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Pamela Gossin

Pamela Gossin

Professor — Literature and History
 
972-883-2071
JO 5.404
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Professional Preparation

Dual Ph.D. - History of Science and English
University of Wisconsin-Madison - 1989
MA - English
University of Nebraska-Lincoln - 1984
B.A. - English and Latin w/ Math minor
University of Nebraska-Lincoln - 1978

Research Areas

Areas of Specialization

History of Science and interdisciplinary Literature and Science studies (especially 17th through 20th centuries); women and science; literature and the environment, including nature writing; scientific biography and autobiography; popularization of science and public education in science and technology; science poetry; interrelations of astronomy, cosmology and literature; Japanese anime and manga; Great Plains literature and culture; "Great Books" of World Cultures.

Publications

Beneath the Stars: A 'Literary' History of Astronomy, Women and Poetics, 1590-1990, in progress. in progress - Publication
"Literature and the Modern Physical Sciences," Cambridge History of Science, Volume 5: Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences, ed. Mary Jo Nye, expected 1999. 1999 - Publication
An Encyclopedia of Literature and Science, under contract with Greenwood Press, expected 1999-2000. 1999 - Publication
Markley, Robert, Fallen Languages: Crises of Representation in Newtonian England, 1660-1740, Early Science and Medicine 3.3 (Aug 1998) 265-267. 1998 - Publication
"Aphra Behn," Women of Science, ed. Marilyn Ogilvie et al, Holt/Routledge, expected 1998. 1998 - Publication
"Literature and the Scientific Revolution," The Scientific Revolution, ed. Wilbur Applebaum, NY: Garland, expected late 1998. 1998 - Publication
"News on the Encyclopedia of Literature and Science," Decodings, 6.2 (Spr 1997) 4-9. 1997 - Publication
"Living Poetics, Enacting the Cosmos: Diane Ackerman's Popularization of Astronomy in The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral," Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26 (1997) 605-638. 1997 - Publication

Appointments

Professor of Arts and Humanities
University of Texas-Dallas [2010–2018]
Associate Professor of Arts and Humanities
University of Texas-Dallas [2001–Present]
Assistant Professor of Arts and Humanities
University of Texas-Dallas [1994–2001]
Visiting Assistant Professor, History of Science Summer
University of Oklahoma [1994–1994]
Assistant Professor of English
University of Missouri-Rolla [1994–1994]
Visiting Assistant Professor, History of Science
University of Oklahoma [1991–1993]
Rockefeller Fellow, History of Science
University of Oklahoma [1990–1991]
Assistant/Adjunct Professor of English
Millikin University [1988–1990]
Affiliate Professor of Science Education
University of Texas-Dallas [–2018]

Additional Information

OTHER EXPERIENCE
  • Editorial work: Knoll, Robert E. Weldon Kees and the Midcentury Generation..., Lincoln: UNP, 1986.
  • Bibliographic work, Princeton University: Zimmerberg, Helen ed, Cyclic AMP Bibliography, Squibb.
  • Staff of Alicorn, undergraduate literary magazine, University of Nebraska.
  • Poetry editor, Runes, student literary magazine, Lincoln, Nebraska.
  • Curator / Asst Curator, Nebraska Literature and History Collection, Lincoln Public Libraries, 1981-84.
  • Library Assistant: Microforms, Periodicals, and Audio. Love Memorial Library, University of Nebraska.
  • University of Wisconsin: Organizer: Graduate Student Conference Workshop; George Sarton Grad. Student Society.
  • University of Nebraska: Grade Appeals Committee, Classics Department.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
  • STEM Liaison (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) for Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma, Thunderbird Service Unit, 2009+
  • Girl Scouts of America, Leader, Junior Troop 209, 2008+
  • Girl Scouts of America, Leader, Brownie Troop 209, 2007-08
  • Girl Scouts of American, Assistant Leader, Brownie Troop 209, 2005-2007
  • Volunteer: March of Dimes, 2004-06
  • All-Saints Catholic School, special events volunteer, 2003+
  • American Diabetes Association, 1995-2003
  • Callier Angel Gift Tree (UTD), 1994-2003
  • Special Needs Adoption Resource Group, Lutheran Social Service,1998-2001
  • Lakeview Elementary, Volunteer, 1998-2002
  • Faculty Sponsor: Student Group, 1996-98; Habitat for Humanity, 1996
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
  • UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-DALLAS: CURRENT
    • Director, Medical and Scientific Humanities (MaSH minor), 2003+
    • Advisor and Curriculum Developer, Medical and Scientific Humanities Minor and Major, 1999-present
    • Steering Committee, Science and Mathematics Education, UTeach Program, 2008+
    • Committee on Teaching Effectiveness, 2008+
    • A&H Faculty Personnel Review Committee, 2006-08
    • 3rd Year Review Committee, Prof. Michelle Nickerson, 2008-09
    • Early Modern British Literature Search Committee, 2008-09
  • UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-DALLAS: PAST SERVICE
    • Internal Review Board (research on animal and human subjects), member, 2005+; vice-chair, 2004-2005
    • Dean’s Executive Committee, Dean of Arts and Humanities, 2004-2006
    • SACSCOC Accreditation Committee, Literary faculty credentials, 2006
    • School of A&H Library and Teaching Resources Committee, 2006-07
    • University Library Committee, 2006+
    • Search Committees:
      • – Early Modern British Literature, 2007-08 (no offer made)
      • – Film Studies, 2007+
      • – Chinese History, 2006+
      • – Early Modern British Literature, 2006-07
      • – Classics, 2005-06
      • – Medical and Scientific Humanities, 2005-06
      • – University Fellows, 3 positions
      • – American Women’s History
      • – American History & Teachers Education
      • – Humanities, Senior Lecturers, 3 positions
    • Graduate Studies Committee, A&H, 2004-2006
    • Faculty Sponsor, Retrospect (graduate student journal), 2006+
    • Faculty Sponsor, Literary Studies Society, 2006+ (early-stage development)
    • Ad Hoc Committee for Revision of AH By-laws, 2004-05
    • Tenure Review Committees:
      • Dr. Edrie Sobstyl, 2002-2003
      • Dr. Homer Montgomery (reassigned), 2003
      • Historical Studies, Dr. Daniel Wickberg, 2001
    • 3rd Year Review Committees:
      • Historical Studies, Prof. Natalie Ring, 2006-07
      • Social Sciences, Dr. Doug Harris, 2001
    • Gender Studies Program Faculty
    • Medical and Scientific Humanities Minor Proposal
    • Sigma Xi, Scientific Honorary, 1999+
    • Dean’s Task Force for Teachers Education
      • Advisor, Teachers Education Students seeking Certification in History, 1998-99
      • Advisor: Historical Studies majors with Teachers certificate
    • Central Faculty Advisor, Undergraduate Studies, 1996-97
    • Associate Director, Center for the Study of Science and the Arts, 1994-96
    • University Committee on Educational Policy (CEP)
    • School of Arts and Humanities:
      • Course and Curriculum Committee
      • Library Committee
      • Development Committee
      • Teaching Committee
      • Nominating Committee
      • Faculty Personnel Committee
    • Supervisor: Teaching Assistants / Research Assistant.
    • Gender Studies Working Group
    • Advisor: Graduate Student Handbook project
    • Presenter: Graduate Student Association Job Fair
    • New Faculty Advising Orientation
    • Faculty revision of course catalogs, every two years
    • Social Study of Science Reading Group; Association of Professional Women
  • OTHER UNIVERSITIES
    • University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology): 1993-94 Hired for “Literature and Science” position previously held by N. Katherine Hayles.
      • Director, Literature and Science Minor program
      • Graduate Faculty
      • Annual Faculty Peer Review of Teaching Portfolios
      • Departmental Curriculum Committee
      • Intercultural Community Development Workshop
      • Student Affairs Committee
      • English Department Advisory Board
      • Course and Curriculum Improvement
      • Personnel Committee
      • Faculty evaluation of Departmental Chair
      • Supervisor: Work-Study Students
      • Outreach: Lit and Sci Bibliography -- BYU Faculty
    • University of Oklahoma: 1990-1994
      • Graduate Faculty
      • Faculty Sponsor: OU Lutheran Student Study Group
      • Masters Thesis Committee
      • Judge: Oklahoma History Day
      • Supervisor: 4 Graduate Teaching Assistants
      • Interdisciplinary Faculty Workshops (monthly)
      • Undergraduate Curriculum Reform Proposal
    • Millikin University: 1988-1990
      • Literature and Science--Student Workshop
      • Career Counseling for Potential Graduate Students
      • Faculty WAC Workshop--William Zinsser
      • Supervisor: Secondary Education Intern
      • Adviser: Interdisciplinary Honors Students
      • Supervisor: Work-Study Students
      • Organizer: Conant Writing Competition
      • Participant: New Faculty Mentoring Program

Affiliations

PhD Students, 20 Current, Active
Julie Gavran, Chair, History of the Essay, Nature Writing, 2009+ Jill Aston, Literature and the Environment, 2009+ Lauren Dixon, Chair, Embodiment, Literature and the Environment, 2008+ (Quals, F2009) Caroline Bolt, 19th-c Brit and Am. Literature and Idea of Happiness, 2009+ Thomasina Hickman, Chair, 19th-c Gothic novel, 2009+ Abigail Manuel, Utopian/Dystopian literature, 2009+ Luke Lafitte, Popular Science Writing, 2008+ (Quals, Sum2009) Serin Hetou, 19th C. Am. Lit - Frontier (Quals, Sp2009) Jennifer Jeffrey, Newtonian alchemy, 2008+ (comm. pending) Heidi Xiong, Art and Science of Leonardo, 2008+ (comm. pending) Stacey Donald, 19th-c British Novel, 2008+ Sumathi Ananthakrishnan, 19th-c British-Indian History, 2007+ Shazia Ali, Victorian History and Culture, 2006+ (Quals, 2008?) Jaime Jordan, Chair, Victorian Literature, 2006+ (Quals, 2008) Nina Serebrianik, Medieval History and Culture, 2006+ (Quals 2008?) Susan Rushing Adams, Chair, History of Women and Medicine, 2005+ (Quals, 2009) Kristin VanNamen, Co-Chair, creative project - novel, 2005+ (Quals, 2008?) Rosarita Khadija Lubag, Rhetoric of Science Textbooks - Philippines, 2005+ Patrick Dennis, Chair, Medieval History and Philosophy of Science (Quals, 2005), 2003+ Jamie Wheeler, Co-Chair, Steinbeck's Women (Quals, 2005), 2004+ Deborah Scally, Chair, Women, Anime and Film (Quals, 2005) 2004+
PhD Students, 19 Graduated
Pia Jakobsson, 18th c. English and American Women Writers, (Quals 2006), 2003-09 Shari Childers, Chair, Women and Nature, 2005-2008 Darlene Leifson, Chair, Creativity and Performance, 2004-2008 James King, Hannah Arendt, History and Philosophy of Science, 2005-2008 Hannah Swamidoss, Victorian Popular Science for Children, 2005-2008 Christopher Speck, Chair, Loren Eiseley's Concept of Time (Quals, 2004), 2003-2007 Adrian Cook, Representations and Performance of the Matrix (Quals, 2005), 2004-2006 Mark Watney, epic poetry and C.S. Lewis, 2004-2006 Charles Kroll, creative project - novel, 2001-2006 Patricia Chogugudza, Chair, African Women in Lit and Culture, 2003-2005 Tonja Wissinger, Chair, Women, Literature and Medicine, 1995-2004 Troy Camplin, Complex Systems and Aesthetics, 2003-2004 Evelyn Montgomery, Great Plains Literature, History, Domestic Spaces (Quals, 2001), 1998-2004 M. Wayne Cooper, MD, Chair, History of Medical Ethics and Literature of Medicine (Quals, 2001), 1999-03 Yongzhao Deng, Comparative Approach to Chinese Medicine, 2001-03 Charlotte Hough, Early Modern Utopian Fiction, 2001-03 Michele Marshall, Chair, Katherine Philips and Early Modern Women's Literature, 1996-03 Chad Hansen, History of Ancient Astronomy: Planetary Mythology (Quals, 2001), 2000-2001. Jonathan Wade, Science Fiction, Technology and Comparative Law, 1994-98.
PhD Students, 3 on Leave of Absence or Status unknown
Kim Ford, Women's Lit and Culture, 2006+ (status unknown) Melody Sadjadi, Chair, Women in Medicine, 2005+ (leave of absence) Diana Gingo, Women in Film and Literature, 2003+ (status unknown)
PhD Students, 6 Left Program or Changed Committees
Suzanne Gabriel (left program) Elizabeth Coker, Victorian Literature, 2006 (changed committees) Joe Hinman, Science, Religion, Literature - Enlightenment (Qualifying exams, 2001), 1994-2005 (left program) Darby Grande, History of Women in Physics, (left program) Annette Hoines, Concepts of Superorganism in History of Biology and Culture, 2000+ (status unknown) R. A. Cantrell, Shakespeare's Latinity and Geographical Allusions, 2000-2002 (left program)
MA Students, 2 Current, Active
April Walker, Wright Morris and Phototext, 2010 (comm. pending) Janet Fairfield, Dickens and Social Miasma, 2006+ (Spr 10 def. pending)
MA Students, 32 Graduated
Stacey Knepp, Lucian's Cosmic Voyage, 2008-09 Sara Keeth, Jane Austen, Women's Literature, 2006-2007 Sumathi Ananthakrishnan, 19th-c History, 2006-2007 Meghan Lee, Chair, 2007 Dessie Sanders, American Literature and Bible, 2006+ Tammy Brightwell, Chair, Masters-Teaching: Science Fiction, 2006. (Alice) Claire Burrows, Chair, 2005-2006. Julie Whitley, Oscar Wilde; Professional MA, 2006. Matthew Braddock, Chair, Hardy's Critique of Christianity, Simone de Beauvoir's Ethics, 2005. Kim Garcia, Chair, Nature and Poetry, 2004-2005 John Araiza, Chair, Frontier Gothic and George Orwell, 2003 (converted to new MA) Dana Turner, Chair, Women in Frontier Literature, History and Film, 2003-2004 John Altom, Co-Chair, Aristotle's Ethics and Atomic Bomb; Reading Technology, 2002-03 Nicholas Boeving, Chair, Science and Religion; Perspectives on Holocaust, 2002-03 Suzanne Gabriel, Shakespeare and Psychology, 18-19th c. psychology, 2003 Darby Grande, Chair, Gender, Science and Autobiography; Holocaust Biographies, 2001-03 Deborah Scally, Chair, Cross-Dressing in Shakespeare; Female Heroes in Children's Lit., 1999-2003 Jamie Wheeler, Chair, Ma in Grapes of Wrath; Lozen: Woman Warrior, 2001-03 Bethany Lee, Creative Portfolio: Poetry and Poetic Process, 2002. Christopher Speck, Chair, Loren Eiseley's Theory of Time; Camus's Theodicy, 1999-2002. Rosarita "Kaj" Lubag, Chair, Michael Wigglesworth; Italian Women and Culture, 2002. Shari Childers, Co-Chair, Thomas Shadwell and Courtship; Camus's Absurd, 2001-2002. Patrick Dennis, Chair, Faith and Reason in Eco and Hardy; Early Modern Concepts of Sci-fic Method, 2001-2002. Sharon Duncan, Chair, George Eliot, Medical and Social Reform, 2001-2002. Shanda Cayton, Chair, Influence of Milton on E. Barrett Browning's "Aurora Leigh," 2001. Jennifer Kraemer, Chair, Companionate Marriage in 19th-c. Literature, Fall, 2001. Kristi Wesloh, Chair, John Donne and Astronomy; E. Barrett Browning and Muse, 1998-2001. Kelly Martin, Chair, Ancient Hymn of Demeter: Feminist/Masculinist, 1999-2000. Mary Beth Weed, History of Early Modern Medicine and Literature, 1999-2000. Cathy Mathers, 19th-c Literature, Women and Medicine, 1998-99. Natalie Delker, Chair, Artificial Intelligence and 20th-c Literature, 1996-98. Lori Eaton, Chair, Satanic Heroes in Literary History, 1996-97.
MA Students, 6 Left Program, Changed Committees, or Transferred
Tim Webber, Shakespeare and Samuel Johnson, 2005- (status unknown) Karen Bartlett, Creative Portfolio: Drama (left program) Dietrich Volkland, Native American culture (left program) Cecelia Walter (changed topic and committees) Mark Dixon, transferred to graduate program at another school Tim Haynes, Chair, Technology/Culture, 2000-2002; transferred to MIT's Science Writing Program, inaugural class with major scholarship/stipend support.
Service on 15 Honors committees, to-date; Chair of 9
Christopher Cassity, Chair, The Epistemology of Detection in 19th-c Literature, 2009 (did not complete) Jade Milton, the Novel, 2008+ (status unknown) Missy Luton, Chair, Cultural Representations of Gen-X, 2007. David Cheng, Shakespeare and Beauty, 2006. Kim Conaty, Chair, Early Modern Scientific Utopias, 2006. Mark Walser, Literature, culture, cosmology in Australia, 2005+ (status unknown). Shazia Ali, Bronte's Wuthering Heights, 2005. Heather Taylor, Chair, Loren Eiseley: Paleontology and Poetry, 2001. Shari Boggus, Chair, Tess and Natural Law, 2000. Deborah Scally, Chair, Female Heroes in Children's Fantasy Literature, 1999-2000. Robert Griffin, Chair, Salvador Dali and his Aesthetic Philosophy of Human Nature, 1999. Anne Warmus, Chair, Tragedy and Comedy in Regional Literature, 1998. Brian Worrall, Chair, Utopian/Dystopian Literature, 1997-98. Emily Armstrong, Early Modern Science and Culture, 1996 (did not complete). Sloan Rawlins, Law and Literature, 1995.

Funding

Motivating Scientific Learning Through Historical Perspectives
$10,000 - GEMS - NSF [2010–2011]
Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology
$5,000,000 - State appropriation [2009–2009]
UTeach Program
$ 450,000 - Texas Instruments Foundation [2009–2009]
"A Shared Sense of the Universe: Hardy and Neihardt . . ."
$2,500 - Dudley Observatory [2009–2010]
UTeach Program
$2,400,000 - National Math and Science Initiative [2008]