Benjamin O'Dell

Dr. Benjamin O'Dell was born and raised in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign along with a M.A. from Miami University and a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. His research and teaching cross several fields and modes of inquiry including genre, form and narrative theory; imperialism and postcoloniality; and digital media and pedagogy. His current research project explores how narrative time and temporality became central to the literary engagement of history and historicity once Walter Scott’s historical romances gave way to a range of new genres less obviously concerned with the past.

O'Dell lives in Buford with his family. He is eager to discuss contemporary film and television with students. In his spare time, he enjoys running, cooking and playing pick-up basketball.

• Doctorate – English – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Master's – English – Miami University
• Bachelor's – English – University of Pittsburgh

• British Romanticism
• Victorian literature and culture
• Genre, form and narrative theory
• First-year composition
• Contemporary literature and culture
• Digital media and pedagogy

Journal Articles

• "Historicity." Keywords Redux. Spec. issue of Victorian Literature and Culture. 51.3 (Fall 2023): 423-426.
• "David Copperfield, Émile, and the Legacy of Enlightenment Education Literature." Dickens Quarterly 40.1 (March 2023): 7-26.
• "The Victorian Counter-Pastoral: Adam Bede as Historical Novel." Studies in the Novel 54.1 (Spring 2022): 26-44.
• "Lyric Moments and the Historicity of the Verse Novel: Amours de Voyage." Victorian Poetry 59.4 (Winter 2021): 411-431.
• "Beyond Bengal: Gender, Education, and the Writing of Colonial Indian History." Victorian India. Spec. issue of Victorian Literature and Culture 42.3 (Fall 2014): 535-551.
• "Character Crisis: Hegemonic Negotiations in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Victorian Literature and Culture 40.2 (Fall 2012): 509-521.
• "Performing the Imperial Abject: The Ethics of Cocaine in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four." The Journal of Popular Culture 45.5 (October 2012): 999-1019.

Conference Proceedings

• "The Function of Filth: Waste Imagery and Cultural Identity in Between the Acts." Selected
  Papers from the 17th Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf. Eds. Madelyn Detloff and Diana Royer. Clemson, SC: Clemson University Digital Press, 2008. 46-50.