Biography
A specialist in nineteenth-century British literature and visual culture, Alexandra Neel joined the Humanities Program at Loyola Marymount University as an Assistant Professor in fall 2009 after serving two years as an Assistant Professor of English Literature at the University of Oregon. She earned her PhD in English Literature from Princeton University in 2007. Her work focuses on the exchanges between illustrated travelogues of polar exploration and literary works, which range from Captain Cook's Second Voyage and Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner to Scott's Last Expedition and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Currently, Neel is working on a book-length project, "Winters Tales: Literary and Photographic Explorations of Antarctica and the Arctic." Her most recent articles focus on Charles Dickens' engagement with slavery in Our Mutual Friend and Mary Shelley's use of the still-life genre in Frankenstein. She teaches upper-division interdisciplinary seminars for the Humanities and Honors Programs and English Department, as well as courses on fiction, the graphic novel, and world literature.
Education (4)
Princeton University: Ph.D., English Literature 2007
Princeton University: M.A., English Literature 2005
Clare College, Cambridge University: B.A., English Literature 1995
Smith College at Northampton: B.A., magna cum laude, English and French Literature 1993
Areas of Expertise (7)
Nineteenth-Century British Literature
Visual Cultures
Theories and Histories of Photography
Travel Literature
Polar Studies
Gender Studies
Postcolonial Studies
Industry Expertise (3)
Women
Research
Education/Learning
Languages (1)
- French
Courses (9)
Nineteenth-Century Global Travelers
HMNT 493/ENGL 389
“Graphic Stories”
HMNT 498/ENGL 389
"Photography, Literature, and the Uncanny"
HMNT 498/HNRS/ENGL 389
Literary Analysis
HNRS 2300
Intro to Fiction
ENGL 208
On the Sublime
HNRS 115
College Writing
ENGL 110
First-Year Seminar: Graphic Stories
FFYS 1000
Writing Tutorial
HNRS 100, fall 2011, 2012
Articles (5)
Qui est là?’: Negative Personhood in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea
Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature“‘Qui est là?’: Negative Personhood in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. (2017).
Still life in Frankenstein
A Forum on Fiction“Still life in Frankenstein.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 48.3 (2015): 421-445
The Ghost Slavery in Our Mutual Friend
Victorian Literature and Culture“The Ghost Slavery in Our Mutual Friend.” Victorian Literature and Culture 43.3 (2015): 511-32.
A Something-Nothing out of its Very Contrary’: The Photography of Coleridge
Victorian Studies“‘A Something-Nothing out of its Very Contrary’: The Photography of Coleridge.” Victorian Studies 49.2 (2007): 208-217.
The Photography of Antarctica: Virginia Woolf’s Letters of Discovery
Woolf and the Art of Exploration“The Photography of Antarctica: Virginia Woolf’s Letters of Discovery.” Woolf and the Art of Exploration. Clemson, SC: Clemson Digital Press, 2006. 203-211.