Department of English

Assistant Professor of English

Writing Across the Curriculum Coordinator 

Ph.D. Michigan State University, Department of English, 2003
M.A. Michigan State Univeristy, Department of English, 1994
B.A. Alma College, Department of English, 1992

Dr. Swender teaches composition, introduction to poetry, women’s literature, British literature to 1798, British literature from 1798 to present, and gothic literature. She has recently designed a service-learning course in which her composition students tutor children in Mobile elementary schools and apply their experiences to their course readings and their research papers. Her scholarly interests include Romantic poetry, the rise of the British novel, gothic literature, women’s studies, transatlanticism and historical fiction. Her poetry was recently published in Whatever Remembers Us: An Anthology of Alabama Poetry. She was also a contributor to the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women’s Issues and Knowledge. Her current book project looks at depictions of national history in women’s gothic fiction.

Courses Taught:

ENG 121 “Composition and Literature I”
ENG 123 “Composition and Literature II”
ENG 240 “Introduction to Poetry”
ENG 308 “Survey of British Literature to 1798″
ENG 309 “Survey of British Literature 1798-Present”
ENG 247/496 “Women Writers”
ENG 493 “Gothic Literature”

Sample Presentations:

Dr. Swender has presented papers at a number of conferences, including the Modern Language Association, the Society for Early Americanists, the Midwestern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Society for Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers and the International Gothic Association.

• “Feeling History: Susanna Rowson’s Reuben and Rachel and the Historical Education of Daughters,” Society for Early Americanists.
• “‘With the Enthusiasm of the Antiquary’: Ann Radcliffe’s Gaston de Blondeville and the Antiquarian of Feeling,” Midwestern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
• “Old World Spirits in New World Bodies: The Gothic Body and the Destabilization of National Identity,” International Gothic Society.
• “Haunting Voices: The Resurgence of the Feminine in Ghost Stories by Victorian Women Writers,” Society for Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers.