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Dr. Catherine Romagnolo

Catherine Romagnolo

Professor of English
Director of Social Justice & Civic Engagement

Email: romagnol@lvc.edu

Phone: 717-867-6247

Office Location: Humanities 208C

B.S., University of Florida; M.A., University of Maryland; Ph.D., University of Maryland

Expertise:
Feminist Literature, African American Literature, Narrative Theory, Intergroup Dialogue, Theory and Practice of Social Justice

Research & Practice Areas:
Narrative beginnings, African American literature and culture, American women writers, Intergroup Dialogue and pedagogy, narrative theory

In both my research and teaching, I emphasize the centrality of social identity to literary narratives. My research has focused primarily on narrative form, gender, race, and social justice. Most recently, I have been working on utilizing Intergroup Dialogue techniques in the classroom and community to bridge differences and move toward a more equitable society.

Grants:

  • 2015—President’s Innovation Grant to explore Transdisciplinary Collective
  • 2015—Colloquium Speaker Grant
  • 2014—Colloquium Speaker Grant
  • 2013—President’s Innovation Grant for Intergroup Dialogue Program
  • 2011—Faculty Research Grant to conduct sabbatical research in Italy

Awards:

  • The Thomas Rhys Vickroy Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2011.
  • NOMA Notice of Multicultural Achievement Award, 2007 and 2008.
  • HyPE Teacher Appreciation Award, Lebanon Valley College, 2006.
  • James A. Robinson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, University of Maryland, Department of English, May 2000.
  • Distinguished Teaching Assistant for 1999-2000, University of Maryland, Center for Teaching Excellence, May 2000.
  • Distinguished Teaching Assistant for 1998-99, University of Maryland, Center for Teaching Excellence, May 1999.
  • Outstanding Teacher Award, The Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council, University of Maryland, Fall 1997.

Research book:

Opening Acts: Narrative Beginnings in Twentieth-Century Feminist Fiction, University of Nebraska Press, September 2015.

 

Publications:

  • “That Which Gets Reconstructed as Metaphor: Disidentification in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad” Contemporary African American and Black British Women Writers: Narrative, Race, Ethics, Routledge: eds. Jean Wyatt and Sheldon George, 2021.
  • “[Un]Natural Connections: Feminist Experimentation and Unnatural Narration in Nights at the Circus,”Unnatural Narratology: Extensions, Revisions, and Challenges, Ohio State University Press: eds. Jan Alber and Brian Richardson, 2020.
  • “Toward a Critical Race Narratology: Narrative Beginnings in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon,” Narrative Race and Ethnicity in the Americas eds. Jennifer Ho, James Donahue, and Shaun Morgan, Ohio University Press 2017.
  • “Naturally Flawed?: Gender, Race, and the Unnatural in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple” Storyworlds special edition, ed. Brian Richardson, winter 2016.
  • “Initiating Dialogue:  Beginnings in Multicultural Narratives” New Horizons in the Analysis of World Narrative Fiction ed. Frederick Aldama, University of Texas Press January 2012.
  • “Recessive Origins in Alvarez’s Garcia Girls:  A Feminist Theory of Narrative Beginnings” Narrative Beginnings ed., Brian Richardson, 2010.
  • Entries on “An Mei Hsu”, “Lindo Jong”, “Jing Mei Woo,” and “Ying Ying St. Clair,” characters from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. Students’ Companion to American Literary Characters, 2006.
  • “Narrative Beginnings in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club: A Feminist Study.” Studies in the Novel 35.1 (Spring 2003): 89-107.
  • American Literature II
  • African American Literature
  • Literature by Women
  • Dialogue and Social Justice
  • Race in the 21st Century
  • Queer Literature
  • Novel and the Environment
  • Intergroup Dialogue: Race
  • Symposium on Black Lives Matter