I earned my Ph.D. and M.A. in English at The University of Iowa. As a teacher and scholar, I am crucially interested in writers of the African Diaspora, African American literary cultures, slavery and abolition, indigenous oratures and literatures, colonial and nineteenth-century American letters, transatlantic women writers, and college composition, developmental writing, and grammar pedagogies. Digital humanities and archival work also are the bedrock of my research and richly contribute to my studies of secularism, religion, ethnicity, and race in the modern world. My dissertation “The Godforsaken Slave: Black Doubt & the Problem of Evil in U.S. Antislavery Literature, 1760-1865” traces the literary genealogy of what I call “the godforsaken slave” in the literatures of American antislavery (as well as in transatlantic and transnational contexts). My future book-length project will focus on the transatlantic and global implications of the godforsaken slave.
Quite naturally, my research informs and enriches my teaching. I guide students into the digital archives and online databases on the literatures of slavery (and elsewhere) to re-contextualize traditional or canonical authors in transatlantic literatures and American letters, from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. So too, I work to excavate and give voice to lesser-known and unknown writers–past or present–who talk back to, and beyond, the boundaries of (secular) modernity. However, my writing instruction and grammar, editing, and proofreading courses focus on cultivating interactive spaces and formative practices that allow students to harness their unique personal interests and career objectives for improving their foundational skills in English: critical reading, compelling writing, confident speaking, careful listening, and credible research (i.e. the 5 C’s). Likewise, my research and writing courses push students to write with passion and persuasion but balanced with rational argumentation, ethical integrity, and proper formatting and citations.
I teach literary studies, college composition, developmental writing, creative writing, research methods, and grammar courses with intellectual rigor, heartfelt passion, mutual understanding, and diversity and equity for all. Teaching is one of my greatest joys and passions. And in my classroom, I strive to make every student feel not only welcome and safe in our learning community but also equipped with the knowledge and skills only English can offer them, for their own wisdom, future work, and contemporary world. Most importantly, I insist on equitably advocating and consistently supporting diverse student populations.
Currently, I am an Assistant Professor of English & Literature at Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minnesota.
Dr. Ryan David Furlong 