Curriculum Vitae

Christy Tidwell
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
Humanities Department
Classroom Building 325
Rapid City, SD 57701
christy.tidwell@gmail.com
christy.tidwell@sdsmt.edu

Education

Ph.D. in English (2011)
The University of Texas at Arlington
Dissertation:  No Longer Estranged: Women, Science, Science Fiction
Committee:  Drs. Stacy Alaimo (chair), Tim Morris, and Kenneth Roemer

M.A. in English (2003)
The University of Texas at Arlington

B.A. in English and Music (2000)
Southwestern Adventist University, Keene, TX

Academic Employment History

  • Associate Professor, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2018-
  • Assistant Professor, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2012-2018
  • Lecturer, University of Texas at Arlington, 2010-2012
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Texas at Arlington (instructor of record for all courses assigned), 2000-2010
  • Assistant Director of First-Year English, University of Texas at Arlington, 2008
  • Adjunct Professor of English, Southwestern Adventist University, 2005

Publications

Edited Books

  • Fear and Nature: Ecohorror Studies in the Anthropocene, edited by Christy Tidwell and Carter Soles, Penn State University Press, 2021.
  • Gender and Environment in Science Fiction, edited by Christy Tidwell and Bridgitte Barclay, Lexington Books, 2018.

Edited Journal Issues

  • Special issue of Science Fiction Film & Television: Creature Features and the Environment. Co-edited with Bridgitte Barclay, vol. 14, no. 3, 2021.

Book Chapters

  • “Spiraling Inward and Outward: Junji Ito’s Uzumaki and the Scope of Ecohorror,” in Fear and Nature: Ecohorror Studies in the Anthropocene, edited by Christy Tidwell and Carter Soles, Penn State University Press, 2021.
  • “‘The Revolt of the Mother’: Romanticizing Nature and Rejecting Science in Sally Miller Gearhart’s The Wanderground and Other Feminist Utopias,” in Dystopias and Utopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch, Routledge, 2021.
  • “‘Life Finds a Way’: Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and De-Extinction Anxiety,” in Fiction and the Sixth Mass Extinction: Narrative in an Era of Loss, edited by Jonathan Elmore, Lexington Books, 2020, pp. 31-48.
  • “A Door into Ocean as a Model for Feminist Science.” Posthuman Biopolitics: The Science Fiction of Joan Slonczewski, edited by Bruce Clarke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 47-64.
  • “‘Either you’re mine or you’re not mine’: Controlling Gender, Nature, and Technology in Her and Ex Machina.” Gender and Environment in Science Fiction, edited by Christy Tidwell and Bridgitte Barclay, Lexington Books, 2018, pp. 21-44.
  • “Biology.” Gender: Matter, edited by Stacy Alaimo, Macmillan Reference USA, 2017, pp. 139-52.
  • “‘A Little Wildness’: Negotiating Relationships between Human and Nonhuman in Historical Romance.” Creatural Fictions: Human-Animal Relationships in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Literature, edited by David Herman, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 151-72.
  • “‘Everything is always changing’: Autism, Normalcy, and Progress in Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark and Nancy Fulda’s ‘Movement.’” Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of Technology As Cure, edited by Kathryn Allan, Palgrave MacMillan, 2013, pp. 153-168.
  • “Young Adult Zombies: Daniel Waters’ Generation Dead as Sociopolitical Intervention.” Critical Insights: Contemporary Speculative Fiction, edited by M. Keith Booker, Salem Press, 2013, pp. 217-30.

Articles

  • “‘We will change’: Deep past & uncertain future in Blood Glacier,” Science Fiction Film & Television (special issue on creature features and the environment), vol. 14, no. 3, 2021, pp. 395-412.
  • “Mutant bears, defrosted parasites and cellphone swarms,” Science Fiction Film & Television, vol. 14, no. 3, 2021, pp. 269-277.
    • Introduction to special issue on creature features and the environment, co-authored with Bridgitte Barclay
  • “The Ecohorror of Omission: Haunted Suburbs and the Forgotten Trees of A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Gothic Nature, no. 2, March 2021, pp. 84-109. https://gothicnaturejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/5-GN2-Articles-C-Tidwell.pdf
  • “Traveling While Black: Revising Urbanoia in Lovecraft Country,” for Horror Homeroom’s special issue on Lovecraft Country, February 2021, http://www.horrorhomeroom.com/special-issue-3/.
  • “Beyond Dystopia: Joy, Hope, & Queer Ecology in Sam J. Miller’s Blackfish City,” Journal of Science Fiction, vol. 4, no. 1, 2020, pp. 12-14. https://publish.lib.umd.edu/?journal=scifi&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=526&path%5B%5D=895
  • “Why Is the Future So Young?: Gender and Age in Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population.” Femspec, vol. 15, 2015, pp. 100-11.
  • “Monstrous Natures Within: Posthuman & New Materialist Ecohorror in Mira Grant’s Parasite.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature & Environment, vol. 21, no. 3, Summer 2014, pp. 539-49.
  • “The Problem of Materiality in Paolo Bacigalupi’s ‘The People of Sand and Slag.’” Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy, vol. 52, no. 1, Spring 2011, pp. 94-109.
  • “‘Fish Are Just Like People, Only Flakier’: Environmental Practice and Theory in Finding Nemo.” Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 1900 to Present, vol. 8, no. 1, Spring 2009. http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/spring_2009/tidwell.htm.

Other Short Writing: Print

  • “Ecohorror.” Posthuman Glossary, edited by Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova. Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp. 115-17.
  • “Introduction to Genre Fiction.” The Pocket Instructor: Literature, edited by Diana Fuss and William Gleason, Princeton University Press, 2015, pp. 199-201.
  • “Japanese Street and Youth Fashion.” The Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, ed. Joanne B. Eicher, Berg, 2010, pp. 398-403. Invited contribution.

Other Short Writing: Online

Keynote Presentations

  • “Ecogothic,” PopMeC online conference 50+ Shades of Gothic: The Gothic Across Genre and Media in US Popular Culture, May 2021

Interviews

Conference Presentations

  • “‘Nothing Is Safe’: Clipping’s 21st Century Revision of John Carpenter,” Fear 2000: Horror Unbound, online – September 2021
  • “‘When nightmares swim’: Afrofuturist Merpeople and Environmental Justice in ‘The Deep,'” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), online – July-August 2021
  • “Teaching Clipping’s Splendor & Misery: Music as a Technology of Resistance,” Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA), online – June 2021
  • “Hopeful, But Not Utopian: Queer Environmental Futures in Recent SF Novels,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA), UC Irvine – November 2019
  • “Haunted Suburbs, Dutch Elm Disease, and A Nightmare on Elm Street,” International Gothic Association (IGA), Romeoville, IL, July-August, 2019
  • “‘Welcome to Jurassic World’: Humans Vs. Dinosaurs in the Anthropocene,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), UC Davis – June 2019
  • “The Rescue Distance Is Zero: Disability, Pollution, & Trans-Corporeality in Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream,” Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago, IL – January 2019
  • “‘When humans were the People’: Telling New Stories, Creating Post-Humanity,” Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA), Milwaukee, WI – July 2018
  • “Spiraling Inward and Outward: Junji Ito’s Uzumaki and the Scope of Ecohorror,” A Clockwork Green: Ecomedia in the Anthropocene (a Nearly Carbon Neutral virtual symposium sponsored by ASLE and UC Santa Barbara) – June 2018
  • “The Creeping Menace: Plant Horror, Climate Change Narratives, and the Problem of Speed,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA), Tempe, AZ, November 2017
  • “‘Either you’re mine or you’re not mine’: Controlling Gender, Nature, and Technology in Her and Ex Machina,” Association for the Study of Literature & Environment (ASLE), Detroit, MI, June 2017
    • Panel co-chaired with Bridgitte Barclay, Aurora University: Resistant Discourses and Strategies of Recovery: Exploring Gender and Environment in Science Fiction
  • “‘Life Finds a Way’: Creature Features & Species Extinction,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA), Houston, TX, November 2015
  • Roundtable presentation featuring Joan Slonczewski, Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA), Houston, TX, November 2015
  • “Cancelling the Apocalypse: Pacific Rim, Godzilla, and Environmental Politics,” Association for the Study of Literature & Environment (ASLE), Moscow, ID, June 2015
    • Panel co-chaired with Carter Soles, The College at Brockport (SUNY): What Lies Beneath Monster Movies: Exploring Ecohorror Cinema
  • “Taxidermy and Science Education: From Carl Akeley to Emily Graslie,” History of Science Society 2014, Chicago, IL, November 2014
  • “‘Dead But Not Gone’: Taxidermy, Horror, and Animacy,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA), Dallas, TX, October 2014
  • “Rooting for the Monster: 21st Century Creature Features and the Devaluation of the Human,” Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association National Conference, Chicago, IL, 2014
  • “Why Is the Future So Young?: Gender and Age in Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population,” Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago, IL, 2014
  • “Rabbits and Lizards and Frogs, Oh My!: The Threat of Non-Predatory Animals in 1970s Creature Features,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), Lawrence, KS, 2013
    • Chaired panel: Missing Links, Mutant Bunnies, and Militant Labradoodles: Connecting Human and Animal through Speculative Fiction
  • “Sharers As Scientists: Joan Slonczewski’s A Door Into Ocean as a Model for Feminist Science,” WisCon 37 (academic track), Madison, WI, 2013
    • Panel organized jointly with Dr. Bridgitte Barclay, Aurora University
  • “Saving the World in Science Fiction: Radical Environmentalism, Violence, and Non-Violence in Avatar and A Door Into Ocean,” Modern Language Association (MLA), Boston, MA, 2013
  • “Young Adult Zombies: Daniel Waters’ Generation Dead as Sociopolitical Intervention,” American Literature Association (ALA), San Francisco, CA, 2012
  • “Teaching Environmental Justice Through Joan Slonczewski’s A Door Into Ocean,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), Bloomington, IN, 2011
  • “Magical Creatures: Animals, Psychic Communication, and Science in Sally Miller Gearhart’s The Wanderground,” Society for Utopian Studies (SUS), Milwaukee, WI, 2010
  • “Feminist Anti-Science Utopias and the Risks of Rejection,” Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association (RMMLA), Albuquerque, NM, 2010
  • “‘Fish Are Just Like People, Only Flakier’: Finding Nemo’s Environmental Theory and Practice,” South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA), Houston, TX, 2005
  • “Reading Richard Parker: Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Human/Animal Relations,” Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA), St. Louis, MO, 2004
  • “Fairy Tales of Normativity: Edward Scissorhands and Representations of Disability,” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, San Antonio, TX, 2004
  • “Making Connections: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Jeanette Winterson’s Art & Lies,” Northeastern Modern Language Association Convention (NeMLA), Pittsburgh, PA, 2004
  • “‘How Shall I Live?’: The Ethics of Jeanette Winterson’s Art & Lies,” Southern Comparative Literature Association Conference (SCLA), Austin, TX, 2003
  • “Operatic Castrati and the Limits of Gender Representation,” 18th and 19th Century British Women Writers Conference, Fort Worth, TX, 2003

Invited Talks

  • “New Developments in Ecohorror,” for the Hermanns Lecture Series at the University of Texas at Arlington, 2018
  • “Fear & Nature: Environmental Science Fiction and Ecohorror Film,” for the Hennebach Lecture Series at the Colorado School of Mines, 2018
  • “Animal Studies & the Romance Genre,” for Dr. Bridgitte Barclay’s Critical Approaches to Literature course at Aurora University, 2012
  • “The Political Scholar: The Intersection of Feminist Ethics, Research, and Teaching,” for English Seminar at Abilene Christian University, 2010
  • Feminist Science Fiction, for Dr. Shelly Sanders’ Science Fiction course at Abilene Christian University, 2010

Campus or Departmental Talks

  • “Music, Horror Movies, and Racial Politics: Bringing the 1970s into the 21st Century,” Brown Bag presentation at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2021
  • “Teaching About Race and Racism,” Brown Bag presentation at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (via Zoom), 2021
  • “Dinosaurs, Kids, and the Future in the Jurassic Park Franchise,” Brown Bag presentation at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2020
  • “Welcome to Jurassic World: Humans Vs. Dinosaurs in the Anthropocene,” Brown Bag presentation at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2019
  • “The Creeping Menace: Plant Horror, Climate Change Narratives, and the Problem of Speed,” Brown Bag presentation at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2017
  • Fear and Nature in Science Fiction and Horror Film, for Dr. Frank Van Nuys’s Environmental History of the U.S. course at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2017
  • “‘Life Finds a Way’: Creature Features & Species Extinction,” Brown Bag presentation at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2015
  • Ecohorror Film & Literature, for Dr. Frank Van Nuys’s Environmental History of the U.S. course at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2015
  • “‘Dead But Not Gone’: Taxidermy in Horror Film,” Faculty Research presentation at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, 2013
  • “Animal Passions: Romance Novels’ Uses of and Responses to Nonhuman Nature,” Brown Bag Series at The University of Texas at Arlington, 2011
  • Feminist Science Fiction and Feminist Science Studies, for Dr. Stacy Alaimo’s Posthumanities course at The University of Texas at Arlington, 2010
  • “Science, Gender, and Power: Utopian Science in Feminist Science Fiction,” Brown Bag Series at The University of Texas at Arlington, 2010
  • “Science Fictions of Sustainability,” Annual Celebration of Excellence by Students (ACES): Sustainability Across the Curriculum at The University of Texas at Arlington, 2010
  • Planning Mini-Lessons Workshop, for Dr. Margaret Lowry’s GTA Training course at The University of Texas at Arlington, 2008
  • Teaching American Literature: Dealing with Problem Students, for Dr. Stacy Alaimo’s Literary Pedagogy course at The University of Texas at Arlington, 2006

Courses Taught

South Dakota School of Mines & Technology

  • Composition I (ENGL 101): Teaches basic academic writing and research skills and encourages improvement of students’ critical thinking and reading abilities.
  • Composition II (ENGL 201): Teaches basic academic writing and research skills and literary analysis.
  • World Literature II (ENGL 212): An exploration of recent and contemporary world literature in its cultural, political, and historical context.
  • Science Fiction (ENGL 250): An introduction to the science fiction genre that provides a historical overview of the genre’s beginnings through the late 20th century as well as a look at where the genre is now and where it might be going.
  • Communication in the STEM Workplace (ENGL 279): Teaches written and oral communication skills for the STEM workplace, emphasizing types of professional communication commonly used in science and engineering fields.
  • Explorations in STEM Communications (ENGL 289): Refines writing and speaking strategies used to communicate successfully in science and engineering fields, focusing on communication scientific topics to the public.
  • Introduction to Humanities (HUM 100): An introduction to humanities disciplines (art, film, literature, philosophy, religion), structured around a different theme each semester it is taught (e.g., zombie narratives or death & extinction).
  • Humanities & Technology (HUM 200): A thematic approach to human values stressing the relationship between technology and the humanities; the course traces the development and social impact of our major technologies and explores the question of how science and technology affect our individual and collective behaviors.
  • Environmental Literature & Culture (ENGL 300): An interdisciplinary survey of writing about nature, examining the relationship between literary, cultural, and scientific perspectives. May include discussion of topics such as Puritan New England and the Alaskan wilderness; wild animals and companion species; pollution and environmental justice; dystopian futures, toxic horror stories, and Western romance.
  • Horror Literature & Film (ENGL 392): An overview of horror literature and film, covering multiple subgenres (e.g., slashers, rape-revenge, zombies, and body horror) and significant topics within the genre (e.g., race, gender, violence, and nature).
  • Science, Technology, and Society in Film (ENGL 392): An exploration of the ethics and societal impacts of science and technology through film that considers the human experience of STEM topics, both in terms of how experiences with science and technology are expressed through film media and how audiences interpret and react to them. The course includes units on medicine and the environment but also discusses other topics, including space exploration and artificial intelligence.

The University of Texas at Arlington

  • Rhetoric & Composition I: Critical Reading, Writing, and Thinking (ENGL 1301): Emphasizes critical thinking skills, reading comprehension, writing as a process, and introducing students to different types of writing (exploratory, persuasive, analytical).
  • Rhetoric & Composition II: Argumentative Writing (ENGL 1302): Focuses on teaching specific structures and frameworks for argumentative writing as well as research skills, culminating in a substantial research paper.
  • Global Speculative Fictions (ENGL 2303): Explores contemporary science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism from around the world, focusing on genre definitions and categories, influences from the cultures that produced the texts, and recurring themes (e.g., responses to difference, definitions of humanity).
  • Environmentalism & Sustainability in Science Fiction (ENGL 2303): Examines the ways in which science fiction represents issues of environmentalism and sustainability and the effects of addressing these issues through this genre.
  • World Literature (ENGL 2309): Examines themes of colonization, exploration, and environment across a range of literatures.
  • American Literature (ENGL 2329): Taught multiple times with varying emphases, including thematically arranged courses (e.g., violence & nonviolence in American literature or utopia, dystopia, & apocalypse in American literature), courses organized by literary form (short story, novel, poetry, drama), courses incorporating an emphasis on creative writing approaches to the literature, and a course focusing on contemporary genre fiction.
  • Gender & Environment (ENGL 3370/WOMS 3370): Explores the ways in which gender shapes how we imagine our place in the natural world and the ways in which nature and wilderness are read as gendered or help to shape ideas about gender. Also considers connections between the materiality of the natural world and the materiality of the human body.
  • 20th Century American Poetry (ENGL 4336): Course designed by Dr. Stacy Alaimo.  One semester, took over the final third of the course (including all lecturing and grading and some planning); another semester, substituted for Dr. Alaimo for one week.

Selected Service

  • Digital Strategies Coordinator, ASLE
  • Assistant Editor, Speculative Fiction section of Los Angeles Review of Books
  • Member of Promotion & Tenure Committee (elected), 2018-2021
  • Co-chair of Ecomedia Interest Group (ASLE), 2017-present
  • Co-organizer of the nearly carbon neutral ecomedia symposium, A Clockwork Green: Ecomedia in the Anthropocene, June 2018
  • Delegate for Modern Language Association Division of Literature & Science, 2014-2016
  • Member of Humanities Department Writing Committee (SDSM&T), 2015-present
  • Nominator for Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (best short science fiction of the year), 2012-present
  • President of Graduate English Association (UTA), 2005
    • instituted English graduate student mentoring program, GEA awards for academic writing and conference presentation, and tradition of annual graduate student conferences
  • Organizer of Graduate English Association Conference (UTA), 2004 and 2005