Lucinda Rasmussen, PhD, MA, BA Hon

About

I am a settler scholar who lives and works on Treaty Six and Métis territory at the University of Alberta. My primary role at this institution is to teach undergraduate English literature with the Department of English and Film Studies. Additionally, I teach Writing Studies.

Research

Broadly speaking, my research to date has focussed on auto/biographical representations of women as they are (self) portrayed in literature and popular culture in twentieth and twenty-first century America. I am particularly interested in ways that women's auto/biography has, over the last decades, been influenced by postfeminism. My graduate student research examined breast cancer memoirs by women who fashioned and marketed their self representations after the romantic fiction known as chick lit.  My ongoing exploration of postfeminism today examines this ideology's influence on the figure of the ageing woman in literature and visual culture. 

Teaching

Since beginning to teach with English and Film Studies in 2009, I have taught a range of undergraduate courses organized around themes which include the 'animal' in literature, the 'other', and representations of the body. I have also taught global literatures and a theoretical courses on race and ethnicity as well as gender and sexuality. Most recently, I have been teaching undergraduate courses including Introduction to Indigenous Literatures, Children's Literature: Folklore Traditions, Case Studies in Research (Contemporary Horror), Introduction to Critical Analysis, and Women's Post-Twentieth-Century Writing. My teaching philosophy is informed by feminist and arts-based pedagogical approaches which take into account the importance of working toward a decolonized university. I was honoured to receive the William Hardy Alexander Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2017. 

In Fall 2022 and Winter 2023:

English 103 (A10) (A12) (B25): Why Horror?

Although it is often derided or thought to be ‘low-brow’, horror fiction is an excellent topic for new researchers interested in studying how social tensions and anxieties take shape in, and are navigated through, mainstream literature and popular culture. Examples of topics we may explore in this class include teen or gateway horror, final girls, techno-horror, cryptozoology, domestic horror, misogyny in horror, portrayals of children in horror, apocalyptic horror, and others. While we will touch on some ‘horror origins,’ our focus will primarily be on contemporary writers. Additionally, we will augment the novels and short stories we study with excerpts from visual media, as we begin our semester with chapters from Mathias Clasen’s A Very Nervous Person’s Guide to Horror Movies

Winter 2023:

English 391 (B1): Topics in Women’s Writing, “Maiden, Mother, Crone”

Kathleen Woodward has noted that “In every culture, age, like any other important category, is organized hierarchically.” “In the West,” she continues, “youth is the valued term, the point of reference for defining who is old” (Ageing and its Discontents, 1991). While Woodward is speaking in broad terms here, it can be said that women in western societies encounter age-related expectations throughout their lives. On this basis, members of this class will consider the ways in which a selection of contemporary authors give voice to narrators or protagonists whose experiences intersect with, and are complicated by, age-related tropes and stereotypes. While the reading list is yet to be finalized, representative texts will include works such as Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat Person” (youth and agency), Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s memoir The Erratics (mothers and daughters), Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s novella Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun (ageing and nation), as well as Hiromi Goto’s graphic novel Shadow Life (the fourth age).

ENGL 103 - Case Studies in Research

This variable content course introduces methods of literary research as an in-depth process through one or more case studies. Not to be taken by students with 6 units in approved junior English. This course can only be taken once for credit. Note: refer to the Class Schedule and the Department of English and Film Studies website for specific topics.

ENGL 125 - Indigenous Literatures

An introduction to Indigenous literatures in North America, from their earliest oral forms to their contemporary variations. Not to be taken by students with 6 units in approved junior English. Note: Sections reserved for students in the TYP Program include a 3 hour seminar component in addition to the 3 hour lecture component.

ENGL 391 - Topics in Women's Writing

Prerequisite: *6 of junior English, or *3 of junior English plus WRS 101 or 102. Note: variable content course which may be repeated if topics vary.

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