Kirsten Parkinson, Ph.D.

Director Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature, Professor of English, Gender Studies Minor Program Coordinator

Contact

Department
330.569.5323
parkinsonkl@hiram.edu

Kirsten Parkinson teaches courses in British and world literature, gender studies, film studies, and creative writing and has led study-abroad trips to Japan and England. While her Ph.D. is in Victorian literature, she loves that Hiram College gives professors and students freedom to explore wide-ranging interests and enjoys mentoring students to find the right opportunities to fit their passions. Recently, she has designed new courses on monsters, food writing, and James Joyce’s Ulysses (a course created at student request). As the Director of the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature, she arranges for authors to visit campus, coordinates student writing contests, and manages the Emerging Writers events for high-school writers.

Education

A.B., Harvard University
M.A., University of Southern California
Ph.D., University of Southern California
Graduate Certificate in Gender Studies, University of Southern California

Research Interests

Kirsten Parkinson’s research interests include class and gender in Victorian literature and film as well as cultural representations of food. She has published articles on Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, film adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and cookbooks. More recently, she has begun writing in the genre of creative nonfiction. Her first essay, “Where Else,” was published in the journal Confrontation. She is currently working on two other nonfiction essays.

Selected Publications

“Discussing the Complexities of Citizenship Within ‘Half of a Yellow Sun.’” Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Anisfield-wolf.org. September 2020.
“On Giving Up Antidepressants During a Pandemic.” Creative Nonfiction. Broad Street, July 2020.
“Mrs. Rochester’s Story: Franco Zeffirelli’s Adaptation of Jane Eyre.” Literature/Film Quarterly vol. 43, no. 1, 2015, pp. 18-33.
“Where Else.” Confrontation, no. 116, Fall 2014, pp. 181-191. (creative nonfiction)
“‘What do you play, boy?’: Card Games in Great Expectations.” Dickens Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 2, 2010, pp. 119-138.
“The Pot Roast Is Political: Domestic Ideology in Victorian and World War II Cookbooks.” Midwestern Folklore, vol. 29, no. 2, 2003, pp. 12-24.