Curriculum Vitae
James Bryant Reeves
Texas State University
Department of English
San Marcos, TX 78666
jreeves@txstate.edu
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2023–Present, M.A. Literature Program Director, Texas State University
2024–Present, Associate Professor of English, Texas State University
2018–2024, Assistant Professor of English, Texas State University
2017–2018, Visiting Assistant Professor in English, Franklin & Marshall College
EDUCATION
2016, Ph.D., English, UCLA
Dissertation: "Unbelief: Atheism in the Literary Imagination, 1690–1810"
Committee: Professors Felicity Nussbaum (chair), Helen Deutsch, Saree Makdisi, and Margaret Jacob2014, M.A., English, UCLA
2010, M.St., English, University of Oxford (St Edmund Hall)
2008, B.A., English, Texas Tech University
BOOK
Godless Fictions in the Eighteenth Century: A Literary History of Atheism. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Shortlisted for the American Academy of Religion’s Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion (Textual Studies; 2021)
Genealogies of Modernity End of Year Booklist (2020)
Positively reviewed in Eighteenth-Century Studies, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, the Times Literary Supplement, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1900, Horizons, and CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
“Antislavery Literature and the Decline of Hell.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 53.4 (Summer 2020): 571–87.
“Unbelief and Sympathy in Shelley and Hogg's Letters to Ralph Wedgwood.” Keats-Shelley Journal 65 (2016): 41–52.
“Untimely Old Age and Deformity in Sarah Scott’s Millenium Hall.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 27.2 (Winter 2014–5): 229–56.
“Posthumous Presence in Richardson's Clarissa.” SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 53.3 (Summer 2013): 601–21.
BOOK REVIEWS, CHAPTERS, ESSAYS, AND INTERVIEWS
“Religion” in Oliver Goldsmith in Context. Eds. David O’Shaughnessy and Michael Griffin. Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming 2024.
“What is the historical role of atheism in literature and the arts?” in Atheism in 5 Minutes. Ed. Teemu Taira. Sheffield, UK: Equinox Publishing, 2022.
Review of Rethinking the Secular Origins of the Novel: The Bible in English Fiction 1678–1767 by Kevin Seidel (Cambridge University Press, 2021), for Studies in the Novel 53.4 (2021): 435–438.
“Godless Fictions in the Eighteenth Century.” Interview for the New Books Network. Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans. June 28, 2021. https://newbooksnetwork.com/godless-fictions-in-the-eighteenth-century.
“Race and Religious Joy.” The Eighteenth-Century: Theory and Interpretation 61 (Summer 2020), online supplement on “Scholarship in a Time of Crisis.” https://ecti.english.illinois.edu/cfp.
“Imagining Atheism.” 1584: Academic Perspectives from Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University Press, 2020. http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2020/07/imagining-atheism.
“Interview with Dr. James Reeves, Assistant Professor of English.” ASECS Graduate Student Caucus Interview Series. https://asecsgradcaucus.wordpress.com.
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
2021–Present, BYU Humanities Center “Spirituality and Imagination” Research Group
2021, College of Liberal Arts Achievement Award for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative Activity (Texas State University)
2021, Texas State Alumni Association Teaching Award of Honor
2019, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar (NEH Summer Seminar on “Religion, Secularism, and the Novel”)
2016–2017, Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship (UCLA)
2015–2016, English Department Dissertation Fellowship (UCLA)
2015, Leeds Hoban Linacre College (Oxford) Exchange Fellowship
2014–2015, Graduate Research Mentorship with Felicity Nussbaum
2015, Department International Travel Award (UCLA)
2014, Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies Travel Grant (UCLA)
2013–2014, Mellon Pedagogy Seminar and Fellowship (UCLA)
2013, Graduate Summer Research Mentorship with Helen Deutsch
2012, Graduate Summer Research Mentorship with Felicity Nussbaum
2011–2012, UCLA Alumni Scholarship
2011–2012, UCLA University Fellowship
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
“Hymns of Doubt: Christianity’s Communal Unbelief.” BYU Humanities Center: Spirituality and Imagination Symposium. Provo, UT. October, 20, 2023.
“The Postsecular Eighteenth Century.” Panel Chair. BSECS. St. Hugh’s, Oxford. January 9, 2020.
“Ironic Religiosity: Swift and Secularization.” ASECS. Denver, CO. March 23, 2019.
“Abolition’s Afterlife: Redrawing Hell’s Borders.” MWASECS. Sioux Falls, SD. October 12, 2018.
“Feeling, Sympathy, and Sentiment in the Romantic Period.” Panel Chair. MWASECS. Sioux Falls, SD. October 12, 2018.
"Swift and Sheet-Caking: Teaching Eighteenth-Century Satire." ASECS. Orlando, FL. March 22, 2018.
"The New Secular Studies." Panel Chair. ASECS. Orlando, FL. March 22, 2018.
"William Cowper's Fragile Faith." ASECS. Minneapolis, MN. April 1, 2017.
“Shelley, Sympathy, and Unbelief.” International Conference on Romanticism. Antlers Hotel, Colorado Springs, CO. October 20, 2016.
"William Cowper's Hymn of Unbelief." CSECS. Coast Plaza Suites, Vancouver, British Columbia. October 16, 2015.
"Grotesque Femininity from Medusa to Modernity." Panel Respondent. Friends of English Southland Conference. UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. June 5, 2015.
"Untimely Old Age and Deformity in Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall." David Nichol Smith Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies XV. The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. December 11, 2014.
“Untimely Old Age and Deformity in Sarah Scott’s Millenium Hall.” ASECS. Williamsburg Lodge, Williamsburg, VA. March 20, 2014.
TEACHING INTERESTS
Religion, Spirituality, and Secularization
Mythology
The Enlightenment
Romanticism
Satire, Poetry, and the Early Novel
Critical Theory
Science Fiction
Shakespeare and Milton
COURSES TAUGHT AND UPCOMING
2024, The Postsecular Eighteenth Century (Graduate Seminar)
2024, British Romanticism (Graduate Seminar)
2023, What is Enlightenment? (Graduate Seminar)
2023, Studies in Mythology: Creation to Apocalypse
2023, Philip K. Dick
2023, Studies in Mythology: Creation to Apocalypse
2023, The (Comic) British Novel
2022, Studies in Mythology: Creation to Apocalypse
2022, The Early Novel (Graduate Seminar)
2022, British Literature of the Restoration and AugustanPeriods, 1660–1750
2022, British Literature from 1785
2022, Jonathan Swift
2022, Critical Theory For English Majors
2021, Antislavery Literature in 18th-Century Britain (Graduate Seminar)
2021, Critical Theory for English Majors
2021, The Development of English
2021, The British Novel
2021, Critical Theory: “Alienation: An Out-of-This-World Course on Critical Theory”
2020, Studies in Mythology: Creation to Apocalypse
2020, Satire from Swift to SNL
2020, Comedy, Cruelty, and 18th-Century Satire (Graduate Seminar)
2020, Studies in World Literature
2020, The British Novel: Terrifying Tales and Novelistic Fiction
2019, The Postsecular Eighteenth Century (Graduate Seminar)
2019, British Literature, 1750–1800
2019, The British Novel: What Makes Novels Novel?
2019, British Literature since 1785
2018, Introduction to College Writing
2018, British Literature of the Restoration and Augustan Periods, 1660–1750
2018, Eighteenth-Century Outcasts
2018, Revolution and Romanticism: The Radical Nineteenth Century
2018, Science Fiction
2017, The Global Eighteenth Century
2017, Satire from Swift to SNL
2014, Shakespeare
2014, Critical Reading and Writing: "Unlikely Heroes"
2013, Literatures in English, 1700–1850
2013, Critical Reading and Writing
2013, Literatures in English to 1700
2012, Literatures in English, 1700–1850
2011, Rhetoric and Composition
DEPARTMENTAL AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
2023–Present, Texas State English Department Director of Graduate Studies and M.A. Literature
2023–Present, Texas State English Department Therese Kayser Lindsey Scholarship Committee
2023–Present, Texas State English Department Graduate Studies Committee
2023–Present, Texas State English Department IA/TA Hiring Committee
2023–Present, Texas State English Department M.A. Literature Committee Chair
2023–Present, Gamers of Texas State (Student Club) Faculty Sponsor
2018–Present, Texas State English Department Sophomore Literature Committee
2018–Present, Texas State English Department Library Committee
2022–2023, Texas State English Department Children’s Literature Hiring Committee
2021–2022, Texas State English Department ENG 3301 Revision Committee
2021–2022, Texas State English Department Curriculum Review Assistant to the Chair
2021–2022, Texas State English Department 19th-Century Literature Hiring Committee
2021, Texas State English Department Travel Funding Committee
2020–2022, Needle Artists of Texas State (Student Club) Faculty Sponsor
2020–2022, Renegade Roses Rugby Supporters (Student Club) Faculty Sponsor
2019–2021, Texas State English Department Curriculum Review Sub-Committee (Co-Chair)
2018–2021, ASECS “The Dr. Is In” Early-Career Mentoring Committee
2019–2020, Texas State English Department Writing Center Co-Director Hiring Committee
2018, South Dakota Humanities Council Independent Evaluator for the annual Conference of the Midwestern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
2017–2018, Franklin & Marshall English Department Arleen "Cookie" Faust Prize for Humor Writing Selection Committee
2014–2016, UCLA English Department Eighteenth Century/Romantics Working Group (Co-Chair)
2013–2014, UCLA English Department Form and History Pedagogy Committee
2013–2014, UCLA English Department Mentorship Program for New Teaching Assistants (Mentor)
NON-ACADEMIC INTERESTS
Fiction writing
Basketball
Songwriting
Video game design