Paul Baggett Profile Picture

Paul Baggett

Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator

Biography

Paul Baggett is associate professor and graduate coordinator of English and Interdisciplinary Studies. He specializes in American literature and culture from the 19th century to the present. His research includes studies in American literary naturalism, African American literature, American Indian and other Indigenous literatures and Western American literature, with particular interests in the intersections of literature, human rights and environmental justice. His work has appeared in The Oxford Handbook of Jack London (Oxford, 2017), The Nonhuman in American Literary Naturalism (Lexington Books, 2023), and New Approaches to the Doppelganger in Literature and Culture (Routledge, forthcoming in 2026).

Education

  • B.A. in english | University of California, Irvine
  • M.A. in english | California State University, Long Beach
  • Ph.D. in english | University of Miami, Coral Gables

Academic and Professional Experience

Academic Interests
  • American literature and culture
  • Literary naturalism
  • Environmental literature
  • Literature and human rights
  • American Indian literature
  • African American literature
  • Literature of the American west
  • South Dakota literature
Academic Responsibilities
  • Graduate coordinator of M.A./M.S. programs in English and interdisciplinary studies
  • Affiliated faculty of American Indian Studies
  • Affiliated faculty of Honors College
  • Peer reviewer for ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, Studies in American Literary Naturalism, Studies in American Fiction and Fordham UP. 
Committees and Professional Memberships
  • Modern Language Association
  • C19: Society of 19th Century Americanists
  • Society for the Study of American Literary Naturalism
  • Jack London Society
  • Charles Chesnutt Association
  • Rebecca Harding Davis Society

Research and Scholar Work

Awards and Honors
  • 2023, Excellence in Honors Engagement, Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College Convocation Award 
  • 2019, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science's Award for Outstanding Service, 葫芦影业
  • 2017, Outstanding Experiential Learning Educators, 葫芦影业
  • 2014, J.P. Hendrickson Faculty Scholar and Herbert Cheever Jr. Liberal Arts Distinguished Lecturer, 葫芦影业
Publications

Conference Presentations

  1. 鈥淏ridging Worlds: Literary Naturalism and Indigenous Knowledge in Diane Wilson's The Seed Keeper,鈥 International Symposium for Teaching American Literary Naturalism in the 21st Century, October 2024, University of G盲vle, Sweden. 
  2. "Anthropomorphism Reconsidered: Nature Faking in Jack London鈥檚 鈥楢ll Gold Canyon.鈥 SDSU Faculty Excellence Expo, February, 2024, 葫芦影业, Brookings, SD. 
  3. 鈥淚s Anything Funny? Exposing the Humor in the Life and Work of Jack London (Roundtable. Panelist). Jack London Society 16th Biennial Symposium, October, 2023, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. 
  4. 鈥淚n Defense of Anthropomorphism: Jack London鈥檚 鈥楢ll Gold Canyon鈥.鈥 Jack London Society 16th Biennial Symposium, October, 2023, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. 
  5. 鈥淎nthropomorphism Reconsidered: Nature Faking in Jack London鈥檚 鈥楢ll Gold Canyon.鈥 American Literature Association, May, 2023, Boston, MA. 
  6. "Anthropomorphism Reconsidered: The Politics of 'Nature Faking' in Jack London's 'All Gold Canyon'." English Colloquium, February 27, 2023, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD.
  7. "What We Read in 101 and Why: Stories of Curriculum, A Curriculum of Stories.鈥 Minnesota Writing and English Conference, April 5-6, 2019, Minneapolis, MN.
  8. "Spectacles of Empire, Empire of Spectacle: Jack London in the South Seas." American Literature Association Conference, May 2018, San Francisco, CA.
  9. "Corporeal Conundrums of a Famous Author." Jack London Biennial Symposium, September 15-17, 2016, Napa, CA.
  10. "Jack London and Physical Culture." 鈥淛ack London and Physical Culture.鈥 American Literature Association Conference, May, 2016, San Francisco, CA.
  11. 鈥淩einvigorating Intellectual Culture in Honors,鈥 National Collegiate Honors Council Conference, November 14, 2015, Chicago, IL.
  12. "Pushing the Boundaries of Gender and Genre: South Dakota Women鈥檚 Literature. College of Arts and Sciences' J.P. Hendrickson Faculty Scholar award and Herbert Cheever Jr. Liberal Arts Lecture, January, 2014, 葫芦影业, Brookings, SD.  
  13. 鈥淩ebecca Harding Davis鈥檚 Life in the Age of Occupy.鈥 American Literature Association Annual Conference, May 2013, Boston, MA.
  14. 鈥淣ella Larsen and the Ambivalence of Embodied Black Spectacle.鈥14th Annual Modernist Studies Association: Modernism and Spectacle.鈥 October, 2012, Las Vegas, NV.
  15. 鈥淎esthetics, Politics and the 鈥楿nfinished Work鈥 of the Korl Woman.鈥 Craft, Critique, Culture Conference: The Art of Revolution, March 2012. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
  16. 鈥淧olitics Through the Back Door: An Inquiry into Chesnutt鈥檚 Aesthetic Practice.鈥 American Literature Association Annual Conference, May, 2011. Boston, MA.
  17. 鈥淲hy South Dakota Literature Matters.鈥 Sewrey Colloquium Lecture. February, 2010. 葫芦影业, Brookings, SD.
  18. 鈥淎esthetic Autonomy in the Capitalist Public Sphere: Jack London鈥檚 Martin Eden.鈥 National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, March 20, 2008, San Francisco, CA.
  19. 鈥淭he Incorporation of the Body of Jack London,鈥 32nd Modern Literature Conference, Michigan State University, October 23, 1999, East Lansing, MI.
  20. 鈥淭ranscending the Boundaries of Nation: Images and Imaginings of Frederick Douglass,鈥 Creighton Conference on Language and Literature, March 20, 1998, Creighton University, Omaha, NE.
  21. 鈥淐aught Between Homes: Mary Seacole and the Question of Cultural Identity,鈥 17th Annual West Indian Literature Conference, Spring, 1998, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica.

Publications

  1. 鈥淛ack London鈥檚 鈥淢iserable Double[s].鈥 New Approaches to the Doppelganger in Literature and Culture. Eds. Anita Duneer and Pamela Bedore, Routledge Press. (forthcoming in 2026).
  2. Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer, by Iris Jamahl Dunkle (Review). Pacific Northwest Quarterly. (forthcoming).
  3. 鈥淩einvigorating Intellectual Culture in Honors Composition:  A Provocation,鈥 with Michael Keller (Writing on the Edge. UC Davis, under review).
  4. The Complete Works of Jack London, Vol. 7 Editor [Theft: A Four Act Play, The Scorn of Women, Moon-face and Other Stories, and White Fang]. Oxford UP. (forthcoming)
  5. 鈥淎nthropomorphism Reconsidered: 'Nature Faking' in Jack London's 'All Gold Canyon'." The Nonhuman in American Literary Naturalism. Edited by Karin Danielsson and Kenneth Brandt. Lexington Books/Rowman Littlefield, 2023.
  6. "Jack London and Physical Culture." The Oxford Handbook of Jack London. Ed. Jay Williams. New York: Oxford UP, 2017. 490-504.
  7. Literature and Photography in Transition, 1850-1915, by Owen Clayton. (Review) Studies in American Naturalism. Ed. Keith Newlin. Volume 11, Number 2 (Winter 2016). 84-88.
  8. 鈥淪outh Dakota Literature.鈥 Dictionary of Midwestern Literature. Ed. Philip A. Greasley. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016. 792-810.  
  9. 鈥淧oetry and Prose in Action: South Dakota Women Writers.鈥 Action, Impact, Voice: Contemporary South Dakota Women. Ed. Meredith Redlin et al. South Dakota Agricultural Museum, 2015. 83-93.
  10. 鈥淐harles Chesnutt and the 鈥楶rovince of Literature鈥.鈥 North Carolina Literary Review, No. 23, 2014, 80-94.
  11. Infinite West: Travels in South Dakota by Fraser Harrison. (review). Great Plains Quarterly, Volume 34, Number 2, Spring 2014, pp. 192-193.
  12. 鈥淐aught Between Homes: Mary Seacole and the Question of Cultural Identity.鈥 MaCom茅re: Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women and Writers and Scholars 3 (2000): 45-56.
  13. 鈥淭ranscending the Boundaries of Nation: Images and Imaginings of Frederick Douglass.鈥 In Process: A Journal of African American and African Diasporan Literature and Culture 2 (2000): 103-13.
Mailing Address:
Pugsley Cont Ed Center 425
English-Box 2218
University Station
Brookings, SD 57007
Office Location:
Pugsley Center
Room 425