Department: English

Gail K. Smith

Associate Professor of English

Office:

Berte Humanities Building 325

Contact Information:

Box 549025
Birmingham-Southern College
900 Arkadelphia Rd
Birmingham, AL 35254
Office Phone: (205) 226-4857
Office Fax: n/a
E-mail: gsmith@bsc.edu

Brief Career Background:

2005-present
Associate Professor of English, Birmingham-Southern College
2002-2005
Assistant Professor of English, Birmingham-Southern College
2001-2002
Associate Professor of English, Mississippi University for Women
1998-2001
Assistant Professor of English, Mississippi University for Women
1993-1998
Assistant Professor of English, Marquette University

Educational Background:

Ph.D., English, University of Virginia, 1993 M.Ed., English Education, University of Virginia, 1990 M.A., English, University of Virginia, 1989 B.A., Literature, cum laude, distinction in major, Yale University, 1985

Areas of Academic Interest:

• Nineteenth-century American literature
• American women writers
• Early American literature
• Gender studies
• Religion and literature
• History of reading

Courses Taught:

EH 102 Introduction to Writing (1)
Techniques of expository prose. Prerequisite: placement by English faculty. Fall, Spring.

EH 200

EH 210 Introduction to Fiction (1)
An introduction to the short story, in American, British, and world literature, with some attention to longer fiction. Prerequisite: EH 102 or 208. Fall, Spring

EH 260 Survey of American Literature (1)
An introduction to major American prose and verse written from the Colonial period to the present. Prerequisite: EH 102 or 208.

EH 330 Major Authors (1)
A focused study of the works of one to three authors. Recent offerings have included Dante, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Morrison, Woolf, and Yeats. With the permission of the English faculty, students may enroll more than once for credit, providing that the focus of the course is different. Prerequisite: any 200-level literature course. (Category 2)

EH 388

EH 389 Contextual Studies in American Literature (1)
A critical examination of selected American writing within its cultural contexts. At present, the focus of the course is African-American autobiography, from slave narratives to the present (an IC designated course). Prerequisite: any 200-level literature course. (Category 1)

EH 410 Studies in the Novel (1)
A theoretical study of the novel. The focus of the course may change each time it is offered: for example, gender and the novel, the modernist novel, the novel and narratology. Prerequisite: any 300-level literature course. (Category 5)

Discovering Mark Twain (interim)
The Female Protagonist in Literature (interim)

Service-Learning in Mozambique and in Decatur, AL