Mariam Wassif, PhD
(from Fall 22) Assistant Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University
British literature of the long eighteenth century
About Me
I received my B.A. from the University of Georgia and my PhD from Cornell University (2018), with a specialization in British literature of the long eighteenth century, including Romanticism. My scholarship focuses on the relationship between literary style and material culture in an era of advancing capitalism and global unrest, and has appeared in European Romantic Review, Philological Quarterly, and The Wordsworth Circle. My book manuscript in progress is entitled “Poisoned Vestments”: Rhetoric and Material Culture in England and France, 1660-1820. You can read more about my book project here, and download my full CV here. In my public-facing work, I am a Communications Fellow for the Keats-Shelley Association of America and a co-administrator of the Woman of Colour anti-racist pedagogy Facebook group. I have worked as Research and Teaching fellow (2017-21) and full-time instructor (2021-22) at the University of Paris 1- Panthéon-Sorbonne. In Fall 2022, I will join the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon University as Assistant Professor.
Publications
Research and Articles
Edited Collection: New Essays on The Woman of Colour (1808), with Nicole N. Aljoe and Kerry Sinanan, forthcoming in Eighteenth-Century fiction, Winter 2022/23
“Olivia Fairfield’s ‘far surveying’ Eye: Distance and Intimacy in The Woman of Colour,” invited submission to Romanticism on the Net, expected 2022.
“The Long Abolition: Literature and Material Culture Around 1807,” Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition: the 1800s, ed. Andrew Stauffer, under review at Cambridge University Press, expected 2022.
“Teaching Romantic Rhetoric and Classical Influence in Austen’s Persuasion,” “Romanticism and Elsewhere,” a special issue of Romantic Circles Pedagogies Commons, ed. Stephanie Youngblood, forthcoming 2021
“Emma, the Classics, and Empire,” Austen After 200: New Reading Spaces, ed. Annika Bautz, Daniel Cook, and Kerry Sinanan, Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming Fall 2021.
“The Romantic and Contemporary Woman of Colour—A Roundtable on The Woman of Colour (1808): Pedagogic and Critical Approaches,” Studies in Religion and the Enlightenment, vol. no. 2 (Spring 2021), https://www.srejournal.org/2021/03/16/the-romantic/
"'Silken Dalliance': Fashion and Rhetoric in Byron's Dramas and the Letter to Murray," European Romantic Review, vol. 31, no. 1 (February 2020), pp. 37-65
"Wordsworth's 'Poisoned Vestments': Rhetoric and Material Culture in the Poetry and Prose," Philological Quarterly, vol. 98, no. 4 (November 2019), pp. 383-408.
"Polidori's 'The Vampyre' and Byron's Portraits," The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 49, no. 1 (February 2018), pp. 53-61.
French to English translation of an excerpt from Vie et mort de l'homme qui tua John F. Kennedy [LIfe and Death of the Man Who Killed John F. Kenned] by Anne-James Chaton, forthcoming in a/b: Auto/biography Studies, vol. 35, no. 2 (2020)
Courses
I have taught courses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I have also work with undergraduates and postgraduates as a writing consultant. Learn more about past courses here.
Undergraduate Courses
I have taught a number Freshman Writing Seminars at Cornell (2009-2014) and currently teach English language and culture to undergraduate students at the University of Paris 1 (2017-). Topics for these courses included postcolonialism and the English-speaking world, Macbeth on stage and screen, and the body and society.
Graduate Courses
As Lector at the ENS of Lyon (2016-17), I taught Master's level courses in British literature on topics such as "Childhood and Youth" in Romanticism and beyond, British fictions of sea travel ("Adventure on the High Seas"), and the Gothic ("Monks, Monsters, Madwomen").
Writing and Advising
I have worked as a writing consultant for undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Knight Institute at Cornell University, as well as co-facilitating a writing workshop for postgraduates and professors at the Ecole Normale Superieure of Lyon, France and serving as writing assessment specialist with the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Rhetoric. This has given me considerable experience in advising writers across the disciplines and working with multilingual writers. I have also edited academic journal articles, dissertations, book manuscripts, and job-search documents.
