Jenny Douglas

assistant professor of English

on faculty since 2007

Phone: 708.239.4746
Fax: 708.597.5858
E-mail: jenny.douglas@trnty.edu 

Education

Ph.D., University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 2007
M.A., University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 2004
B.A., Houghton College, Houghton, New York, 2001

Professional and Personal Interests

Being part of a teaching and research community was an early goal of Jenny Douglas, who joined Trinity’s faculty in the English department in 2007. After graduating from Houghton College with a B.A. in English and music, Douglas continued to pursue her goal, earning a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.

“I grew to love working in the writing center (at the University), helping to teach and tutor students in writing. I also gained experience working in a summer program for international students and teaching writing classes for non-native speakers of English.”

During her graduate program, Douglas was awarded a Writing Associates Across the Disciplines Fellowship (2006-2007), which supports graduate students from many disciplines to teach innovative writing courses for first-year students at the University of Rochester.

With her own student experience still fresh in her mind, Douglas is eager to challenge and encourage Trinity students and help them achieve their educational goals. She strives to equip them with the tools they need to pursue a graduate degree and further their education.

Douglas sees English as the “quintessential” liberal arts major, which can lead students “down many different roads if they are willing to branch out and explore.” She hopes to use literature as a way to engage students in asking “increasingly probing questions” that will delve into the text and allow them to apply their insights to culture.

“College is a time for learning critical and analytical thinking skills and using those skills to develop a worldview. … When students begin to construct analytical questions and form those questions into compelling arguments, those are victorious moments for me. 

“As I guide students to look deeper into texts, I rejoice when they take the lead and have great insights on their own.”

While literary interests take up much of Douglas’ time, she plays the piano whenever the opportunity arises. She is a member of the American Society of Theatre Research, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and the Modern Language Association. She and her husband Aaron Metzger reside in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

Douglas shares the feelings of her faculty colleagues and students about Trinity: “It’s a small college that can challenge students academically and nurture them personally, plus it’s in a fantastic location. To me, that’s a great combination.”

Courses Taught

• College English: Composition
• College English: Introduction to Literature
• Introduction to Narrative: American Fiction
• Modern American from 1860 to 1960

Professional Society Membership

• American Society of Theatre Research
• Association for Theatre in Higher Education
• Modern Language Association

Papers Published and/or Presented

• “‘Ill Seen Ill Said’: Tropes of Vision and Race Relations in The Cattle Killing.” Critical Essays On John Edgar Wideman. Ed. Bonnie TuSmith and Keith E. Byerman. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006. 205-221.
• “The Body and the Blood: Performing the Sacred in Ana Mendieta’s Performance Art.” Conference Paper. Association for Theatre in Higher Education, New Orleans, July 2007. 
• “Perform or Else: the Performativity of Discipline in Ana Mendieta’s Body Art.” Conference Paper. Gender Across Border II: Research Subjects 2006, SUNY Buffalo, April 2006.
• “Potential Tutorial Role Conflicts in Sending Session Summaries to Instructors.” Conference Paper. Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), March 2006.
• “Approaching the Abject Mother in Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats…” Conference Paper. American Society for Theatre Research, November 2005.
• “The Performative Utterance in Samuel Beckett’s Not I”. Conference Paper. Susan B. Anthony Conference on Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, Spring 2005.