presentation skills.

August 2000-December 2000

Editorial Assistant. Responsible for print journal editing, business correspondence, and website maintenance for the South Central Review.

January 2000-May 2000

Teaching Assistant Taught English 203: Intro to Literature. One section, Texas A&M University, English Department. Responsibilities: grading, syllabus creation, assignments, daily lectures, student/teacher conferences.

September 1999-January 2000

Teaching Assistant Taught English 104: Composition and Rhetoric. Two sections, Texas A&M University, English Department. Special class met in lab using computers for Daedelus system instruction and daily assignments on computer. Responsibilities: grading, syllabus creation, assignments, daily lectures, student/teacher conferences.

January 1999-May 1999

Graduate Assistant, non-teaching. Designed group and faculty webpages for Texas A&M English Department, supervisor, M. Jimmie Killingsworth.

September 1998-January 1999

Teaching Assistant: Taught English 104, Composition and Rhetoric. Texas A&M University, English Department. Responsibilities: grading, syllabus creation, assignments, daily lectures, student/teacher conferences.

September 1997-December 1997

Teaching Assistant: Taught English 1104, Introduction to Composition. Southwest Texas State University, English Department. Responsibilities: grading, syllabus creation, assignments, daily lectures, student/teacher conferences.

January 1998-May 1998

Teaching Assistant: Taught English 2104, Composition Through Literature. Southwest Texas State University, English Department. Responsibilities: grading, syllabus creation, assignments, daily lectures, student/teacher conferences.

September 1996- December 1996

Instructional Assistant: Assisted English 2380, for Dr. Priscilla Leder- American Literary Classics. Responsibilities: Technical support of lecture, grading, lead discussion groups, occasional lecture.

January 1997- May 1997.

Instructional Assistant: Assisted English 3316- Film Prose and Literature, for Dr. Mark Hansen. Responsibilities: Technical support of lecture, grading, lead discussion groups, occasional lecture. Also supervised and taught students to use equipment for major film editing project.

Publications

  • Spring 2007. "‘The Dream of My Life is Not Yet Realized': Harriet Jacobs and the Failure of the Ideal." The Griot: The Journal of African American Studies. 26:1 (2007). 64-75.
  • Fall 2006. "Commodification and Women in Early Jean Renoir Films: A Feminist View." Lingua Romana: A Journal of French, Italian, and Romanian Culture. 5:1(2006). Available online: <http://linguaromana.byu.edu/wells5.html>.
  • June 2001 Contributor to The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia, Gregory Eiselein and Anne K. Phillips, Ed. Westport: Greenwood Press. 2001 "The Baron's Gloves". "Fatal Follies" ; "LaJeune,or, Actress and Woman"; "Skeleton in the Closet"; "Power, as Theme"; "Thrice Tempted".
  • April 2000: CROW Project, reviewer (Course Resources on the Web)-- a peer-reviewed project for collecting resources in American Literature. Pilot Member.

Conferences

  • February 2005-- Presented “So How Do You Know She’s A Witch? 'She Looks Like One!': A Survey of Art, Movies, and Visual Representations of Witches & a New Theory of the Third Wave" at Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of The Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Conference. Albuquerque, New Mexico on February, 2005.
  • February 2004– Presented: "It's Magic, But is it Practical?: Women's Power & Alice Hoffman's Sisterhood of Witches" Popular American Authors Section. 2004 PCA/ACA Conference, San Antonio, TX.
  • February 2003: Presented: "That Voodoo The Sims Do: What to Do When You Become a God."Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of The Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Conference. Albuquerque, New Mexico on February, 2003.
  • February 2002: Presented "Feminists for the NRA: Sci Fi Chicks with Guns" at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of The Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Conference. Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 13-17, 2002.
  • February 2001: Presented at the Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) conference, San Antonio TX, "Women Writers on the Web: a Roundtable of Web Editors and Contributors."
  • January 2001: Presented at MLA in Washington D.C., "Message in an E-mail: "Is there Anybody Hiring Out There?", or, The Place for Cyberspace Literacy in the Academic Market". Committee: Computers and Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Research.
  • October 2000: Organized two panels for ICOLL conference, Texas A&M University: Presented "Autobiography, the Scholar & the Essay," paper titled: "From Trailer Park to Ivory Tower: Academia & Autobiography."
  • July 1999: Presented at HIJAS Del Quinto Sol Conference at Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, TX. "'Whispering Opposition': Jovita González' Caballero and (Anti)assimilation."
  • March 1999: Presented at South Central Women's Studies Conference, New Orleans, LA: "The New 'F' Word: Feminism and the 21st Century."
  • September 1998: California State University, Stanislaus Constructions of the Human Conference: "Louisa May Alcott's Gothic Heroines and Constructing Identity."
  • March 1998: Presented at South Central Women's Studies Conference, Houston, TX: "The Power of the 'She:' Native American Mother Mythology and the Feminist Tradition."
  • April 1997: Presented at AGES conference, Kent State University: "Future Tense: Youth Gangs, Western Culture and Reflections of Fear."

Professional and Educational Service

  • 2008. Session Judge, LSUS Dramatic/Forensics Competition. Fall.
  • 2007: Guest Lecturer, Liberal Arts 792 Late Classical & Medieval Culture. Lecture Title: "Witches! And The Malleus Malificarum. For Professor Helen Taylor. Spring.
  • 2005. Guest Co-Editor, Reconstruction 5.4: "Fem-scape." Spring.
  • 2004-2005. Area Co-Chair, Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of The Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. February 2005. With Ximena Gallardo C. And Jason Smith.
  • 2003. "Thoughts on Women Writers". Invited speech, the Association of Professional Women Writers in Western New York State, Buffalo NY, October 2003.
  • 2001-2004. Member, Major/Minor Committee, Texas State University, San Marcos. Designed Power Point presentation with 50+ slides, featuring authors from all faculty syllabi, for Major/Minor Committee for advising day use. Worked in recruiting new English majors, and fund-raising party with Patsy Pohl.
  • 2003-2004. Member, Technical Committee, Texas State University, San Marcos
  • 2002. Organizer, five panels for Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of The Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Conference. Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 13-17
  • 2001. By invitation, taught one section of the University Colloquium ENGL 1310 classes, Fall.
  • 2000. Assistant to the Director, San Antonio Texas, Lutherhostel Program. Created ads, brochures, edited copy, created website, lead lecture sessions and tours. December.
  • 2000. Rhetoric/Reader Committee. Chose the standard adoption for all Rhetoric and Composition courses in the English Department, Spring.
  • 1998-current. Listserv Moderator: Women Writers List. Promotes women writers, authors, delivers calls for papers and conferences, provides
  • Webmaster and Publicity Coordinator, Intercollegiate Conference on Language and Literature. Designed and maintained website, listserv, and calls for papers, conference posters, graphics. Site now down.
  • 1999. Web designer, Texas A&M Discourse Studies Circle. Original design of graphics & layout. Site currently redesigned and maintained by others. Site now redone by others.
  • 1999. Web designer, Texas A&M Renaissance Group. Original design of graphics & layout. Site was up for several years, now gone.
  • 1999. Web designer, Texas A&M AP Summer Institute. Original design of graphics & layout. Site was up for several years, now gone.
  • 1998-current. Editor and Founder, Online Magazine, Women Writers, a literary journal featuring scholarship, original creative writing, author interviews and book reviews. Available: <http://www.womenwriters.net>.
  • 1998-current. Editor and Founder, Online Magazine, the Domestic Goddesses, a.k.a. Scribbling Women literary site and moderated journal. Moderator Dr. Priscilla Leder. Available: < www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/ >
  • 1998. Session Coordinator, Ready Writing Competition: Region IV-AA Texas Academic Meet, Spring.
  • 1998: California State University, Stanislaus Constructions of the Human Conference: Moderator, Gender, Sexuality and Drama Session.
  • 1998: Texas A&M Graduate Student Conference (ICOLL): Moderator, African American Women Writers' Session.
  • Graduate Student Representative: Master's Committee, Southwest Texas State University. 1997-98.

Honors & Professional Organizations

  • 2008. Voted "SGA Professor of the Year," Top 20 Finalist. LSU Shreveport.
  • 2007. "Outstanding Adjunct of the Year" award, LSU Shreveport.
  • 2004. Chosen by committee as English Department Nominee for P.E.O. Scholar Awards.
  • 2000. Runner-Up: M. Jimmie Killingsworth Graduate Assistant Teaching Award.
  • 1998. Website featured in book, by Dr. Behar-Molad Women Weaving Webs: Will Women Rule the Internet? as one of the "Top 100 Sites for Women". Site number 88 of 100. (Site now defunct, existed for about two years.)
  • 1998. One of Five Graduate Student of the Year departmental candidates, Southwest Texas State University.
  • Modern Languages Association (MLA)
  • Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc. (SCAASI)
  • Popular Culture Association (PCA)

Research & Interests

Magical Feminism; Third Wave Feminism and Gender Studies, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Literature; Minority Communities and Borderlands Writing; Popular Culture and Film Studies; Women's Discourse Communities; HTML and technical document design and classroom application; Science Fiction and Fantasy (especially that written by women); Specialty authors include: Flannery O'Connor; Alice Walker; Maxine Hong Kingston; Kate Chopin; Sarah Orne Jewett; Alice Hoffman; Chitra Divakaruni; Nalo Hopkinson; Virginia Woolf; John Updike; D.M. Thomas; William Butler Yeats; Margaret Atwood; Sean Stewart; Anne Sexton; Zora Neale Hurston; The Beat Poets, especially Diane DiPrima & Gary Snyder.

Languages

French. Reading, Writing and Speaking. Fluency: high-moderate.
Spanish. Reading. Fluency: moderate.

Teaching Portfolio


Online teaching portfolio, including syllabi, lesson plans, Power Point lectures, handouts, samples of student work. Available at: http://womenwriters.net/portfolio/

updated April 2008