Jeremy Withers

Contact

Dept:English
Email:withers@iastate.edu
Office:357 Ross
527 Farm House Ln.
Ames IA
50011-1054
Phone:515-294-2180
Office Hours:Tuesday Thursday 12:30-2 and by appointment

Bio

Courses I Teach

ENGL 339/522: Literary Theory
ENGL 330: Science Fiction
ENGL 420: History of the English Language
ENG 370: Shakespeare
ENGL 150/250: Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Communication

Degrees

Ph.D., English, Ohio State University
M.A. and B.A., English, University of Cincinnati
B.A., Philosophy, University of Cincinnati

Current Research Areas

Ecocriticism and animal studies approaches to literature and film; H.G. Wells; bicycling in literature and film; science fiction.

About My Teaching

I believe in the value of going on a voyage of learning with my students. In my classes, I often teach texts and material that are new to me because I love to learn about them along with my students. I am fine with not being “the expert” in the room at all times, and love approaching a text along with my students with more questions than answers, and more of a sense of curiosity than of certainty.

Recent Publications

The Wheels of Chance. By H. G. Wells. Edited with an introduction and notes by Jeremy Withers (Sussex Academic Press, 2017).

“Bicycles Across the Galaxy: Attacking Automobility in 1950s Science Fiction,” Science Fiction Studies (2017): 417-436.

“Medieval and Futuristic Hells: The Influence of Dante on Ellison’s ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,’” Studies in Medievalism 26 (2017): 117-130.

“Introduction: The Ecologies of Mobility,” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 24:1 (Winter 2017): 66-74.

The War of the Wheels: H. G. Wells and the Bicycle (Syracuse University Press, 2017).

Culture on Two Wheels: The Bicycle in Literature and on Film, ed. Jeremy Withers and Daniel P. Shea (University of Nebraska Press, 2016).

“Bicycles, Tricycles, and Tripods: Late Victorian Cycling and Wells’s The War of the
Worlds,The Wellsian: The Journal of the H.G. Wells Society, no. 36 (2013): 39-51.

Current Research

I am currently working on a new book project tentatively titled Futuristic Cars and Space Bicycles: Contesting the Road in American Science Fiction. This project examines the ways in which science fiction, from the late-19th century on up to the 21st century, has often challenged the hegemony of the automobile and has instead often promoted more benign technologies of movement such as the bicycle.

Outside of the University

When I am not working on my teaching or research, I can often be found going on long walks around town with my two year old son, peering through my binoculars at birds, practicing the guitar, or trying out new vegan recipes with my wife.