Aubrey Plourde

Education

• PhD — University of Texas at Austin
• MA — University of Texas at Austin
• BA — Rollins College

Experience

• Instructor – Inside Literature Prison Education Program
• Postdoctoral Lecturer – The University of Texas at Austin
• Assistant Instructor (Instructor of Record) -The University of Texas at Austin
• Assistant Instructor (Instructor of Record) – The University of Texas at Austin
• Assistant Instructor (Instructor of Record) – The University of Texas at Austin
• Team Teacher – The University of California
• Teaching Assistant – The University of Texas at Austin

Honors

• North American Victorian Studies Association Travel Grant, 2019
• National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar, “Religion, Secularism, and the Novel,” University of Iowa, Summer 2019
• William S. Livingston Outstanding Graduate Student Academic Employee Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Texas at Austin, 2018 ($2,000)
• Faculty Innovation Center Teaching Award, University of Texas at Austin, 2018
• Professional Development Awards, University of Texas at Austin: Summer 2013, Spring 2014, Summer 2014, Summer 2017
• Maureen Decherd Dissertation Excellence Fellowship, Fall 2016, Fall 2017
• Outstanding Assistant Instructor Award, Department of English, University of Texas at Austin, 2015-2016
• Summer Bridge Program, Selected Instructor, University of Texas at Austin, 2015
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Department of English, University of Texas at Austin, 2014
• University of Texas at Austin Representative, Dickens Project, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2014

Publications

• “Introduction: Victorian Environments.” Co-Authored with Allen MacDuffie. Texas Studies in Literature and Language. (Forthcoming)
• “Review: The X-Club: Power and Authority in Victorian Science.” Nineteenth-Century Contexts: 42.1. (2019).
• “A Thread Too Fine to See: Design, Doubt, and the Child Reader.” Forthcoming, Victorian Literature and Culture.
• “‘The Innocent Old Way’: Reserved Interpretation and Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market.’” PMLA: 134.4. (2019).
• “Review: Proofs of Genius: Collected Editions from the American Revolution to the Digital Age.” Co-Authored with Matt Cohen. Textual Cultures: Texts, Context, Interpretation: 10.2. (2018).
• “‘Another Man from What I Was’: Enchanted Reading and Ethical Selfhood in A Christmas Carol.” Victorian Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Victorian Studies: 43.2 (2017).
• “Review: The Mighty Child: Time and Power in Children’s Literature.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly: 41.1. (2016).
• “Review: Freud in Oz: At the Intersections of Psychoanalysis and Children’s Literature.” The E3W Review of Books: 14. (2014).

Conferences

• Presenter, “Anne Brontë’s Wager: Doubt, Denial, and the Stakes of Belief.” North American Victorian Studies Association Conference, Media. Genre. The Generic. Columbus, Ohio. 17-19 October 2019.
• Presenter, “Matthew Arnold’s “Gipsy-Child”: Collapsed Timescapes and the Hermeneutics of Recollection.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference, Monuments and Memory. Dallas, Texas. 21-24 March 2019.
• Presenter, “‘Read and Lift’: Countercarceral Praxis at the Travis County Correctional Complex.” Graduate Association for Comparative Literature Students Conference. Austin, Texas. 28-29 September 2018. (invited)
• Presenter, “Bridging the Chasm of Doubt: Late-Victorian Children’s Bibles and the Imaginary Eden.” Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature. Addison, Texas. 6 October 2017. (in absentia)
• Presenter, “‘I Must Follow My Thread’: Subversive Belief in George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin.” Children’s Literature Association Conference. Tampa, Florida. 23 June 2017.
• Presenter, “Meet Diversity: American Girl’s Samantha Parkington and Socioeconomic Awareness.” Children’s Literature Association Conference. Columbia, South Carolina. 18 June 2017.
• Moderator, “Practices of Play,” Department of American Studies Symposium. Austin, Texas. 14 November 2014.
• Moderator, 13th Annual Sequels Symposium, E3W: Ethnic and Third World Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Austin, Texas. 10 April 2014.
• Presenter, “Realist Energy and Mesmerism in Anne Thackeray Ritchie’s Beauty and the Beast.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies Conference. Houston, Texas. 28 March 2014.
• Coordinator and Mentor, “Through a Lens Fantastic. “International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts. Orlando, Florida. 22 March 2014.
• Moderator, “Dangerous Fantasy Lands.” Children’s Literature Association Conference. Biloxi, Mississippi. 14 June 2013.
• Presenter, “Betwixt-and-Between: The Double-Register of Make-Believe Play in Peter and Wendy and Progressive Child Reform.” Children’s Literature Association Conference. Biloxi, Mississippi. 13 June 2013.
• Presenter, “Sex Sells: Problematic Sexualization in Disney’s The Little Mermaid.” Francelia Butler Conference. Roanoke, Virginia 23 July 2011.

Digital Projects

• Writer and Curriculum Designer, Google. Applied Digital Skills Team. February 2019-present.
• Program Evaluation Data Coordinator, Inside Literature Prison Education Program, Travis County Correctional Complex. September 2018-Present.
• Member, Curriculum Design Committee, Digital Writing and Research Lab, Department of Rhetoric and Writing. February 2017-May 2017.
• Member, Digital Writing and Research Lab, University of Texas at Austin. August 2014-May 2015.
• Instructor, “Using Digital Tools for Your Humanities Major.” Apple, Inc. March 2010-January 2011.

Guest Lectures

• “John Ruskin’s Ecologies,” World Literature, 1 August 2017.
• “Christina Rossetti’s Playgirls: Sing-Song and ‘Goblin Market’” Twisted Lit: Varieties of Vileness in Three Genres. 1 February 2016.
• “The Brontë Juveniliac Paracosms and the Harry Ransom Center.” The Brontës in Context. 14 October 2015.
• “Frankenstein and the Romantic Child.” British Literature. 4 November 2013.
• “Miniature Bibles and Miniature Marginalia,” Animals in Children’s Literature Interest Group, Denius Room, The Harry Ransom Center. 3 October 2013.

Service

• Member, Curriculum Selection and New Instructor Training Committees, Inside Literature Prison Education Program, Travis County Correctional Complex. January 2019-Present.
• Co-Editor, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 2018-2019.
• Member, Award Selection Committee: Outstanding Assistant Instructor Award. Summer 2018.
• Program Liaison, McCombs School of Business, Faculty-Led Study Abroad Program, The London School of Economics, London, England. December 2017-August 2018.
• Instructor and Liaison, Students Expanding Austin Literacy (SEAL). Austin, Texas. November 2017-Present.
• Instructor, Inside Literature Program, Travis County Correctional Complex. August 2017-Present.
• Conference Logistics Volunteer, Chick Tech, Austin Chapter, September 2017-Present.
• Member, Conference Organization Committee, 26th Annual British Women Writers Conference,“New Directions” (11-15 April 2018), University of Texas at Austin. August 2016-Present
• Admissions Reader, Plan II Honors Program. August 2016-Present.
• Mentor, Teaching Assistant Mentorship Program. May 2016-Present.
• Graduate Student Assistant, Department of English Oxford Study Abroad Program. January-August 2016.
• Mentor, Intellectual Entrepreneur Pre-Graduate School Internship for undergraduate senior Meagan Waldrip. August 2014-May 2015.
• Member, Selection Committee: Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. Summer 2015. Grader, English Department College Level Examinations. Fall 2014-Present.

Research and Teaching Interests

• Postsecularism
• Victorian Cultural Studies
• Children’s and Young Adult Literature
• British and Transatlantic Literature of the Long-Nineteenth Century
• The History of Religiosity
• Childhood Studies
• Postcritique
• The History of Science
• Prison Pedagogy
• Standup Comedy