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Jennifer Riddle Harding
Assistant Professor of English, Coordinator of the Professional Writing Program
Washington & Jefferson College
60 S. Lincoln St., Washington, PA, 15301
724-223-6137
jharding@washjeff.edu
I specialize broadly in rhetoric and American literature. Zooming in a little more closely, I focus on figurative language, American short stories, and cognitive approaches to language, literature, and writing. The courses I teach include Introductory and Advanced Professional Writing, Introduction to Literature, 19th Century American Short Fiction, and 20th Century Short Story Cycles. I teach classes in the following interdisciplinary programs: First Year Seminars; Gender and Women's Studies; Mind, Brain, and Behavior; and Professional Writing.
Education
2004. Ph.D., English Language and Literature, University of Maryland (College Park, MD; dissertation directed by Mark Turner)
2000. M.A., English Language and Literature, concentration in Writing and Rhetoric, University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
1996. B.A., English, Lafayette College (Easton, PA)
1996. B.S., Psychology, Lafayette College (Easton, PA)
Publications
2009. "Switching Places." Pittsburgh Post Gazette 21 June 2009: G1+.
2009. "Malia, Sasha, and Harriet." Pittsburgh Post Gazette 19 April 2009: G1+.
2008. "A Mind Enslaved?: The Interaction of Metaphor, Cognitive Distance, and Narrative Framing in Chesnutt's 'Dave's Neckliss'." Style 42.4 (Winter 2008), 425-447.
2007. "Extending the Classroom Space: Wikis, Online Discussions, and Short Fiction." Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction 8.1, 131-138.
2007. "Evaluative Stance and Counterfactuals in Language and Literature." Language and Literature 16.3, 263-280. [Winner of the PALA Prize 2007]
2005. "On Simile" (with Michael Israel & Vera Tobin). Language, Culture and Mind. Ed. Suzanne Kemmer and Michel Achard. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 123-135.
2003. "Gagged Petitions and Unanswered Prayers: James M. Whitfield's Anxious America." College Language Association Journal 47:2, 175-192.
1998. "Back (or Forward?) to the Future: Understanding Time as Movement Expressions" (with Matthew McGlone). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Memory, Learning and Cognition, 24:8, 1211-1223.
Current Projects
I am currently adapting my article on metaphor in Charles Chesnutt's story "Dave's Neckliss," which was originally published in Style, for the forthcoming collection Blending and the Study of Narrative. I am also working on an article on counterfactual alternatives in Hemingway's story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," and another on puns of possession in Chesnutt's story "Her Virginia Mammy."
My long-term project is a book that unites and extends my previous work on similes and counterfactuals. In this book, Figures in Fiction: How Readers and Writers Cooperate, I demonstrate that speakers in conversation often help each other complete figures of speech, especially those figures of speech with grammatical forms like the simile and counterfactual. I note that interlocutors not only help complete figures of speech when a speaker struggles, but also may elaborate or revise figurative expressions in an ongoing exchange. I then extend this analysis to literary texts, arguing that readers cooperate with writers when they understand -- or at least attempt to understand -- figurative expressions and the author's reasons for using them. In close readings of texts by Hemingway and Cisneros, I demonstrate that figures of speech also connect to larger narrative issues including voice, characterization, and theme.
Recent Presentations and Awards
I recently presented "They Smell Like a Broom: Clumsy Similes and Narrative Voice," at the annual meeting of the Poetics and Linguistics Association in Middelburg, The Netherlands (also presented at the Northeastern Modern Language Association in March). In May 2008, I presented a paper on metaphor and local color fiction at the American Literature Association Conference in San Francisco. In the past few years, I have also made presentations at conferences sponsored by the International Cognitive Linguistics Association, the College Language Association, and the Linguistics Society of America.
I was very pleased to be selected to participate in one of the National Endowment for the Humanities' summer seminars in 2008. I studied narrative theory and ethics with 14 other professors under the direction of James Phelan at Ohio State University.
My article "Evaluative Stance and Counterfactuals in Language and Literature" recently received the Poetics and Linguistic Association Prize, awarded to the best article appearing in the journal Language and Literature in 2007 by a newcomer to the field.
Courses
In my courses, I challenge students to think, discuss, use technology, write well, argue clearly, and make creative and apt connections between literature, ideas, and culture. My personal goals as a teacher are to teach tolerance, to create an atmosphere in which students feel safe (to express themselves and take risks), and to use technology well to enhance learning.
The courses I have taught at Washington & Jefferson (2006-present): First Year Seminar (FRF 199): The American Presidency in Fact, Fiction, and Film; Freshman Forum (FRF 199); Honors Composition: The Rhetoric of Race in America, The Struggle for African-American Citizenship (ENGL 112); Introduction to Literature (ENGL 190); Advanced Composition (ENGL 200); Introduction to Professional Writing (ENGL 201); Plantation Women in Fact, Fiction, and Film (ENG 214); American Literature 1865 - present (ENG 266); Approaches to Language (ENGL 281/MBB 281), team-taught with Dr. Hanna Kim and Dr. Amanda Holland-Minkley; Advanced Professional Writing: Writing With and About Technology (ENGL 301); 19th Century American Short Fiction (ENGL 335); Senior Seminar: 20th Century American Short Story Cycles (ENGL 400)
At the University of Maryland, I also taught (1998-2005): Introduction to Writing (ENGL 101); Introduction to American Literature 1865-present (ENGL 222); Introduction to African American Literature (ENGL 234); Introduction to Literature by Women (ENGL 250); Standard English Grammar (ENGL 281); Intermediate Writing (ENGL 291); African-American Literature to 1900 (ENGL 363, taught online for University of Maryland's University College)
Fall 2009
During fall term 2009, I will be teaching the following courses with these required books:
First Year Seminar: The American Presidency in Fact, Fiction, and Film (FYS 199)
Founding Brothers, by Joseph J. Ellis, ISBN: 0-375-70524-4
The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth, ISBN: 1400079497
Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell, ISBN: 074326004X
American Literature I (English 265)
Note: The two required books will be available bundled at the W & J bookstore at a discounted price
Norton Anthology of American Literature Volumes A + B, 7th Edition, edited by Nina Baym et. al.
Norton Critical Edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, edited by Elizabeth Ammons
Advanced Professional Writing: Writing With and About Technology (English 301)
Woe is I, 2nd Edition, by Patricia O'Connor, ISBN: 1594480060
Links
I am a member of these organizations:
Personal
In my spare time I like to travel and spend time with my family. Since 2006, I have lived in a 130-year-old house near the Washington & Jefferson campus with my husband and two sons. Prior to 2006, I lived in the Washington, D.C. area for ten years. I am an alumna of the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars, University of Maryland, Lafayette College, The School for Field Studies, Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, and Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School -- and I'm always happy to talk about any of these schools and programs! For two years after finishing college I worked as a business analyst for American Management Systems, a consulting company now known as CGI-AMS.