Cultivating Vocation in Literary Studies

Stephanie L. Johnson, PhD is Associate Professor and Chair of English and Director of the Honors Program at The College of St. Scholastica. She publishes in British literature of the long nineteenth century, poetry, and narrative ethics. Erin VanLaningham, Ph.D. is Professor of English at Loras College. Her research fields include the British novel, Irish literature and culture, and aesthetics and gender studies. She is the Director of the NetVUE (Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education) Scholarly Resources Project.

• DedicationAcknowledgementsContributor BiographiesIntroduction - Stephanie L. Johnson and Erin VanLaninghamPart I: Forms1. Disciplinary Form: Introduction to Literary Studies - Sheila Bauer-Gatsos2. Novels, Vocation and the Call of the Unfinished Story - Erin VanLaningham3. Poetry’s Lyric Call - Stephanie L. Johnson4. The Drama of Vocation - Jason StevensPart II: Voices5. Queer Callings: LGBTQ Literature and Vocation - Geoffrey W. Bateman6. Seeing Gender: A Vocation of One’s Own - Allison Wee7. Antiracism as Vocational Practice: Reading with Alice Walker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Edwidge Danticat - Kerry Hasler-Brooks8. The Possibility of Intervention: Vocational Exploration in Non-Fiction Immigrant Narratives - Esteban E. Loustaunau9. Translating Vocation - Jeremy PadenPart III: Praxis10. Encountering the Archive - Joanne E. Myers11. Narrating Our Wounds: Trauma, Literature and Vocation - John Peterson12. Creative Criticism and the Vital Friction of Otherness - Giffen Mare Maupin13. Community-Engaged Pedagogy, Literary Studies and Vocation - Deirdre Egan-RyanEpilogue: The Professoriate as Vocation - Stephanie L. Johnson and Erin VanLaningham Index

This fine collection marks an important stage of maturity in the ongoing conversation about vocation and calling in higher education. The contributors convincingly demonstrate how deep questions of meaning and purpose are shaped by literary forms, readerly identities and pedagogical practices. This book will be of use across the disciplines –wherever teachers are helping students to think about their identities and their future directions in life.