Willow White, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

English Literature Eighteenth Century Feminism Women Writers Indigenous Studies

About

I am a feminist literary historian who researches and teaches at the intersections of Eighteenth-Century, Feminist, and Indigenous Studies. I completed my Ph.D. at McGill University in 2021, and have since published on various eighteenth-century women writers, both English and Indigenous. 

I recently co-edited the as-told-to biography of an eighteenth-century Seneca woman for Broadview Press, A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison (2022). My current major project is a monograph titled Feminist Comedy: Women Playwrights of London, 1750-1800, forthcoming from the University of Delaware Press in 2024. 

I am a proud member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and I welcome emails and meetings with all Indigenous students at Augustana. You can learn more about resources for Indigenous students at Augustana here.

Research

Books

• Feminist Comedy: Women Playwrights of London, 1750-1800. University of Delaware Press, forthcoming 2024. 

Edited Volumes

• A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison by James Seaver. Edited by Tiffany Potter and Willow White. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2022. ISBN: 9781554815777.

Journal Articles and Chapters

• “Comic Collusion: Frances Burney’s The Witlings and the Mentorship of Arthur Murphy.” Women’s Writing 28, no. 2 (2021): 368-383. DOI: 10.1080/09699082.2020.1847823
• “Feminist Sensibilities: The Feud of Elizabeth Inchbald and Mary Wollstonecraft.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 55, no. 3 (2022): 299-315. DOI: 10.1353/ecs.2022.0019
• “An Extra-Illustrated Edition of Hannah More’s Florio.” In Many Women, Many Voices: Stories from the McGill Collections, edited by Nathalie Cooke et al., pp. 13-14. Montreal: ROAAr, 2018. ISBN 978-1-77096-224-8 

Book Reviews and Entries

• Review of The World of Elizabeth Inchbald: Essays on Literature, Culture, and Theatre in the Long Eighteenth Century, ed. Daniel J. Ennis and E. Joe Johnson (UP Delaware). Eighteenth Century Fiction, vol. 35, no. 4 (2023): 553-555.
• “Inchbald (née Simpson), Elizabeth.” In The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11945-4_67-1
• “The British Theatre by Elizabeth Inchbald.” In The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11945-4_66-1
• Review of The Oxford Handbook of the Georgian Theatre, 1737-1832, edited by David Francis Taylor and Julia Swindells. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film 47, no. 2 (2020), 209- 212. https://doi.org/10.1177/174837272093420
• “The Mogul Tale by Elizabeth Inchbald.” In The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming 2023.
• “The Witlings by Frances Burney.” In The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women’s Writing. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming 2023.
• Review of Lothario’s Corpse: Libertine Drama and the Long-Running Restoration 1700 – 1832 by Daniel Gustafson (Bucknell). Theatre Journal, Forthcoming 2023.

Teaching

In 2023, I was awarded the U of A Provost's Award for Early Achievement of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. At Augustana Campus, I teach various English Literature and Indigenous Studies courses. The following teaching philosophy from the late bell hooks guides and inspires me:

"[T]he academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom.” bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, p. 207

AUENG 102 - Critical Reading, Critical Writing

English 102 has two objectives. The first is to train students in the practices of analytical reading and critical thinking. To that end, we will read engaging literary texts in several genres. The second objective is to help students develop effective communication skills, particularly their writing abilities. To develop writing techniques, we will workshop grammatical skills which will provide the necessary building blocks for university-level writing. Prerequisite: ELA 30-1 or AUENG 101.

AUENG 207 - Aboriginal/Indigenous Literature

Offers a critical study of literature by First Peoples, including narratives from the oral tradition, fiction, poetry, drama, essays, and personal narratives. Themes will include traditional and contemporary perspectives on gender, cultural and political identity, and spirituality. Multiple critical approaches (aesthetic, linguistic, political, historical, and cultural) will be employed in examining this literature, including selections from Native critical texts. Content, period, and national focus will vary. Prerequisites: Two of AUENG 102, 103, and 104. Note: Not to be taken by students with credit in AUENG 307.

AUENG 240 - Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture

Literature - poetry, prose, drama and fiction - of the period between 1660 and 1800. The course is taught chronologically with a focus on the major cultural shifts of that era. Topics include satire and the public sphere, print culture, consumerism, the politics of gender and ethnicity, globalization and subjectivity. Prerequisites: 3 units in English at the 100-level. Note: Credit may be obtained for only one of AUENG 240, AUENG 241 (2018), AUENG 243 (2018), AUENG 341 (2018) and AUENG 343 (2018).

AUIND 101 - Introduction to Indigenous Studies

An introduction to historical and modern relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. This course investigates how Canada's history of anti-Indigenous policies (such as residential schools and the Sixties Scoop) have negatively impacted First Nations, Métis, and Inuit into the present. The course further highlights the resilience of Indigenous peoples through community organization, artistic and cultural expression, and the fight for self-determination. Note: Credit may be obtained for only one of AUIND 101 and AUIND 201 (2023).

AUIND 399 - Theories in Indigenous Studies

A senior level course dealing with the theoretical basis of indigenous studies with a focus on major theories and theoreticians found and/or used in indigenous studies, postcolonial studies and subaltern studies. Credit may be obtained for only one of AUIND 399 and 499. Prerequisites: One of AUIND 101, 201.

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