Sebastian Williams, PhD
Assistant Professor of English
Tiffin University | School of Arts, Education, and Humanities
Education
Purdue University | PhD in English (2021)
Wright State University | MA in English (2016) and Graduate Certificate of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (2016)
Heidelberg University | BA in English with a minor in German (2013)
Appointments
Tiffin University | Assistant Professor of English (2025 – current)
Davis & Elkins College | Assistant Professor of English (2021 – 2025)
Publications
Book
2023 | Modernist Parasites: Bioethics, Dependency, and Literature, post-1900. Posthumanities and Citizenship Futures Series, Lexington/Bloomsbury.
Peer-Reviewed Academic Articles
Accepted/Forthcoming | “Resilience in Ohio Literature: Thieving Forest and Rust.” Rust Belt Studies, special issue: ‘Rust Belt Ecologies.’
Accepted/Forthcoming | “Unruly Animals in Czech Children’s Literature: Karel Čapek’s Fairy-Tales and Dashenka.” The Lion and the Unicorn, vol./no. TBA.
2025 | “The Lexicons of Cult Film: Rhetoric, Media, and The Big Lebowski.” (co-authored with Andrew Jones and Lonnie Martin). CINEJ: Cinema Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, 2025, pp. 1-28. DOI: 10.5195/cinej.2025.659.
2023 | “Public Health, Visual Rhetoric, and Latin America: Steinbeck’s The Forgotten Village.” Journal of Medical Humanities, vol. 45, no. 1, 2023, pp. 1-45. DOI: 10.1007/s10912-023-09796-z.
2023 | “Self-Consumption: Cannibalism and Viral Outbreak in Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE), vol. 30, no. 2, 2023, pp. 302-20. DOI: 10.1093/isle/isab007.
2021 | “Proximity and Animal Ethics in Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O’Neill.” Eugene O’Neill Review, vol. 42, no. 1, 2021, pp. 41-53.
2020 | “Woolf’s Bioethics: Animals and Dependency in ‘The Widow and the Parrot.’” Woolf Studies Annual, vol. 26, no. 1, 2020, pp. 105-20.
2020 | “Anthropocentric Ableism and Virginia Woolf’s Flush.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 53, no. 1, 2020, pp. 107-23.
2020 | “Rogue Bodies: Disabled Antiheroes and the Pop-Culture Saga in Vikings” (co-authored with Alex Long). Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 53, no. 1, March 2020, pp. 129-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12885.
2019 | “The Gothic Grotesque: Disability and Monstrosity in Faulkner’s Sanctuary.” Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, vol. 13, no. 4, 2019, pp. 461-76.
2019 | “Silence and Mediation: Narrative Form in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India.” South Asian Review, vol. 40, no 1-2, 2019, pp. 20-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2019.1572285.
2016 | “Contaminated Salts and Volatile Ethers: Jekyll and Hyde and the Pharmacy Act.” Journal of Stevenson Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, Fall 2016, pp. 149-66.
Book Review
Accepted/Forthcoming | “Review of Notes on Vermin (U of Michigan Press, 2025) by Caroline Havonec.” Modern Fiction Studies (MFS).
Edited Work in an Anthology
Forthcoming | “‘My Favorite Recreation’ (1922) by Rachel Carson.” Annotated digital edition in The Anthology Project: Creative Works by Young People, 1440-1930, edited by Eric Bontempo, Laurie Langbauer, Lesley Peterson, and Victoria Ford Smith. COVE Digital Edition.
Other
Forthcoming | “Adventure Stories.” Children’s Literature Review. Gale Literature Criticism.
Forthcoming | “Fairy Tales.” Short Story Criticism. Gale Literature Criticism.
2026-27 | “Disease and Illness in Short Fiction.” Short Story Criticism. Gale Literature Criticism.
2026-27 | “Animal Stories.” Short Story Criticism. Gale Literature Criticism.
2026 | “Posthumanism and Short Fiction.” Short Story Criticism. Gale Literature Criticism.
2025 | “John Steinbeck: Critical Summary & Annotated Bibliography.” Children’s Literature Review. Gale Literature Criticism.
2023 | “Virginia Woolf: Critical Summary & Annotated Bibliography.” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Gale Literature Criticism.
2015 | “‘They Speak it Just Like Us, Only Funnier’: Dialect as a Performance of Cultural Difference in Andrea Levy’s Small Island.” Voices, vol. 2, 2015, pp. 12–15. [Conference Proceedings]
Fellowships and Grants
2024 | MLA Pathways Step Grant, for Environmental Humanities Educational Program ($10,000)
2023 | Appalachian College Association, I.E.D.O. Grant (approx. $1,000)
2023 | Innovation/Teaching Grant (D&E College) for podcasting equipment (approx. $300)
2020-21 | Excellence in Research (Purdue) – Dissertation Completion Fellowship ($20,000)
2019-20 | Robert Liddell Lowe Graduate Scholarship ($4,000)
2019 | National Humanities Without Walls Fellowship ($5,000) [funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation]
2018 | Purdue Summer Research Fellowship ($3,000)
Editing
2018-2020 | Editorial Assistant, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 2018 to 2020. Published by Purdue University Press.
2015-2016 | Managing Editor, Emily Dickinson Journal. 2015 to 2016. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Refereed Conference Presentations
National/International Conferences
“Animal Neighbors in Modernist Children’s Literature: Grahame and Woolf.” Children’s Literature Association Conference (ChLA), 28-30 May 2026, Pittsburgh, PA.
“Rachel Carson’s Juvenilia: Biography as Blessing and Curse.” Paper presentation. The International Society of Literary Juvenilia, 16-18 Apr. 2026, Valparaiso University (Indiana).
“Rural Modernism and Children’s Literature: Sandburg, Olds, and Carson.” Roundtable Presentation. Modernist Studies Association Conference, Oct. 2025, Boston, MA.
“Environmental Humanities at a Small Liberal Arts College: the D&E Woods Program.” MLA Pathways Poster Session, Modern Language Association Convention, Jan. 2025, New Orleans, LA.
“The Rhetoric of Roadkill in Appalachia: Critical Animal Studies, Theory and Approaches.” Appalachian Studies Association Conferences, March 2024, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC.
“Unruly Animals, Gay Frogs, and Children’s Literature: Frog and Toad and The Wind in the Willows.” Virtual Presentation, British Society for Literature and Science, Imagining Queer Ecologies, 1 Dec. 2023, University of Oxford, UK.
“Animals and Modernist Children’s Literature.” Roundtable Presentation, Modernist Studies Association Conference. 26-29 Oct. 2023. New York City, NY.
“Karel Čapek’s Ecomodernism: Továrna na absolutno [The Absolute at Large] and Krakatit.” Modernist Studies Association Conference. 26-30 Oct. 2022. Portland, OR.
“Woolf’s Children’s Literature: Disability and Animal Ethics in ‘The Widow and the Parrot.’” International Virginia Woolf Conference. 4-6 June 2019. Mount St. Joseph University, Cincinnati, OH.
“Intelligible Bodies: Statistics and Social Physics in Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh.” British Women Writers Conference. 25-27 April 2019. Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
“Parasites and Public Health: Nonhuman Actors in Great Depression Literature.” Heidelberg Spring Academy. 18-24 March 2019. Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
“Gerictsorganismus: Nonhuman Law and Bare Life in Kafka’s Der Prozeß [The Trial].” Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900. 21-23 Feb. 2019. Louisville, KY.
“Creaturely Poetics and Radical Ethics: Rethinking Animality in W.B. Yeats’s 1917 Poetry.” International Yeats Society Conference. 20-22 Oct. 2017. New York City, NY.
“‘Tick, tick, tick, went the machine’: Time, Cinema, and Narrative in Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts.” Space Between Society Conference. 25-27 May 2017. University of Mississippi, Oxford, MI.
Regional and Graduate Conferences
“Dampfsnaubentier: German Train Poetry and the Politics of Movement at the Fin de siècle.” Early Atlantic Reading Group (EARG). 2-3 April 2018. Purdue University.
“Disability and the Gothic Grotesque in William Faulkner’s Sanctuary.” Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference. 3-5 March 2018. Purdue University.
“Cybernetic Science Fiction: System and Environment in Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods.” Finding Frontiers: Then, Now, and Beyond. 11 March 2017. West Virginia University.
“War, Cameras, and Membranes: Filmic Vision in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day.” Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language, and Media. 1-2 April 2016. Northern Illinois University.
“The Murderess: Liminality and the Homo Sacer in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.” Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality Symposium. 28 Feb 2016. Wright State University.
“‘Thousands of people had already gathered’: Mob Violence in German Cinema and Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust.” Violent Bodies. 30-31 Oct. 2015. Ohio State University.
“‘Cat got your tongue?’: Performing Dialects as Difference in Andrea Levy’s Small Island.” Thresholds and Beyond: Exploring Abstract and Concrete Borders, Boundaries, and Frontiers. 28 Mar. 2015. Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Teaching
(for more detailed information, see my Teaching Page)
Tiffin University
- Digital Media and Design
- DMD 261 – Sports Writing
- General Education
- DEC 200 – Explore (Community and Social Issues)
- Rhetoric and Introductory Composition
- ENG 142 – Rhetoric and Academic Writing (“Rhetoric and the Good Life”)
- ENG 141 – Rhetoric and Introductory Research Writing (“Writing about Place”)
Davis & Elkins College
- Literature
- ENGL 497/98 – Senior Seminar and Senior Capstone (2-course sequence)
- ENGL 360 – South Asian Literature and Postcolonialism
- ENGL 230 – Nature Writers / Environmental Literature
- ENGL 225-02 – Science Fiction from Around the Globe
- ENGL 220B – British Literature II
- ENGL 202 – Literary Investigations (Intro to English for majors)
- ENGL 107 – Introduction to Literature (for non-majors)
- Rhetoric and Writing Studies
- ENGL 326B – Writing for the Community (Service-Learning)
- COMM 325 – Environmental Communication
- ENGL 324 – Writing in the Genres (Multimodal Writing)
- ENGL/COMM 323 – Rhetorical Theory
- ENGL 204 – Professional and Technical Writing
- Introductory Composition
- ENGL 102 – College Writing II: Digital Cultures
- ENGL 101 – College Writing I: Writing About Place
- Other
- HONR 220 – Work Culture in America (Honors)
- GES 105 – Graphic Novels and Comics (First-Year Seminar)
Purdue University
- ENGL 286 – The Movies: Film and Critical Theory
- ENGL 250 – National Narratives and Great American Books
- ENGL 106Y – Digital Rhetorics: An Introduction to Composition (ONLINE)
- ENGL 106 – Composing through Narratives: Introductory Composition
Teaching Awards
- Excellence in Teaching Award, Purdue U (2019)
- Quintilian Teaching Award, Purdue U (2019)
- Excellence in Teaching Award, Purdue U (2018)
- Quintilian Teaching Award, Purdue U (2018)
- Quintilian Teaching Award, Purdue U (2017)
Service
(to the profession)
- 2025 | Reviewer for Biological Relationalism: The Relational Turn in Contemporary Science, Theory, and Politics (Springer, 2026)
- 2025 | Peer reviewer for Disability Studies Quarterly (DSQ)
- 2024 | Reviewer for National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Fellowships and Stipends (Health and Medical Humanities specialist)
- 2023 | Peer reviewer for Oxford University Press’s Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE)
- 2023 | Peer reviewer for Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture
- 2022-23 | Alumni Board Member, Humanities Without Walls (Andrew Mellon Foundation)
- 2020-22 | Peer reviewer for The Explicator journal, multiple articles.
- 2022 | Advisor for the Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism series (Gale/Cengage).
(to the community)
- 2022 | Judge, West Virginia Young Writers Contest
Davis & Elkins College
- 2025 | Appalachian College Association, Ledford Scholarship Mentor for Willow Ferguson (Research Project: “Analyzing the Nature Writing Canon through Critical Disability Studies”)
- 2025 | AI Literacy Program Director (Humanities Minor)
- 2025 | Honors Program Working Group (ad hoc committee)
- 2021-2025 | Secretary, D&E Faculty Assembly
- 2024 | Woods Program Director (Environmental Humanities Program – Nature Writing Retreat)
- 2022-2025 | Coordinator, D&E Writing Symposium and Writing Contest
- 2021-2024 | Curriculum Committee Member
- 2022 | Ad hoc committee member, First-Year Seminar Curriculum
- 2021 | Event coordinator, “Recite Women’s Writing” (Women’s History Month event)
- 2021 | Coordinator, 2021 D&E Writer Series (annual guest writer series)
Purdue University
- 2020-21 | Vice President, Graduate Student English Association (GradSEA)
- 2019-20 | Co-chair, Symposium Committee, with LITCO (English graduate student organization).
- 2019 | Invited talk, “Life in Grad School.” Purdue University.
- 2019 | Invited talk, “Writing Groups.” Purdue University.
- 2018-19 | Pedagogical Committee: Syllabus-approach leader for Introductory Composition at Purdue.
- 2018 | Abstract reviewer for Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference.
Language and Proficiencies
German (reading knowledge; B2-level [CEFR])
Web design and publishing (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) [beginner proficiency]; TWINE
Other: Adobe InDesign, CC, Audacity, Qualtrics, ScholarOne and BePress publishing software
Professional Memberships
Active memberships:
- 2021-present | Modernist Studies Association (MSA)
- 2014-present | Modern Language Association (MLA)
Relevant Professional Experience
Tiffin University | Tiffin, OH | Aug. 2025 – Present
Writing Center Consultant
- 1 credit hour per semester
- Provide one-on-one writing consultations to undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines, supporting all stages of the writing process—from brainstorming to final revision.
- Tailor feedback to diverse learning styles and language backgrounds, including multilingual and ESL students.
- Demonstrate active listening and critical reading skills to help clients identify strengths and areas for improvement in their writing.
Reynolds & Reynolds | Dayton, OH | Sept. 2014 – Dec. 2020
Content Writer & Technical Writer
- Wrote and edited engaging content for articles, websites, newsletters, and social media to support brand awareness and audience engagement.
- Created clear, concise user technical documents and guides for the automotive industry.
- Conducted SEO keyword research and implemented best practices to increase organic traffic and search ranking.
- In-House from 2014-2016; Remote Contractor from 2016 to 2020
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) | West Lafayette, IN | Summer 2017 – Fall 2018
Content Editor and Developer (hourly)
- Editing and updating content.
- Writing original content on literary studies, citation practices, and so forth.
Advertiser-Tribune | Tiffin, OH | Dec. 2013 – Aug. 2014
Newspaper Correspondent
- Reporting on local politics, including city council meetings.
- Interviewing and research.
- Writing and editing short articles in traditional journalistic formats.
German-American Institute | Heidelberg, Germany | Feb. 2013 – Aug. 2013
Research Assistant
- Translating and writing articles and brochures on various learning programs, gap year opportunity, and study-abroad programs.