Rebecca Elizabeth Hooker

Virginia Wesleyan College 536 Greencastle Lane

Department of English Virginia Beach, VA 23452

**** ******** ***** 505-***-****

Virginia Beach, VA 23455 adnu8j@r.postjobfree.com

757-***-****

EDUCATION

Doctor of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, May 2009

Dissertation: “Righteous Anger and the Power of Positive Thinking: Early Nineteenth-Century African-

American and Native-American Racial Uplift Texts”

Master of Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, May 1998

Degree awarded in English Literature with a Concentration in Cultural Studies

Master of Science in Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, May 1993

Degree awarded in College Student Personnel Administration

Bachelor of Arts, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, June 1989

Degree awarded in English Literature

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

Nineteenth-century American literature; literature of the African Diaspora; Native-American literature; African-American and Native-American speculative fiction; cultural studies; African-American studies; Native-American studies; critical Whiteness studies; popular culture; film as literature; racial uplift literature.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Virginia Wesleyan University

For all courses listed, responsible for course development, generating lessons, instructing, and grading all work

American Protest Tradition, English 385, Spring 2020, Spring 2018, Spring 2014, Spring 2011

This course examines the history of American protest literature, from the anti-slavery novel to modern Chicano literature. It covers moral reform fiction, resistant representations of/by women and Native America, industrial political fictions, African-American civil rights protest, and critique of American sexual moral politics.

Fiction and Criticism, English 289, Spring 2020

This course focuses on the critical analysis of long and short fiction from approximately 1820 to the present, using primarily works from the literary canon. Through studying and practicing the theoretical approaches students have used to critique literature in the 20th and 21st centuries, and on reading and incorporating some of these approaches into their own work, students should demonstrate their development of a basic understanding of critical analysis that will prepare them for more advanced study of this topic in English 311: Theory and Criticism. They should also be able to demonstrate a basic understanding of the specific but diverse ways these critical techniques, when applied, explain how texts make meaning.

How to Get Away with Murder, WES 100, Fall 2019

The Wesleyan Seminars are an immersion into liberal arts education. Within the seminars, students will learn how to identify complex problems and issues, consult expert sources, question assumptions, consider disparate points of view, develop complex personal positions, and present conclusions. This particular seminar focuses on the concept of death. The students in this seminar investigate the line between sanctioned killings and killings considered unacceptable by the society of the time. Where is the line drawn? How does one get away with murder in a society if The goal of the seminar is for each student to develop their own position on where they would draw this line.

Africana Literature: African-American Detective Fiction, English 375, Fall 2019

The purpose of this course is to investigate the history of the African-American detective fiction tradition, which began in the 19th century. We look at the stories not only for the quality of their stories, but also as commentaries on the social and cultural conditions for African Americans at the time they were published, paying close attention to the topics and themes that we can identify throughout time and within the genre. While doing so, we hope to gain an understanding of how writers use the genre to critique the way African Americans are treated.

Writing About Popular Culture, English 250, Winter 2017, Summer, 2016, Winter 2016, Summer 2015, Winter 2015, Winter 2014, Winter 2012, Winter 2011, Winter 2010

This class focuses on developing critical writing and thinking skills, while using texts such as advertisements, television shows, films, and song lyrics and videos as the subject matter for essays. Students learn to pay attention to the cultural work, both overt and unintended, such texts do in American culture, and to think about what such texts tell us about American society. Students write extensively to further develop their organization, documentation, and paragraphing skills, as well as to develop competence in academic essay structure and content. Students will also play a role-playing game to learn about the way in which the cultural and historical moment influences the cultural work an artifact does.

First Year Experience FYS 101, Fall, 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014

This course is designed to help students engage and succeed both academically and socially in Virginia at Wesleyan. We attend a series of presentations and panels on how different scholarly pursuits involve and tackle the question of “building,” as well as read a number of common articles that connect the question of “building” back to students as individuals. Students also consider how their involvement with this issue gave them insight into their own intellectual and personal interests and values and in that way helped them better think about choosing a college major, getting the most from their broader college education, and imagining their future. Students play a role-playing game to understand one of the texts in its historical and cultural context.

Senior Thesis, English 489, Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014

In this course, students build on the literary, historical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives they have developed over the course of their work as English majors, and conduct sophisticated and substantial independent research in a topic of their choosing. The overriding goal of this course is to help students produce self-directed research projects and present the results of that research to an audience of peers and experts in their fields.

College Writing, English 105, Fall 2008-present

This course emphasizes the skills summary, analysis, and synthesis. The course also helps students master citation and proper documentation format.

Early American Literature, English 370, Spring 2017, Spring 2015

This course begins with pre-contact indigenous literatures and contact literatures between Europeans and Native Americans and moves through the colonial, Revolutionary, and Federalist periods, ending at roughly 1820. We focus specifically on rhetorical considerations of non-fiction texts such as Franklin’s autobiography and the documents of the Revolution and the founding of the United States. We also pay particular attention to literatures from Spanish-American and other literatures of exploration.

Male Writers of the African Diaspora, English 258, Fall 2014, Spring 2013, and Spring 2010

In this course, we examine the histories and stories of men of African descent, not just men from the United States, but men from Africa, as well as men whose ancestors left Africa and migrated, forcibly and willingly, throughout Europe and the Americas, as a result of slavery and colonization. Students write extensively to further develop their organization, documentation, and paragraphing skills, as well as to develop competence in academic essay structure and content.

Popular Literary Culture, English 303 and English 250, Fall 2018, Fall 2014, Summer 2012, and Fall 2011

This class focuses on the genres that make up popular fiction. As we read texts from types of popular literature, we identified and analyzed the historical, social, political, and literary dynamics that foster the development of the specific genres of popular literature and of the specific themes manifest these texts in an attempt to chart the development of the genre to see how it has become what it is today. We identify and analyzed themes and concerns that define these genres, reflect the culture in which they are written, and characterize the history of the genres.

Speculative Fiction by African Americans, English 258, Spring 2014, Fall 2011, Spring 2009

This course investigate the ways African-American writers use the genre of speculative fiction to critique their societies and to offer resistance strategies to oppression and exploitation. Students write extensively to further develop their organization, documentation, and paragraphing skills, as well as to develop competence in academic essay structure and content.

First Year Experience: “Discovering the Power of Habit,” FYS 101, Fall 2013

This course was designed to help students engage and succeed both academically and socially in Virginia at Wesleyan. We attended a series of presentations and panels on how different scholarly pursuits involve and tackle the question of “building,” as well as read a number of common articles that connect the question of “building” back to students as individuals. Students also considered how their involvement with this issue gave them insight into their own intellectual and personal interests and values and in that way helped them better think about choosing a college major, getting the most from their broader college education, and imagining their future.

Women Writers of the African Diaspora, English 258, Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Fall 2009

In this course, we examined the histories and stories of women of African descent, not just women from the United States, but women from Africa, as well as women whose ancestors left Africa and migrated, forcibly and willingly, throughout Europe and the Americas, as a result of slavery and colonization. Students wrote extensively to further develop their organization, documentation, and paragraphing skills, as well as to develop competence in academic essay structure and content.

Introduction to American Studies, AMST 200, Fall 2012

In this course, we explore questions important to the field of American studies through some of the complex history of the America’s first native people. The major themes that arise throughout the long series of relationships between settlers in what would become known as the United States and the “Indians” who were already here are emblematic of the experiences of many Americans. The fundamental crux of social relations arises from conflicting definitions of nativity and civility, race and ethnicity, and imperial dominance and local forms of resistance. Through history, literature, music, and films, the course explores five key themes in American Studies: the construction of race and indigeneity, the articulation of empire and colonialism, the meaning of religious systems, the growth of globalized capitalistic systems, and the role of immigration and migration.

Controversial Novels by Writers of Color, English 303, Fall 2012

In this course we read texts that have challenged readers in the past, and may challenge us today because of their content. Some of these books have been banned at one point, and some have been relegated to obscurity because of their content. Some will seem tame, while others will make us feel uncomfortable as we read them. We will ask ourselves why they have created controversy. Is it the author? The community from which the author comes and to which the author is writing? The topic itself? The author’s style? How does being labeled a controversial novel affect the way a reader perceives the novel? We will explore these issues and many more as we progress throughout the semester.

First Year Experience: “Embrace Your Space,” FYS 101, Fall 2012

This course was designed to help students engage and succeed both academically and socially in Virginia at Wesleyan. We attended a series of presentations and panels on how different scholarly pursuits involve and tackle the question of “embracing space,” as well as read a number of common articles that connect the question of “embracing space” back to students as individuals. Students also considered how their involvement with this issue gave them insight into their own intellectual and personal interests and values and in that way helped them better think about choosing a college major, getting the most from their broader college education, and imagining their future.

Diversity in American Literature, English 251, Spring 2012, Spring 2010

This course focuses on the diversity of the American childhood experiences, focusing specifically on the way those experiences are mediated by race, social class, gender and biological sex, sexual preference, and religion. We talk how about the experience of childhood and adolescence differs based on these factors, as well as their interaction with individual personality characteristics. The combination of these two categories colors each characters’ experience of growing to adulthood. Students wrote extensively to further develop their organization, documentation, and paragraphing skills, as well as to develop competence in academic essay structure and content.

First Year Experience: “Traditions and Change,” FYS 101, Fall 2011

This course was designed to help students engage and succeed both academically and socially in Virginia at Wesleyan. We attended a series of presentations and panels on how different scholarly pursuits involve and tackle the question of “what is community,” as well as read a number of common articles that connect the question of “what is community” back to students as individuals. Students also considered how their involvement with this issue gave them insight into their own intellectual and personal interests and values and in that way helped them better think about choosing a college major, getting the most from their broader college education, and imagining their future.

Modern English Grammar, English 222, Spring and Summer 2011

This was a general course in modern English Grammar and usage. We considered what grammar is, how grammar is usually taught, and why it is not always learned. We reviewed the basics of standard usage, then look at English sentences from several theoretical perspectives to see what each can contribute to our understand and teaching of grammar. We explored the linguistic concept of appropriateness, as opposed to everyday ideas about correctness, see how dialects can vary grammatically, and address other language issues that concern teachers and other professionals.

First Year Experience: “Community,” FYS 101, Fall 2010

This course was designed to help students engage and succeed both academically and socially in Virginia at Wesleyan. We attended a series of presentations and panels on how different scholarly pursuits involve and tackle the question of “what is community,” as well as read a number of common articles that connect the question of “what is community” back to students as individuals. Students also considered how their involvement with this issue gives one insight into their own intellectual and personal interests and values and in that way helped them better think about choosing a college major, getting the most from their broader college education, and imagining their future.

Controversial Novels by African Americans, English 442, Spring 2010

In this course, we focus on novels and films that have controversy surrounding them for one of a number of reasons. Some of these texts have controversial topics that may make us uncomfortable as readers or viewers, and we will discuss why we feel such discomfort when we encounter them. Others have caused controversy in the literary community because of their subject matter, and their authors or directors have faced criticism for creating divisive, self-serving texts that been banned in some cases in libraries throughout the country.

First Year Experience: “What is Normal?”, FYS 101, Fall 2009

This course was designed to help students engage and succeed both academically and socially in Virginia at Wesleyan. We attended a series of presentations and panels on how different scholarly pursuits involve and tackle the question of “what is normal,” as well as read a number of common articles that connect the question of “what is normal” back to students as individuals. Students also considered how their involvement with this issue gives one insight into their own intellectual and personal interests and values and in that way helped them better think about choosing a college major, getting the most from their broader college education, and imagining their future.

Negotiating Violence: Representation and Resistance in African-American Literature, English 250, Fall 2008

This course investigated the various types of violence with which people of African descent have had to contend in America, and the way they responded to this violence through their writing. Students wrote extensively to further develop their organization, documentation, and paragraphing skills, as well as to develop competence in academic essay structure and content.

PUBLICATIONS

Montgomery 1956:The Bus Boycott Challenge to White Supremacy. Reacting to the Past Game in development. Co-Author Mark Higbee, Eastern Michigan University, in progress.

“David Walker.” In Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature. Eds. Jackson Bryer, Richard Kopley, and Paul Lauter. New York: Oxford University Press, August 26, 2014. Web. Oxford Bibliographies Online.

“The Two Faces of Tupac.” Deconstructing 2Pac: The Lyrical Poetry of Tupac A. Shakur. Ed. Teresa Neely. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., forthcoming.

“Review of Spectacular Blackness: The Cultural Politics of the Black Power Movement and the Search for a Black Aesthetic.” The Journal of American Culture 34.3 (September 2011): 314.

“Note: Mark Twain’s Publications.” American Literary Realism 38.3 (Spring 2006): 276-277.

Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: Treatment Guidelines for Adults and Juveniles. West Hollywood, California: Tribal Law and Policy Institute, 2002. Co-authored with Caroline S. Cooper, Richard D. Franits, Kenneth D. Robinson, Pat Sekaquaptewa, Sarah M. Stuckey, and Ann M. Wallace-Filosa.

PROFESSIONAL HONORS AND AWARDS RECEIVED

Batten Scholar Awardee, Summer 2015-Summer 2017

Guilder Lehrman Institute Seminar Selectee, June 13-16, 2010

Attended Slave Narrative Seminar at Yale University, among 29 people selected of over 150 who applied

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Invited Presenter. “(Re)Imagining Representations of Native Americans.” 1619 Summit, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia, September 26, 2019

“Teaching the Frederick Douglass Game in the 21st Century.” Conference Roundtable Discussion, 17th Annual Reacting to the Past Institute. New York, New York, September 2017

Nancy Prince In Russia and the Shaping of a Black-American Identity.” Works in Progress. Norfolk, Virginia, March 2017

“Storytelling Through the Four C’s in the Classroom: Strategies for Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity across the Curriculum.” Poster Presentation, Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, Virginia Tech University, Bkacksburg, Virginia, February 18, 2018

“Free Blacks in Hampton Roads.” Victorian Society of America Spring Symposium. May 2016

“Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig and the Ironic Use of the Sentimental Literary Genre,” Works in Progress, A Regional Interdisciplinary Conference of Feminist Scholarship, Norfolk, Virginia, March 2016

“Nancy Prince’s Odyssey of (Re)-Creation,” Works in Progress, A Regional Interdisciplinary Conference of Feminist Scholarship, Norfolk, Virginia, March 2015

Pre-Conference Workshop: “Building a First-Year Seminar Program that Promotes Student Success through Paired Courses and Engaging Activities." National Conference on Students in Transition, Denver, Colorado, October 2014

“Translating ‘People of Color:’ David Walker and William Apess.” 1619: The Making of America Conference, Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia, September, 2014

“Easing the Transition to College Through Paired First-Year Seminars.” National Conference on Students in Transition, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2013

“Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig: Reversing the Trope of Tragic Consumptive Mulatta.” Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, Jacksonville, Florida, October, 2013

“David Cusick's Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1827): An Iroquois Origin Story and A Challenge to the Western Historical Timeline.” 1619: The Making of America Conference, Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia, September, 2013

“Promoting Student Success Through Paired First-Year Seminars.” Teaching Academic Survival and Success Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, February, 2013

“Nancy Prince’s Odyssey of Re creation.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference. Charlottesville, Virginia, February 2013

“Tupac Shakur: Tragic Contradiction of a Cultural Hero.” National Popular Culture Association/American Cultural Association Conference. Boston, Massachusetts, April 2012

“’The Man in the Mirror’: Michael Jackson’s Thriller and ‘The Monster Behind the Mask.” National Popular Culture Association/American Cultural Association Conference. San Antonio, Texas, April, 2011

“David Cusick's Challenge to The Western Historical Timeline in Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1827).” South Central Modern Language Association. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, October 2009

“Multiple Locations of Cultural Representations in David Cusick's Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1827).” Native American Literature Symposium. Albuquerque, NM, February, 2009

“Resisting Manifest Destiny and Pushing the Boundaries of Tolerance in Ridge’s Joaquin Murieta.” Native American Literature Symposium. Shakopee, MN, March 2008

CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE

Reacting to the Past Institute, Barnard College, New York New York, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

Teaching Effectiveness Conference, West Orange, New Jersey, June 17-20, 2019

Racial Equity Workshop, Racial Equity Institute, Tidewater Community College, Norfolk, Virginia, July 29-30, 2016

Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy (CIDER), Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia, February 10-12, 2016, February 14-17, 2017

36th Annual FYE Conference, National Resource Center and University of South Carolina, Orlando, Florida, February 20-22, 2016

1619: The Making of America, Hampton University, September 16, 2015

NATIONAL SERVICE

Proposal Reader, National Conference on Students in Transition, Denver, Colorado, October 2014, New Orleans, October 2016

Race, Let’s Talk About It, Online Moderator WHRO Town Hall Meetings, “We the People: Race, Politics, and America,” February 4, 2016 and “Religion, Race, Relationships,” April 5, 2016

Moderator, The 1619 Nexus: The Growing Influence of Natives and Africans on American Literature, 1619: The Making of America Conference, Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia, October, 2013

Moderator, Pleasures of the Grand Spectacle, Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference, Charlottesville, Virginia, February, 2013

Chair, Celebrity in American Culture Panel, National Popular Culture Association National Conference/American Culture Association Conference. Boston, Massachusetts, April 2012

Chair, Celebrity in American Culture Panel, National Popular Culture Association National Conference/American Culture Association Conference. San Antonio, Texas, April, 2011

Chair, Native American Literature Panel. Native American Literature Symposium. Shakopee, MN, March 2008

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Invited Guest Panelist on The Thick Grey Fog, Zeider’s American Dream Theater, October 20, 2019

Along with a Virginia Wesleyan colleague, served as a panelist and answered questions about the Native American, specifically the Lakota perspective on two films shown at the theater.

Guest Lecturer on The Bluest Eye, Granby High School, Norfolk Virginia March 20, 2019

In partnership with other universities in the area, led a class session on The Bluest Eye, a novel by Toni Morrison, in two advanced placement courses

Panelist, Mixed-Up Mondays, Zeider’s American Dream Theater, January 2017

Presented about science fiction, on a two-person panel with a butcher; we then talked about how our two occupations related to one another

Guest Instructor, Racial Reconciliation Days, The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Norfolk, Virginia, November 7 and 9, 2016

Presented a program on activism by nineteenth-century African Americans and Native Americans and on white privilege.

Invited Presenter, Victorian Society of America Spring Symposium, Norfolk, Virginia, May 6, 2016

Topic of Presentation: “Free Blacks in America in the Victorian Era”

Presenter, Readings with Wesleyan, Virginia Beach, Virginia, April 14, 2016

Presented as part of the series, “Entangled Identities: Contemporary Legacies of 1619,” to members of the local community at Enoch Baptist Church

Virginia Wesleyan 1619 Series Organizer, Fall 2014-Fall 2015

Organized a series of speakers and activities for November, 2015 around the idea of contemporary representations of Native Americans and African Americans; was responsible for securing speakers, hosting speakers, developing program, assisting with publicity, and assisting other organizers with their programs

Virginia Wesleyan Campus Representative and Organizer: 2nd and 3rd Annual 1619: The Making of America Conference, Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia, September, 2013, 2014

Served as VWC campus liaison with Norfolk State and other college campuses, coordinated student volunteers for VWC; wrote call for papers for two roundtable panels, reviewed paper proposals for those panels; assisted Norfolk State professors with coordination of conference activities on site in Hampton and at Norfolk State

Presenter, Readings with Wesleyan, Virginia Beach, Virginia, June-July 2014

Presented as part of the series, “Engaging the American Dream,” to members of the local community at the Heritage United Methodist Church

Visiting Lecture, Women Studies 302: All American Approaches: Multiculturalism and Women, Old Dominion University, November 11, 2010, February 29 and 31, 2011Fa

Lectured about Native American Women and feminism

Nottoway Tribe of Virginia, Inc., Collaborator, 2010-present

Serve as collaborator and support for a project to open a community center and museum of the Nottoway tribe in Capron, Virginia

VIRGINIA WESLEYAN COLLEGE SERVICE

Faculty and Tenure Mentoring Committee Member, Spring 2016-present

Serve as a member of a mentoring committee for one faculty member; read pre-tenure materials; meet annually to review performance evaluation; observe class; provide advice regarding teaching, service, and professional development

Panelist Frankenstein: Biology, and the Family October 3, 2019

Presenter, Talk about Teaching: Fostering Engagement in the Classroom, September 11, 2019

Panelist, Black Student Union Panel on Blackface, April 4, 2019

Panelist, Roundtable discussion on Citizen: An American Lyric, February 28, 2019

Faculty Advisor, Native American Student Association, Fall 2016-present

Diversity and Inclusive Communities Committee/President’s Council on Inclusive Community, Chair, Fall 2015-2017

Committee charged with initiating and developing a formal committee to introduce diversity and inclusive community events and support on campus

Teagle Foundation, Humanities Division Representative, Summer 2014-Summer 2017

Committee on Academic Standing, Member, Winter 2016-Summer 2018

New Student Orientation, Advisor, Summer 2010-2018

Serve as advisor for incoming students; help them choose classes and register for classes; explain how curriculum works

Strategic Planning Committee, Member, May-November 2017

Advisor, Spring 2009-present

Serve as advisor for as many as fourteen English majors and minors and fifteen lower division students

Writing Program Committee, Summer 2012-2014

Serve as an initial adviser to determine what faculty value in student writing and the direction the college should take in creating a college writing program; develop goals and standards for writing program; develop and test rubric for assessing student writing that will be piloted in English classes during Fall 2013

First Year Experience, Director, Spring 2015 – Spring 2019, Assistant Director, Spring 2012 – Spring 2015

First assisted then directed the development of program revision goals, and the FYE course in general; provided and designed sample syllabi and designed activities for faculty who wish to use them; provided training for FYE instructors; hired FYE faculty; managed the FYE budget; oversaw the common read book selection by convening a faculty/staff/student selection committee and recruiting faculty who used their classes to vet first round of book selections; collected and assembled a list of acceptable co-curricular activities for classes; coordinated with various offices around campus to set up vital workshops such as time management that most students attended.

Faculty Team Advisor, Women’s Field Hockey, Fall 2009-present

Faculty Advisor, Equality Alliance, Fall 2008-2016

Served as faculty advisor for student organization promoting awareness of and supporting gay, lesbian,

bisexual and transgender students on the VWC campus; organization currently not present on campus

VWC/VWU Days, Fall 2008-present

Represent English Department and academic table; talk to students about the English major

Curriculum Mapping Working Group, Spring 2016-2018

Developing a curriculum map for the English department, including co-curricular and extra-curricular activities; developing learning outcomes for courses based on discussions about

Contact this candidate