Ms. Sarah Stanley

Ms. Sarah StanleyMarquette University

Marquette Hall, 247

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-6848sarah.stanley@marquette.edu

Teaching Assistant Professor

English

My primary fields of research are gender and sexualities studies, late-Victorian romance, Tolkien studies, and fantasy literature. I am fascinated by the intersections of Victorian and modern popular culture, as well as by the shifting stakes of their production, distribution, and cultural capital.

I am currently working on two projects. The first is a co-authored book chapter exploring the ways in which HBO’s Watchman (2019) television series renegotiates the racial and gender politics of Alan Moore’s landmark comic and of Zack Snyder’s film adaptation thereof. The second is my book-length doctoral dissertation examining the thematic continuities between Bram Stoker’s Dracula and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. My aim is to complicate conventionalized discussions of gender in both works, to—in feminist visionary Adrienne Rich’s words—“re-vision” them by seeking out long-submerged feminist possibilities latent within each text.

I have been teaching at the university level for the past nine years. I have taught everything from freshman writing courses to World Literature, Mythology, Literary Theory, and Introduction to Gender and Sexualities Studies. Regardless of subject matter, I strive to create an inclusive classroom in which students feel safe exploring new ideas and methodologies. My courses promote discussion and reflective writing, fostering a learning community in which my students and I can mutually grow. I aim to help students find connections between our class and their “real” lives and to put into practice the social justice we read and write about. I encourage my students to recognize the power of words—theirs and others’—and to wield them precisely and responsibly. Because effective writing and analysis arises through a process of ideation and revision, I encourage students to re-submit work until they are happy with it. Speaking from my own experience, I believe it’s more important to keep working through an idea and learn along the way than to get it “right” on the first try.

Courses Taught

• Foundations in Rhetoric
• Introduction to Gender and Sexualities Studies

Research Interests

• Tolkien Studies
• Gender and Sexualities Studies
• 19th and 20th Century British Literature
• Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Genre Fiction
• New Media and Videogames Studies
• Film and Television Studies
• Adaptation Theory

Publications

• Co-published with David Stanley, “Reinscribing Racial Power Within HBO’s Watchmen.” After Midnight: Watchmen after Watchmen. University Press of Mississippi, 2022. 
• "The Many Faces of Moriarty: A Critical Examination of the Arch-Villain's Evolution Across the Landscape of the Popular Imagination." Popular Culture Review 23.1 (2012) : 29-38 Print. 

Presentations

• “Subversively Performing Femininity in Bram Stoker's Dracula.” Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. February 2019.
• “Working Together, Laboring Alone: Socio-Occupational Hierarchies in Fin de Siècle Romance, Tolkien’s Novels, & their Cinematic Afterlives.” Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Conference. Indianapolis, IN. October 2018.
• “Journeys Eastward Out of the ‘Comfortable West’: The Orientalized Landscape of Tolkien’s Middle-earth.” Far Western Regional Popular Culture Conference. Las Vegas, NV. February 2017.
• “No Living Man am I”: Éowyn’s Specifically-Female Power in The Return of the King.” Far Western Regional Popular Culture Conference. Las Vegas, NV. February 2016.
• “The Two Tolkienian Texts: The [False] Opposition Between Pacing on Page and on Screen.” RMMLA Annual Conference. Santa Fe, NM. October 2015.

Additional Information

Office Hours

Spring 2024

• MWF 1:00-2:00 (in person)

Teaching Schedule 

Spring 2024

• 3785/101 MWF 12:00-12:50 Marquette Hall 105
  • LGBTQ+ Narratives: Literature, Film, Theory
• 4716/101 MWF 11:00-11:50 Marquette Hall 105
  • Science Fiction/Fantasy