Education

Princeton University: Ph.D. in English Literature (1994)

Princeton University: M.A. in English Literature (1991)

University of Washington: B.A. in English Literature with Honors, magna cum laude (1989)

University of Washington: B.A. in Philosophy (1989)

Washington and Lee University, Department of English: Associate Professor, 1996-present (tenure received spring of 2002)

Director, Program in African-American Studies, 2007-present

University of Notre Dame, Program of Liberal Studies: Visiting Assistant Professor, 1995-96

Princeton University, Department of English, Department of Religion, Writing Program: Lecturer, 1994-95; Department of English: Teaching Assistant, 1991-94

Charles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher (co-editor with William Nash, collection of essays) (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007)

The Aesthetic Dimensions of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable (editor and contributor, collection of essays) (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000)

“’The Whiteness of Blackness’:  The Bonfire of the Vanities and African-American Poetics.”  Shenandoah 57:1 (Spring 2007): 165-181.

“Charles Johnson and Philosophical Black Fiction.” With William R. Nash. In Charles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher, eds. Conner and Nash, pp.xi-xxxvii.

“To Utter the Holy: The Metaphysical Romance of Middle Passage.” In Charles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher, eds. Conner and Nash, pp.57-81.

“’At the numinous heart of being’: Dreamer and Christian Theology.” In Charles Johnson: The Novelist as Philosopher, eds. Conner and Nash, pp.150-170.

"The Specter of History: Filming Memory in Beloved." In The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century American Fiction on Screen, ed. Barton Palmer. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, forthcoming 2005.

"The Litany of Things: Sacrament and History in Invisible Man." In "Raft of Hope": Ralph Ellison and the Literature of Politics, ed. Lucas Morel. Louisville: University of Kentucky Press, 2004, pp.171-192.

"Fathers and Sons: Winesburg, Ohio and the Revision of Modernism," Studies in American Fiction 29:2 (Autumn 2001): 209-238.

"Aesthetics and the African-American Novel: The Example of Toni Morrison." In The Aesthetic Dimensions of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable, ed. Conner, pp. ix-xxviii.

"From the Sublime to the Beautiful: The Aesthetic Progression of Toni Morrison." In The Aesthetic Dimensions of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable, ed. Conner, pp. 49-76.

"Tradition Lives: The Blasket Island Storytellers," Washington and Lee Alumni Magazine 75:3 (Fall 2000).

"Midnight's Children and the Apocalypse of Form," Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 38.4 (Summer 1997): 289-299.

Book review of Arnold Rampersad’s Ralph Ellison:  A Biography, in South Atlantic Review, forthcoming 2007/2008.

Book review of George Cinclair Gibson’s Wake Rites:  The Ancient Irish Rituals of Finnegans Wake, in South Atlantic Review, forthcoming 2007.

Book review of Andrea O’Reilly’s Toni Morrison and Motherhood:  A Politics of the Heart in South Atlantic Review, forthcoming 2007.

Book review of Edna O’Brien’s The Light of Evening, in The Irish Literary Supplement, 27:1 (28): Fall 2007.

Book review of Seamus Heaney’s District and Circle in Shenandoah, 56:3 (Winter 2007): 177-182.

Book review of Brett Bourbon’s Finding a Replacement for the Soul:  Mind and Meaning in Literature and Philosophy in James Joyce Quarterly, 42/43: 1-4 (Fall 2004/Summer 2006): 376-380.

“A Theatrics of Protest”:  Book review of Lucy McDiarmid’s The Irish Art of Controversy in The Irish Literary Supplement 25:1 (Fall 2005):  13-14. 

Book review of Ben Howard’s The Dark Pool, in Shenandoah 55:1 (Spring/Summer 2005): 198-201.

Book review of Jim McWilliams’s Passing the Three Gates:  Interviews with Charles Johnson in African-American Review 39:3 (Fall 2005):  481-483.

Book review of Charles Johnson’s  Dr. King’s Refrigerator and Other Bedtime Stories in Shenandoah 55:2 (Fall 2005):  157-160.

Book review of Toni Morrison’s Love in Shenandoah 54:1 (Spring/Summer 2004): 186-189.

Book review of Evelyn Schreiber’s Subversive Voices: Eroticizing the Other in William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, in South Atlantic Review 68:1 (Winter 2003): 87-91.

Book review of Cyrus R.K. Patell’s Negative Liberties: Morrison, Pynchon, and the Problem of Liberal Ideology, in South Atlantic Review 67:4 (Fall 2002): 87-91.

Searchable database for Irish literary studies at Washington and Lee University [electronic resource]

(Lexington, VA) : Washington and Lee University, c2003: http://ireland.wlu.edu/db.htm

 The Context and Development of Irish Literature: History, Poetry, Landscape [electronic resource]  (Lexington, VA):  Washington & Lee University, c2006: (A web-based, multi-media, interactive Introduction to Irish History.)    http://ireland.wlu.edu/lecture/ch1_1.htm

“Modernity and the Homeless:  Toni Morrison’s Gnostic Quest.”  Keynote Address for the Toni Morrison Society 5^th Biennial Conference, Charleston, SC, July 24-27, 2008 (forthcoming).

 “Going to the Territory:  The Literary Legacy of Ralph Ellison.”  The American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 22-25, 2008 (forthcoming).

 “’The uncharted deep’:  Writing the Mother in Edna O’Brien’s Fiction.”  The American Conference of Irish Studies National Meeting, Davenport, IA, April 16-19, 2008 (forthcoming).

 “dogs, diapers, cabbage, old women, burnt grease, and the eternal fate of man”:  All the King’s Men as a Philosophical Novel.”  Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, November 3-4, 2007.

 “Charles Johnson and the West:  Place, Time, and the Meaning of Home.”  The Western Literature Association National Conference, Tacoma, Washington, October 19, 2007.

 “African-American Literature and the Sense of Place.”  The John Chavis Lecture, Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA, October 3, 2007.

 “’A secret spiritual geography’: The Art of In Cold Blood.”  Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, October 7, 2006.

“Imagining Integration: Charles Johnson and the Philosophical Black Novel.” The John Chavis Lecture, Washington & Lee University, September 20, 2006.

“The Ancestry of Form: Charles Johnson’s Meditations on Short Fiction.” Paper for the Charles Johnson Society Panel on Charles Johnson’s Short Fiction, for the American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 25-28, 2006.

“Mapping the Rebellion: Jamie O’Neill’s At Swim, Two Boys.” The American Conference of Irish Studies National Meeting, St. Louis, MO, April 20, 2006.

“A Study in Homelessness: Rebecca West’s A Train of Powder and the Modern Condition.” Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, October 1, 2005.

“Toni Morrison’s Narrative Theology: A Reading of Love.” The Inaugural John Chavis Lecture, Washington & Lee University, September 15, 2005.

“Remembering Beloved: Love as a Memory Book.” Paper for the Fourth Biennial Toni Morrison Society Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, Friday, July 15th, 2005. Organized panel.

“The Philosophy of Form: Charles Johnson’s Experiments with the Novel.” Organized and Chaired session for the conference, “Celebrating the African-American Novel: Critical Visions and Revisions of its Past and Present,” Pennsylvania State University, April 1-2, 2005.

“After Beloved: Toni Morrison and the Romance of Race.” Invited lecture at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, March 3, 2005.

“Vanity of the Bonfire: The Mask, the Masque, and the Emptiness Between.” Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, October 30, 2004.

“Chamber Music and Joyce’s Poetics of Knowledge,” 19th International James Joyce Symposium,
Dublin, Ireland, June 12-19, 2004. (Organized & chaired panel)

“’At the numinous heart of being’: Dreamer and New Testament Theology.” Charles Johnson Society panel at American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, May 27-30, 2004.

Colloquium: "On the Genesis of Liberty." Liberty Fund Colloquium, New Orleans, March 25-28, 2004.

"Ireland in Site and Sound: A Web Presentation," American Conference of Irish Studies, Mid-Atlantic Regional, Baltimore, October 24-25 2003.

"’We cannot read God’s will’: Miller’s The Crucible and American Ambiguity." The Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, October 3-4, 2003.

"The Fate of the Ancestor: Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison," The 3rd Biennial Conference of the Toni Morrison Society: "Toni Morrison and the Politics of Learning," June 24-27, 2003, Washington, D.C.

"’News of the Invisible World’: The Gnostic Lady Gregory," The American Conference of Irish Studies, Minneapolis, June 4-7, 2003.

"Beyond ‘Philosophical Fiction’: The Ontological Foundation in Johnson’s Dreamer," The Charles Johnson Society Inaugural Session at the American Literature Association, Boston, May 22-24, 2003.

"Lies and Liberty: The Failure of Tragedy in Miller’s An Enemy of the People"  and "From Ibsen to Miller: The Evolution of 20^th-century Tragedy."  The Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, October 11-12, 2002.

"Between Self-Destruction and Self-Reliance: Judgement and Mercy in Invisible Man." Invisible Man Turns Fifty: Ralph Ellison and the Literature of American Politics--International Symposium commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Invisible Man. Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, February 1-2, 2002.

"Intruder in the Dust: Indebtedness, Maturation, and the Problem of Justice" (lecture). The Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, November 10, 2001.

"The Unforgettable in the Writings of Toni Morrison";

"Unspeakable Histories: Ghosts, Traces, and Rememories in Toni Morrison";

"Toni Morrison and the Questions of Translation";

"Gaze and Address in the Work of Toni Morrison" ~ Four papers presented at the Fete du Livre 2001, Honoring Toni Morrison. Les Ecritures Croisees, Aix-en-Provence, France, October 18-21, 2001.

"Fifty Years After: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and the Great American Novel" (lecture). Homecoming Seminar, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, October 8, 2001.

Colloquium: "Montesquieu and Ancient Rome." Liberty Fund Colloquium, August 9-12, 2001, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

"The Unseen Book: Gnosticism in Modern Irish Literature: The Example of Synge and the Blaskets," The American Conference of Irish Studies, Annual Meeting 2001, Fordham University, New York, June 6-9, 2001.

Colloquium: "The Liberal Family: Patriarchy, Liberty, and Virtue." Liberty Fund Colloquium, February 15-18, 2001, Richmond, Virginia.

"’You are all amazed’: The Anxiety of the Holy in The Merchant of Venice."  The Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, October 13-14, 2000.

"Home as Maternal Art: Sacrifice and Grace in Jazz." Toni Morrison and the Meanings of Home: Second Biennial Conference of the Toni Morrison Society, Lorain, Ohio, September 28-30, 2000.

"Modernity and the Homeless" (lecture), Washington and Lee University Catholic Campus Ministry: Last Lecture Series, March 15, 2000.

"’Whatsoever Things Are True’: An Apology for the Life of the Mind," Address for the Phi Eta Sigma Induction, Washington and Lee University, October 29, 1999 (published by Washington and Lee, 2000).

"Wandering and Home in Irish Poetry: The Example of W.B. Yeats" (lecture), Deoraithe na hEireann (the Irish Culture Club), Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, October 26, 1999.

"Measure for Measure: Mercy, Grace, and Justice." The Law and Literature Symposium, Washington and Lee University, October 22-23, 1999.

"The Wanderer and the Householder: The Two Poles of Charles Johnson's Vision." Twentieth-Century Literature Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, February 25-27, 1999 (organized & chaired panel).

"’The Music the World Makes’: The Narrative Quest of Toni Morrison's Jazz." Twentieth-Century Literature Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, February 26-28, 1998.

"Fathers and Sons: Winesburg, Ohio and the Tensions of Modernism." Twentieth-Century Literature Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, February 20-22, 1997.

"From the Sublime to the Beautiful: The American Novel in the Twentieth Century"(lecture), the University of Notre Dame, February 2, 1997.

"Restoring the American Pastoral: The Case of Vineland." Northeast Modern Language Association Convention, Montreal, Quebec, April 19-20, 1996.

"Exclusion and Exorcism in the Novels of Toni Morrison"(lecture), Washington and Lee University, February 5, 1996.

"Morrison's Beloved and the Post-World War II American Novel"(lecture), Claremont McKenna College, February 1, 1996.

"From Wasteland to Vineland: Reclaiming the American Landscape in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon." The First Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, June 9-11, 1995.

"Exclusion and Exorcism in the Novels of Toni Morrison." The Toni Morrison Conference, Bellarmine College, Lexington, Kentucky, April 6-8 1995.

"From Henry Adams to Toni Morrison: The Development of American Fiction in the Twentieth Century"(lecture), Western Maryland College, April 17, 1995.

"Land, Belonging, Home: Apocalypse and Survival in The Satanic Verses"(lecture), Washington and Lee University, February 1, 1995.

"Structures of Apocalypse and Survival in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses," Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Colloquium, Princeton University, November 10, 1992.

“Modernity and the Crisis of Faith:  The Example of T.S. Eliot,” lecture delivered to the District 9 council, Diocese of Richmond, April 7, 2005.

"Between History and Myth: Approaching Christ as Literature" (lecture);

"’That spectacle of too much weight’: Poetic Encounters with Christ" (lecture);

"Seeking Christ in History: T.S. Eliot and the Will to Believe" (lecture);

"Seeking Christ in Language and Time: The Historical Jesus in an Existential Age" (lecture): Washington and Lee Alumni College Symposium: The Historical Jesus: Early Christianity and the New Testament, July 11-16, 2004.

"Mark Twain, Reconstruction, and the Beginning of the Gilded Age" (lecture);

"The New Woman: Art, Liberation, and Madness at Century’s End" (lecture);

"Race, Reconstruction, and the Changing America" (lecture);

"The Age of Innocence: Wharton and the Re-evaluation of the Past" (lecture): Washington and Lee University Alumni College Symposium: America’s Gilded Age: 1870-1920, June 20-25, 2004.

"’Ruin the Sacred Truths’: America After the 1950’s" (lecture);

"Postmodern Apocalypse: Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49" (lecture);

"The Pilgrim of the Absurd: Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five" (lecture);

"’The fault of the earth’: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and the World to Come" (lecture): Washington and Lee Alumni College Symposium: Hearts and Minds: America During the Sixties, June 23-29, 2002.

"Ethics and Existence After the War: Saul Bellow’s Dangling Man" (lecture);

"The Family Tragedy: Miller’s Death of a Salesman" (lecture);

"Songs of Innocence: Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye" (lecture);

"Songs of Experience: Welty, O’Connor, Baldwin and the End of an Era" (lecture): Washington and Lee University Alumni College Summer Symposium: The Best Years of Our Lives: America After WWII, July 1-July 7, 2001

"The Grapes of Wrath as Film: An Introduction" (lecture), Washington and Lee University Alumni College Symposium, The Art of Film: Three Masters, July 25, 2000

"After the Golden Age: Fitzgerald and Hemingway in the 1930’s" (lecture);

"The Mythmaker of the Depression: Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men" (lecture);

"Faith and the Game: Ralph Ellison and the Brave New World" (lecture);

"’He was witnessing his own birth’: William Faulkner and the American Inheritance" (lecture): Washington and Lee University Alumni College Summer Symposium: Those Days: Reflections on the Roosevelt Era, June 25-July 1, 2000

"’Winter Dreams’: Fitzgerald and the Imagined Life" (lecture);

"The Beautiful and the Grotesque in The Great Gatsby" (lecture);

"The Great Gatsby and the Loss of American Innocence" (lecture);

The Modern American Novel

Modern Irish Literature

African-American Literature

American Literature, 1620-2004 (The Puritans to the Present)

The Bible as English Literature

Shakespeare

Literature and Religion, Literature and Philosophy

 English 368: The Modern American Novel (annually, Washington and Lee University)

English 352: Modern Irish Literature (bi-annually, Washington and Lee University)

English 365: African-American Literature (bi-annually, Washington and Lee University)

English 236: The Bible as English Literature (bi-annually, Washington and Lee University)

English 252:  Shakespeare (annually, Washington and Lee University)

• view Shakespeare Studies web site: http://home.wlu.edu/~connerm/Shakespeare/

English 105: Composition and Introduction to Literature: “Coming of Age” (annually, Washington and Lee University)

• view course portfolio:  http://miley.wlu.edu/eng105/

• view course web site:  http://home.wlu.edu/~connerm/ENG105/

English 387: Supervised Study in Ireland (spring 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007, Washington and Lee University)

• view Irish Studies web portal:  http://ireland.wlu.edu/index.html

African-American Studies 130:  Introduction to African-American Studies (2005, 2006, Washington & Lee University)

 African-American Studies 295:  The African-American Memoir (spring 2008)

English 413:  Yeats and Gregory (winter 2008)

English 413:  Gnosticism and Modern Irish Literature (winter 2006)

English 380: Irish Poetry (spring 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007)

English 299:  Yeats and the Irish Renaissance (winter 2005)

English 290: Comedy and Tragedy (winter 2000)

University Scholars 101 & 201: Literature and Existentialism (winter and spring 1999)

English 380: William Faulkner and Toni Morrison (spring 1997)

Co-founder of the African-American Studies Program at Washington & Lee University (Head of this Program)

Served on 2005-2006 Washington & Lee University Presidential Search Committee

Founded, Organized, and Administered the Irish Studies Lecture Series, bringing 9 major scholars and writers of Irish Modernism to campus to lecture and teach since autumn 2003.

"Between Famine and Hunger: Reading Poverty in Ireland", a presentation for Project Outreach of the Shepherd Poverty Program, Roanoke, VA, September 3, 2003

"Fifty Years After: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and the Great American Novel" (lecture). Homecoming Seminar, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, October 8, 2001.

"Modernity and the Homeless" (lecture), Washington and Lee University Catholic Campus Ministry: Last Lecture Series, March 15, 2000

"’Whatsoever Things Are True’: An Apology for the Life of the Mind," Address for the Phi Eta Sigma Induction, Washington and Lee University, October 29, 1999 (published by Washington and Lee, 2000)

Presented materials for Washington and Lee University Writing Program Luncheon on Evaluation of Student Writing, December 14, 1999

Contributed materials for Washington and Lee University Writing Program Luncheon on Grammar, Mechanics, and Style in Student Writing, February 1999

Seminar discussion leader, Freshman Reading Experience, Washington and Lee University: J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, September 2000; Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi, September 1999; Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage, September 1998; Freeman Dyson’s Infinite in All Directions, September 1997; Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees, September 1996

University Committees: English Department Job Search Committee, Shepherd Poverty Program, Student-Faculty Hearing Board, African-American Studies Program committee, Alumni College Advisory Board.

Spanish (reading and writing), Russian (reading and writing), Old English (reading and writing), Irish (reading).

Organizations and Offices

The Toni Morrison Society (Treasurer)

The Charles Johnson Society (Newsletter and Web Site Editor)

American Literature Association

American Conference of Irish Studies

International Association for the Study of Irish Literature

International James Joyce Society

Mellon/ACS Teaching with Technology Fellowship, Spring/Summer 2005

Ring-Tum Phi Award for Outstanding University Teacher, Washington and Lee University, 2004

Mednick Fellowship, VFIC, Summer 2004

ITL micro-grant for Technology in the Classroom, 2003, 2004

Global Stewardship Course Development Grant, 2003

Class of 1962 Sabbatical Fellowship, 2002-2003

Culpeper/Rockefeller Foundation Technology Grant, 2002

Associated Colleges of the South Technology Grant, 2002

Class of 1966 Teacher/Scholar Grant, Autumn 2001

Verizon Teaching with Technology Grant, Autumn 2001

Robert E. Lee Research Supervision Grant, Summer 2001

Mellon Teaching and Technology Fellowship, Fall and Winter, 2000-2001

Recognition Certificate, The Toni Morrison Society, presented at "Authors’ and Editors’ Recognition Luncheon" at 2^nd Biennial Conference of the Toni Morrison Society, Lorain, OH, Sept. 29, 2000

John M. Glenn Grant Summer Research Fellowship (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004)

Mellon Dissertation Fellowship (1993-94)

McCosh Graduate Teaching Award (1993) (outstanding graduate student teacher in Princeton English dept.)

English Department Nominee, Princeton University, University Distinguished Teaching Award (1993)

Princeton University Presidential Fellowship (1991-93)

Robert H. Taylor Research Grant (1992)

Mellon Foundation Language Study Grant (1990)

Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities (1989-1991)