Overview
Maddie Reynolds works on animal studies and ecocriticism in nineteenth-century fiction, examining how British writers categorized the status of the human in the age of British imperialism. She recently defended her dissertation, entitled, Anthropomorphic Representations: Blurring Animal-Human Boundaries in the Nineteenth-Century Novel. The project focuses on how animals in these works transcend human-animal hierarchies, while at the same time demonstrating that the language of animality has dragged marginalized human groups down these hierarchies in the service of racism and misogyny.
Maddie has greatly enjoyed teaching first-year students and has taught writing seminars on bisexuality, gardens, environmental literature, and mystery fiction. In addition to teaching FWS courses, she has also worked as a TA for the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. Maddie collaborated with the Office of Engagement Initiatives to secure an Engaged Curriculum Grant to fund community-engaged courses in the Literatures in English Department. She has also taught with the Cornell Prison Education Program at Five Points Correctional Facility and plans to teach at Auburn next fall.
Maddie will begin a postdoctoral fellowship with the Humanities Scholars Program at the Society for the Humanities in August 2021.
Research Focus
- Public Humanities
- Animal Studies
- Ecocriticism
- Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Postcolonial Studies
Publications
“Chiastic Species Mixing in Wuthering Heights”
Nineteenth-Century Contexts, vol. 43, no. 1
“Industrial Accountability: The Case of Bleak House’s Mr Rouncewell”
Victorians Institute Journal, vol. 46: 2018