Faculty Name:Matthew Leporati, PhD

Areas of Interest

• Writing pedagogy and mindfulness
• British Romanticism
• Epic poetry
• Religion and literature
• British literature and empire
• James Joyce and Modernism

Courses Taught

• ENGL 110 and 120 Writing in Context I and II
• ENGL 110L and 120L Grammar Lab
• PFS 101 HEOP Pre-First Year Seminar
• FYE 101 First Year Experience
• FSEM 139 Freshman Seminar: The Literature of Protest
• FSEM 157 Freshman Seminar: The Wor(l)ds of James Joyce
• ENGL 203 Writing Workshop
• ENGL 270 Frankenstein and Its Age
• ENGL 296 Language of the Individual and Society
• ENGL 317 Introduction to Literary Interpretation
• HNRS 370 Enumerating Arguments: Mathematics and the Written Word
• ENGL 450 Coordinating Seminar
• ENGL 461 Professional Writing

Publications

Books

Romantic Epics and the Mission of Empire. Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Articles

• “There’s Lots of Memes in Finnegans Wake: Joyce’s Anticipation of Twenty-First-Century Memetic Communication.” Joyce Studies Annual, forthcoming.
• Review of Divine Images: The Life and Work of William Blake by Jason Whittaker. Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, forthcoming.
• “Blake’s Vortices: Hold.” Vala: The Journal of the Blake Society 5: 8-13.
• Review of Jerusalem: Blake, Parry, and the Fight for Englishness by Jason Whittaker and William Blake as Natural Philosopher, 1788–1795 by Joseph Fletcher. European Romantic Review 35.3 (2024): 571-76.
• “Emanuel Swedenborg’s Conjugial Love and the Erotic Politics of William Blake’s Epics.” European Romantic Review 34.4 (2023): 397-421.
• Editor of “Mindfulness in Writing and Literature Classrooms.” Special Cluster of essays. Modern Language Studies 52.1 (2022). (co-edited with Donetta Hines)
• “Introduction: Mindfulness in Writing and Literature Classrooms.” Modern Language Studies 52.1 (2022): 13-19. (co-authored with Donetta Hines)
• “Peeling The Onion: Pop Culture Satire in the Writing Classroom.” Isn’t it Ironic?: Irony in Contemporary Popular Culture. Routledge, 2021. 20-38. (co-authored with Rob Jacklosky)
• “William Blake’s Emoji: Composite Art and Composition.” The CEA Forum 49.1 (2021): 69-94.
• “‘More than mortal fervour’: Patriotism and Democracy in John Thelwall’s Epic The Hope of Albion.” Romanticism 26.1 (2020): 50-61.
• “New Formalism in the Classroom: Re-Forming Epic Poetry in Wordsworth and Blake.” Humanities 8.2 (2019): 100, 1-16.
• “Building up Jerusalem in the Classroom: William Blake and Writing Pedagogy.” The CEA Forum 47.1 (2018): 62-95.
• “Ann Yearsley’s ‘Brutus’ and the Evangelical Epic Poem.” Studies in Romanticism 57.2 (2018): 265-300.
• “Teaching William Wordsworth’s Prelude, Book 7.” “Teaching Romanticism – Romanticism and the City.” Romantic Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780-1840, pedagogy blog (2016).
• “William Blake’s Perspectives: Teaching Romanticism in the Community College Classroom.” The CEA Critic 78.1 (2016): 90-105.
• “Authority from Heaven’: Robert Southey’s Madoc and Epic Christian Imperialism.” European Romantic Review 25.2 (2014): 161-180.
• Review of Romantic Literature: Texts, Contexts, Connections by John Gilroy. Romanticism 19.3 (2013): 333-335.

Web Projects

The Suspended Sentence: An Exploration of Finnegans Wake

Select Conference Presentations

• “‘I Go to Eternal Death’: William Blake’s Milton as Underworld Journey.” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism Conference, Washington, DC and online, 2024.
• “Missionary Work and Secular Enchantment in Romantic Epics.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Boston, MA, 2024.
• Chair of Romantic Religions: Re-evaluating Secularism in the Romantic Era (Part 1). Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Boston, MA, 2024.
• Chair of Mindfulness in the Academy: Multitasking and Attention. Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Boston, MA, 2024.
• “‘About the Sledgy Streets’: James Joyce’s Eternal Return through the Streets of Finnegans Wake.” Modernist Studies Association Conference, Brooklyn, NY, 2023.
• “There’s Lots of Blake in Finnegans Wake: James Joyce’s Adaptation of Jerusalem.” Global Blake Society, Online Presentation, 2023.
• Co-chair. “The Mindful Intersection of Pedagogy and Scholarship.” Northeast MLA Conference, Niagara, NY, 2023.
• “Mindfully Centering the Other in Pedagogy and Scholarship.” Northeast MLA Conference, Niagara, NY, 2023.
• “There’s Lots of Memes in Finnegans Wake: The Memetics of James Joyce’s Original (?) Final Novel.” Northeast MLA Conference, Niagara, NY, 2023.
• “‘Mark Well My Words: They Are of Your Eternal Salvation’”: Blake’s Milton as Missionary against Empire. North American Society for the Study of Romanticism Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, 2022.
• Co-Chair: Mindfulness in the Writing and Literature Classrooms: Mindful Teaching and Learning. Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Baltimore, MD, 2022.
• “Meaningful Nonsense: Minding Paradox in the Writing and Literature Classroom.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Baltimore, MD, 2022.
• “‘Faun MacGhoul!’: James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake as Epic Underworld Descent.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Baltimore, MD, 2022.
• “Minding the World within Words: Stimulating Mindfulness in the Classroom through the OED.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Online, 2021.
• Co-Chair: Mindfulness in the Writing and Literature Classroom: In-person, Online, in the Moment (Roundtable). Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Online, 2021.
• “The Romantic Epic Poet and Transnational Utopia.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Online, 2021.
• “William Blake’s Epic (Dis)Connections.” British Association for Romantic Studies Conference, Online, 2021.
• “Forms of Mindful Pedagogy: Minding Form in the Writing Classroom.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Boston, MA, 2020.
• Co-Chair: Mindfulness in the Writing and Literature Classroom (Roundtable). Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Boston, MA, 2020.
• “’The Authors are in Eternity’: William Blake, Supernatural Inspiration, and Writing Pedagogy.” Supernatural Studies Conference, Bronx, NY, 2019.
• Co-Facilitator: Mindfulness in the Writing and Literature Classroom (Workshop). Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Washington, D.C., 2019.
• “’Such is the Cry from all the Earth’: The Dark Ecological Perception of William Blake’s Epics.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Washington, D.C., 2019.
• “Becoming Mindful of Empathy in the Literature and Writing Classroom” (Roundtable). Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Pittsburg, PA, 2018.
• “Homer, Newton, and Imperial Space in the Epics of William Blake.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Pittsburg, PA, 2018.
• “Creative Masochism in the Epics of William Blake.” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism Conference, Providence, RI, 2018.
• “Structuring the Grammar Lab.” New Jersey College English Association Conference, South Orange, NJ, 2018.
• “Emanuel Swedenborg’s Conjugial Love and the Erotic Politics of William Blake’s Epics.” Swedenborg and the Arts, Bryn Athyn, PA, 2017.
• “Smartphones and Sentence Diagrams: Stimulating Mindfulness in the Writing Classroom.” Blended Learning Conference, Bryn Mawr, PA, 2017.