Jennifer Burwell

I research and teach in the fields of science studies, mad studies, and literary non-fiction, with one emphasis being how science, literature, and art emerge in related ways at given historical moments. I have also studied utopian literature in some depth—particularly feminism utopian literature—as a way of uncovering the utopian logics that inform a variety of contemporary theoretical paradigms. In my teaching of literary non-fiction I examine how devices typically associated with fiction inform and structure a number of non-fiction forms, including the lyric essay, new journalism, and the memoir. I am currently researching and teaching in the field of mad studies, with an emphasis on madness in fiction.

My primary engagement with diversity, equity and inclusion is in my teaching and research in the area of mad studies. In both my teaching and research I examine ways in which mad people have been excluded from dominant representations, as well as the ways in which those who write about and from within experiences of madness challenge exclusionary discourse and find new ways of acknowledging the complexity and insight of mad people.

Recent publications:

Burwell, J. (2018). Quantum language and the migration of scientific concepts. The MIT Press.

Burwell, J. Madness in Fiction (in progress)

Sample of supervised graduate projects:

Supervisor (Masters thesis). Daria Bagan. “Having the Best of Both and None of Any: Television and Social Representations of the Working Woman.”

Supervisor (Masters thesis). Alanna Goldstein. “Awkward Comedy and Performative Anxiety.”

Co-Supervisor (PhD thesis). Nick Anderson. “Anima Machina: Rodney Brooks and the Bioethics of Animated Machines.”

Supervisor (PhD thesis). Ryan Bigge. “The Vice (Magazine) Squad: Problematizing
Authenticity and Transgression.”

Supervisor (Masters thesis): Jess Woods. “(Trans)ition.”

Supervisor (Masters thesis). Danielle Deveau. “Male Parody, Sketch Comedy and Cultural Subversion: The Work of Scott Thompson, Rick Mercer and Steve Smith.”

Supervisor (Masters thesis). Emily Chou. “Fembots in Film.”

Supervisor (Masters thesis). Sheila Koenig. “Airtime: The Public Sphere, the Public Screen, and AIDS Activism in Contemporary North America.”

Supervisor (Masters thesis). Grant Kein. “The Digital Story: Analyzing binary code as a social text.”

ComCult Teaching Activities

• CC 8900 Core Issues: Cultural Studies
• CC 8925 Reading Television