Kevin M. Plunkett

Associate Professor
English
Ph.D. University of Rhode Island

Kevin M. Plunkett (associate professor, Ph.D. University of Rhode Island) specializes in nineteenth-century American literature, as well as Native American and African American authors.  In spring 2007 he introduced a new course on “Poe, Hawthorne and the American Short Story,” and in fall 2007 devoted his sabbatical research to German influences upon Transcendentalist authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller.  Dr. Plunkett will be presenting a paper at the American Literature Association Convention (May 2008) based on sabbatical research on Margaret Fuller and Goethe.  Other recent research focuses upon the folklore and culture of New Hampshire’s White Mountains as reflected in nineteenth-century art and literature. In fall 2006 Dr. Plunkett presented a paper on the Willey Landslide of 1826, an event which drew the attention of numerous journalists, authors and painters, including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Cole, and contributed significantly to the evolution of nineteenth-century American identity.  In both teaching and research Dr. Plunkett focuses on 19th-century culture wars over competing concepts of American identity and transnational influences.

Courses:

• Introduction to College Writing
• Introduction to Literary Studies
• Literature and Film
• Studies in American Romanticism
• Studies in Trans-Atlantic Romanticism
• American-Indian Renaissance
• Poe, Hawthorne and the American Short Story
• Poets of New England
• American Literature: Women of Color
• Senior Seminar