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Department of

English

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Renée Bailey

Teaching Assistant Professor

reb423@lehigh.edu
0035 - Drown Hall
Education:

PhD, University of Southern Mississippi, 2019

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Additional Interests

  • Creative Writing, Fiction & Nonfiction
  • Episodic Narratives
  • Women’s Roles in Storytelling
  • Transcendentalism and Decolonial Rhetoric
  • First-year Writing – Research and Argumentative Rhetoric

Biography

Originally from Ohio, Renée (Ren) graduated with a bachelor’s from Bowling Green State University. They completed their graduate work at Austin Peay State University (M.A. ’13), and the University of Southern Mississippi (Ph.D. ‘19) with a creative dissertation that fictionalized the lives of strong femme characters. Their work appears in Midwestern Gothic, Gingerbread House, and others. Ren was a semi-finalist in the 2019 Key West Literary Seminar’s Cecelia Joyce Johnson Award and a runner-up in the 2019 Francis Ponge Prize for Prose Poetry at The Raw Art Review. In January 2019, Ren attended the Tin House Winter Workshop. Ren began teaching at Lehigh University in August 2023.

Publications

  • Prose Poetry. “Jungle Rope.” The Raw Art Review, Spring 2019
  • Fiction. “When to Buy a Gun.” Midwestern Gothic, Winter 2018
  • Fiction. “The Moon’s Footprint.” Gingerbread House, Summer 2017
  • Fiction. “Afternoons with Samson” and “My Mother’s Shrunken Dynasty.” Product, 2017
  • Fiction. “Dolls and Birds.” Red Mud Review, 2012-2013
  • Play. “Analogous.” Roxy Regional Theatre, 2012

Presentations

  • Forthcoming. Presentation. “Surplus and Sacrifice: Motherhood, Loss, and Having it All,” NeMLA, Boston, March 2024
  • Presentation. “Transparency and Choice: Forces for Resilience in Academia,” NeMLA, Niagara Falls, March 2023
  • Presentation. “McNair Scholars: Obstacles They Face in Higher-Ed,” USM, Spring 2021
  • Presentation. “Like Cracker Crumbs: Marianismo Culture in Sandra Cisneros’ Loose Woman.” Susan A. Siltanen Graduate Student Research Symposium, Spring 2019 
  • Prose & Dance Collaboration, “Jungle Rope.” The Lyric Body, USM, Fall 2018
  • Reading. “When to Buy a Gun.” C4W Graduate Reading Series, Fall 2018
  • Guest Lecture. “Through the Like-Line: Spelman’s Ampersand Problem in The Bluest Eye.” ENG 589, Fall 2018
  • Introduction. Fiction Writer & Poet, Dr. Olivia Clare, Hattiesburg Cultural Center, Fall 2018
  • Reading. “The German Cockroach.” Salon Series, Spring 2018
  • Panelist. “Another Smurfette: Eleven’s Kinship Structures in Stranger Things.” PCA Conference, Spring 2018
  • Chair. “Episodic Female: The Female Experience in Television.” SAMLA, Fall 2017
  • Panelist. “Silence, Indeed: Injustice’s Tool in Bad Feminist.” SAMLA, Fall 2017
  • Reading. “Afternoons with Samson.” Product Launch Party, Spring 2017
  • Reading. “Shaved Legs.” SAMLA Creative Writing Award Winners, Fall 2016
  • Presentation. “Beauty & Boundaries: Blending Creative Writing and First Year Composition.” Radical Writes: Composition, Creative Writing, and New Media Conference at Southeast Missouri State University, Spring 2016
  • Reading. “A Blue Cowed Rhythm.” C4W Graduate Reading Series, Spring 2016
  • Reading. “A Bittersweet Symphony.” Creative Writing Club Annual Reading, Spring 2015
  • Reading. “Jackson.” Creative Writing Club Annual Reading, Spring 2014
  • Poster Presentation. “The Demi-Devil, Iago: Shakespeare’s Sociopath.” SAMLA, Fall 2013
  • Presentation. “Frenemies: Drama’s Antagonists.” Tennessee Philological Association Conference, Fall 2013
  • Reading. “#54.” Creative Writers Reading, SAMLA, Fall 2013
  • Introduction. The Washington Post reporter, Juliet Eilperin, Customs Museum, Fall 2012

Teaching

ENGL 001: Critical Reading & Composition
ENGL 002: Research and Argument 
ENGL 011: Seminar in Critical Reading & Writing
ENGL 143: Introduction to Creative Writing Nonfiction