Degrees

2017, MSt English 650-1550, University of Oxford

2014, BA English and Medieval/Early Modern Studies, University of California, Davis

Bio

Jillian is a PhD student and teaching fellow in the department of English and Comparative Literature. She is a medievalist with a focus on the post-conquest period ca.1100-1300 whose previous research projects have centered on the lais of Marie de France and other vernacular texts. Additionally, she is interested in exploring the post-medieval transmission of medieval texts and medievalisms in contemporary genre fiction. Her research approaches include digital corpus linguistics, mapping and visualization, feminist and gender theory, cultural studies, and queer theory.

Jillian’s current research explores Celticity and genealogies of white aristocratic hybridity in medieval romance, as well as in modern genre fiction that uses the medieval setting.

In addition to research, she is passionate about teaching, pedagogy, and providing student support.

Awards

• Joseph Breen Award for Outstanding Work in the Field of Medieval Studies, 2021.

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Degrees

2015, MA English, Ohio University

2013, BA English and Religion, Denison University

Bio

Emily Sferra’s research considers depictions of adolescent women who fail to follow the expected trajectory of domestication and their relationships with other young women. She is a doctoral candidate and teaching fellow, and she is also completing a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies.

Publications:

•   “One of her delusions”: Maternity, Selfhood, and Voice in Mr. Rochester. Victorians Institute Journal 17 December 2021; 48 (1): 43–64. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/victinstj.48.2021.0043

• “Portsmouth, Eveline.” The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing. Edited by Lesa Scholl. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_325-1.

Teaching Awards

• Erika Lindemann Award for Excellence in Teaching Composition in English 105 (award Fall 2020)

Awards

• Early Stages Departmental Dissertation Fellowship, UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature (awarded Spring 2022)
• Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia (BSUVA) Scholarship, Rare Book School (awarded January 2020)
• Travel Grant, UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature (awarded Fall 2019)
• Arts Everywhere Fellow for PlayMakers Repertory Company, UNC (awarded Fall 2020)
• Humanities for the Public Good Fellowship for PlayMakers Repertory Company, UNC (awarded Fall 2019)
• Humanities Professional Pathway Award, UNC (awarded Summer 2018)
• Outstanding Master’s Essay Award, Ohio University (awarded Spring 2016)
• Distinguished Leader Award, Denison University (awarded Spring 2013)
• A. Blair Knapp Award for Dedication to the Liberal Arts, Denison University (awarded Spring 2013)
• Vinton R. Shepard Memorial Scholarship, Denison University (awarded Fall 2012)
• Mary Carr Endowed Scholarship, Denison University (2009-2013)

Degrees

BA of English Literature, Auburn University, 2017

Bio

Hannah (they/them) is a scholar of Black and African American literature and film of the 20th and 21st centuries with a scholarly focus on Black LGBTQ film, literature, and archives.

Publications:

• PEER REVIEWED JOURNALS
• • As Hannah Skjellum. “ ‘Can’t be no worse out here’: Radical queer Black ecologies in Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight,” Black Camera, vol. 14, no. 1, 2022, pp. 284–306, doi:10.2979/blackcamera.14.1.16.
• BOOK REVIEWS
  • As Hannah Skjellum. “Alien Stories: A Review.” The Carolina Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 2, Wntr 2022, pp. 104-106.
• ONLINE
  • “ ‘A long time coming’: Inheritance director Annalise Lockhart talks new Afrofuturist film,” Outtake Magazine, http://outtakemag.co.uk/interviews/2021/07/19/annalise-lockhart-inheritance-afrofuturism/, July 2021
  • “Inheritance review – surreal Afrofuturist interrogation of America’s living ghosts,” Outtake Magazine, http://outtakemag.co.uk/reviews/2021/07/09/inheritance-afrofuturist-short/, July 2021
  • “Mandabi: a post-colonial critique and its present-day relevance,” Outtake Magazine, http://outtakemag.co.uk/features/2021/06/11/mandabi-colonialism-critique-senegal/, June 2021

Awards

• Early Stages Departmental Dissertation Fellowship, UNC-Chapel Hill Department of English and Comparative Literature, Summer 2021, $5,000

Degrees

• 2017, BA Critical Studies in English Cultures, Literatures, and Film, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
• 2017, BA Latin American Studies, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire

Bio

emilio Jesús Taiveaho Peláez is a first-generation migrant and a PhD. student—in that order—through the Department of English & Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. As both poet and scholar, their work engages the intersection of aesthetic experience and political discipline, blending critical, creative, and archival inquiry. Focusing on 20^th-century hemispheric experimental poetry, their dissertation (tentatively titled Ojos de Hierba: Walt Whitman’s Children & the American Lyric) probes the shared literary and philosophical history of the Américas through the lens of Neobaroque aesthetics, tracing dissonant and dissident relations in the life and work of figures such as Federico García Lorca, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Néstor Perlongher, and Cecilia Vicuña. emilio’s first book of poetry, landskips (words are a hard look), a latinX exploration of the sonics and optics of our contemporary American Landscapes, is forthcoming through The Concern Newsstand.

Publications:

• Taiveaho, Emilio Jesús. “Cartographies of Refuge, Music, and Survival: A Review of They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us.” Carolina Quarterly Online, 2018.
• Dekeersgieter, Colin, and Emilio Taiveaho Peláez. “Episode 8: Langston Hughes in Chapel Hill (pt. 1).” CQ Speaks Podcast, 25 February 2020.
• Dekeersgieter, Colin, and Emilio Taiveaho Peláez. “Episode 9: Langston Hughes in Chapel Hill (pt.2) ‘Christ in Alabama.’” CQ Speaks Podcast, 3 June 2020.

Teaching Awards

• Latina/o Studies Teaching Grant – 2020

Awards

• 2017 – Present: Mellon Fellow