Jennifer Swartz-Levine, Ph.D | Faculty
Dean of the School of Arts, Education, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center
Arts, Humanities, and Honors
College Campus | Royce Hall
Royce Hall - 304
Background
Dr. Jennifer A. Swartz-Levine is the Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, a Professor of English, and the Director of the Writing Center at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio. Swartz-Levine’s recent publications include “Staking Salvation: The Reclamation of the Monstrous Female in Dracula” in The Midwest Quarterly (Summer 2016). This essay also won the 23rd Annual Victor J. Emmett Memorial Award from Pittsburg State University, which is the home of The Midwest Quarterly. Other recent publications include “Madwomen: Sexism as Nostalgia, or Feminism in The New Frontier” in The Ages of the Justice League: Essays on America’s Greatest Heroes in Changing Times (2017), “Approved by the Comics Code Authority: Saving America’s Youth from Juvenile Delinquency” in Historical and Pedagogical Issues in History: Insights from the Great Lakes History Conference (2017), and “She-Hulk Crash! The Evolution of Jen Walters, or How Marvel Comics Learned to Stop Worrying about Feminism and Love the Gamma Bomb” in The Ages of the Incredible Hulk (2015). She was a keynote speaker at the Batman in Popular Culture conference at Bowling Green State University in 2019 and a guest on the Justice League International: Bwah-Ha-Ha Podcast in 2020. Swartz-Levine also serves as an Executive Board member of the College English Association of Ohio.
About Her Work
One of the truly special elements of a Lake Erie College education is the close relationships students develop with faculty. Our small classes are rigorous and lead to engaged classroom discussions, hands-on learning opportunities in studio courses, class-related field trips to local and regional cultural sites, and a wealth of internship opportunities. Our faculty are well known in their fields, as well, so our students get to study with the very best.
Because of those well-connected faculty who work closely with students to identify their career goals and intellectual passions, our students have pursued internships at major communication firms, in political field offices, at publishing houses, at local art studios, at TV networks, at local and state government agencies, at international heritage sites, at law firms, at historical societies, and at social service community organizations.
Students also have won national competitions with their work, most recently including a Graphic Design USA award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of graphic design. It is the mentorship of our Lake Erie College faculty that enables our students to dream big dreams and set big goals, as we equip students with the knowledge and critical thinking skills to achieve their career and life ambitions. Guiding students in empowering themselves as they chart a life of personal and professional significance is a hallmark of a Lake Erie College education. All of that starts in the small classes and lifelong mentoring relationships that develop once a student joins our Storm family.
Degrees
Ph.D., English, Case Western Reserve University, August 2002
M.A., English, Kent State University, May 1997
B.A., English, Kent State University, May 1995
Career Accomplishments
College English Association of Ohio, April 2012 "Superheroes, Supervillians, and the Humanities Classroom: Using Graphic Novels to Teach Writing”
Midwest Victorian Studies Association, April 2012 "The Forgotten Women of England: the Single Woman, the Prostitute, and the Absence of Law”
Midwest Conference on British Studies, November 2011 "The Wife and the Widow: Coverture Law in Wuthering Heights and Middlemarch”
College English Association of Ohio, April 2011 "‘Who Are You? Who? Who?: Online Identity and Presentation of Self in the First-Year Composition Classroom”
Midwest Conference on British Studies, October 2010 "‘But the Undertakers Urge Her On’: The Cultural Construction of Mourning in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton”
Article Publications
“Approved by the Comics Code Authority: Saving America’s Youth from Juvenile Delinquency,” The Role of Agency and Memory in Historical Understanding: Revolution, Reform, and Rebellion, Ed. Gordon P. Andrews and Yosay D. Wagandi. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Press, June 2017. 160-172.
“Madwomen: Sexism as Nostalgia, or Feminism in The New Frontier,” The Ages of the Justice League: Essays on America’s Greatest Heroes in Changing Times. Ed. Joseph Darowski. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, April 2017. 172-185.
“Staking Salvation: The Reclamation of the Monstrous Female in Dracula,” The Midwest Quarterly, 57.4 (Summer 2016). Winner of The Midwest Quarterly’s 2016 Victor J. Emmett Memorial Award.
“She-Hulk Crash! The Evolution of Jen Walters, or How Marvel Comics Learned to Stop Worrying about Feminism and Love the Gamma Bomb.” The Ages of the Incredible Hulk: Essays on the Green Goliath in Changing Times. Ed. Joseph Darowski. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, November 2015. 78-92.
Conference Publications
Popular Culture Association, 15-18 April 2020 CANCELED DUE TO COVID-19 “Moneypenny Deadly: The Spy Game of Velvet”
Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association, 7-9 November 2019 “’Now We Play for Beer and Cable’: Greg Rucka’s Stumptown as a Feminist Rockford Redux”
Midwest Popular Culture Association, 10-13 October 2019 “’Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Roads’: The Young Feminists of Paper Girls”
Popular Culture Association, 17-20 April 2019 “This New Detergent Gets Blood Stains Out! Suburbia and Serial Homicide in Lady Killer”
Popular Culture Association, 28 March-1 April 2018 “Bitch is the New Orange: Subversion and Non-Compliance in the Women-in-Prison Comic, Bitch Planet”
Midwest Popular Culture Association, 18-22 October 2017 “How Big of a B was Barda? Feminism as a Foil in the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League”
"The Doctor’s Wife: Criminal/Justice.” The Victorian 2.3 (2014). Web.
"MySpace, Facebook, and Multi-Modal Literacy in the Writing Classroom.” Kairos PraxisWiki 15.2 (Spring 2011). Web
"‘Personal Property at Her Disposal’: Inheritance Law, the Single Woman, and The Moonstone.” Victorian Sensations: Essays on a Scandalous Genre. Ed. Richard Fantina and Kimberly Harrison. The Ohio State University Press, October 2006. 160-169.
Keynotes/Invited Talks
“Holy Bat Heartbreak: The Long Dark Knight of the Soul,” Batman in Popular Culture Conference, Bowling Green State University, 12-13 April 2019
Victor J. Emmett Memorial Lecture, “The Golden Lasso of Truthiness: A Complicated History of Women in/and Comics,” Pittsburg State University, 8 September 2016.
“The Superman Revolution” panelist at the Case Western Reserve University Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, 19 March 2013.
Podcast
Guest for Justice League America #30 segment, “JLI Podcast #30: Justice League America #30/Justice League Europe #5” Justice League International: Bwah-Ha-Ha Podcast. Posted 26 January 2020. http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/jli-30/