Mark Simpson, PhD (Duke), MA (Alberta), BA (Hons) (Alberta)
Contact
Professor, Faculty of Arts - English & Film Studies Dept
- dms7@ualberta.ca
- Address
-
4-23 Humanities Centre
11121 Saskatchewan Drive NWEdmonton ABT6G 2H5
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Energy Humanities Cultural Studies Mobility Theory US Literature + Culture
About
I have a number of research projects ongoing, including a co-authored book on the political philosophy of energy impasse and a book on the postcard craze in the US circa 1900. From 2017 through 2024 I was principal investigator on the Energy Humanities theme in the Future Energy Systems research network at the U of A. I am one of three founding collaborators on the international research collective After Oil: Explorations and Experiments in the Future of Energy, Culture, and Society and a core member of the Petrocultures Research Group. In my spare time, I love to ride my road bike and to make music with my band.
Research
My ongoing research concerns mobility, material culture, and energy. An Americanist by training, I am happy to work with graduate students on a range of topics in literary and cultural studies, particularly ones focused on aspects of the long American nineteenth century; on popular forms; on labor and class; on the politics of mobility; on petrocultures and other energy cultures; on materialist theories broadly construed.
Teaching
My undergraduate teaching regularly includes courses on American literature from first contact to 1865, American ideologies and technologies, print culture studies and the history of the book, and theories of class and ideology. I have taught graduate seminars on naturalism, new historicism, and new materialism; work and play in postbellum culture; embodiment in revolutionary America; American empire; crises in the US public sphere; culture war and class struggle in America; mobility regimes; maritime modernities; resource aesthetics; cultures of energy.
Courses
ENGL 221 - Reading Class and Ideology
An introduction to dynamics of class and ideology in literary and other cultural texts, and to the critical concepts and methods key to their study. Prerequisite: 6 units of junior ENGL, or 3 units of junior ENGL and 3 units of junior WRS.
ENGL 357 - Topics in American Studies
Prerequisite: 6 units of junior ENGL, or 3 units of junior ENGL and 3 units of junior WRS. Note: variable content course which may be repeated if topics vary.
ENGL 426 - Studies in Literary and Cultural Histories
Prerequisites: 12 units of senior ENGL with a minimum of 6 units at the 300 level. Note: variable content course which may be repeated.
ENGL 583 - Cultural Studies
ENGL 801 - PhD Colloquium
Featured Publications
The E.E.R.K. Collective
New York: Fordham University Press. 2024 September;
Mark Simpson
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2023 January; Plastics, Environment, Culture, and the Politics of Waste 10.3366/edinburgh/9781399511735.001.0001
After Oil Collective
Minneapolis. 2022 April; 10.5749/9781452968681
Mark Simpson and Imre Szeman
South Atlantic Quarterly. 2021 January; 120 (1):77-89
Mark Simpson and Jeff Diamanti
Radical Philosophy. 2018 June; 2 (Series 2) (2):10
Mark Simpson
Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2017 June; Petrocultures: Oil, Politics, Culture 10.1515/9780773550391
Corrinne Harol and Mark Simpson, editors
Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2017 January; 10.3138/9781442630918
Mark Simpson
New York: Fordham UP. 2017 January; Fueling Culture: 101 Words for Energy and Environment 10.1515/9780823273935
Petrocultures Research Group
University of Alberta. 2016 October;
Brent Ryan Bellamy, Michael O'Driscoll, and Mark Simpson
Postmodern Culture. 2016 January; 26 (2)
Mark Simpson
Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press. 2015 January; Material Cultures in Canada 10.51644/9781771120159-008
Mark Simpson
Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2011 December; US Popular Print Culture, 1860-1920 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199234066.003.0009
Mark Simpson
University of Minnesota Press. 2004 January;