Sara Pearson Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of English; Coordinator of First-Year English

Department: English; MAIH

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Area of Expertise: Nineteenth-century British literature; the Brontës; the genre of the novel; Classical and Biblical backgrounds of English literature

Research: The relationship of religion, gender, and authority in the novels of the Brontës; the use of biblical allusion in Charlotte Brontë's works; the literary relationship between Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens

Education: B.A.(Hons.) in Classical Greek (University of Victoria); M.A. in Classics (University of Victoria); M.C.S. in New Testament Studies (Regent College); M.A. in English (Boston University); Ph.D. in English (Boston University).

Selected Publications and Presentations:

  • Review of Sandra Hagan and Juliette Wells, The Brontës in the World of the Arts (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008) in Brontë Studies 34.3 (2009): 269-271.
  • Review of Shanyn Fiske, Heretical Hellenism: Women Writers, Ancient Greece, and the Victorian Popular Imagination (Athens: Ohio UP, 2008) in Brontë Studies 34.3 (2009): 273.275.
  • Review of Richard Cronin, Alison Chapman, and Antony H. Harrison, eds., A Companion to Victorian Poetry (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007) in Brontë Studies 34.3 (2009): 276-277.
  • "Constructing Masculine Narrative: Charlotte Brontë's The Professor." In  Women Constructing Men . Ed. Sarah Franz and Katharina Rennhak. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2009.
  • "Laughter and the Sacred: Eschatological Echoes in Chaucer's The Miller's Tale," paper presented at the conference Suffering, the Sacred, and the Sublime, Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, May 10, 2007.
  • Review of Beth Torgerson, Reading the Brontë Body: Disease, Desire and the Constraints of Culture (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) in Brontë Studies 31, no.2 (July 2006).
  • "Structuring Authority in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley," paper presented at the conference The Brontës and Their World, Pace University, White Plains, New York, April 17, 2004.
  • "The Homecoming Hero: Family and Structure in The Odyssey," paper presented at the 13th Annual Tufts University English Graduate Conference, Medford, Massachusetts, October 19, 2001.

Notable Accomplishments and Experiences:

  • deputy book reviews editor for the journal Brontë Studies
  •  recipient of a SSHRC doctoral grant (2005-2006)
  • editorial assistant on the New Testament Language Project (Cambridge, MA) from 1999-2005

Memberships and Affiliations:

  • Modern Language Association (MLA)
  • Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE)
  • Christianity and Literature Study Group (CLSG)
  • The Brontë Society

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