Robert Hamilton

Assistant Professor

Department

English

Contact Information

Courses Taught
  • ENGL 1301: English Composition I. Intensive study of and practice in writing processes, from invention and researching to drafting, revising, and editing, both individual and collaboratively. Emphasis on effective rhetorical choices, including audience, purpose, arrangement, and style. Focus on writing the academic essay as a vehicle for learning, communicating, and critical analysis.
  • ENGL 1302: English Composition II. Intensive study of and practice in the strategies and techniques for developing research-based expository and persuasive texts. Emphasis on effective and rhetorical inquiry, including primary and secondary research methods; critical reading of verbal, visual, and multimedia texts; systematic evaluation, synthesis, and documentation of information sources; and critical thinking about evidence and conclusions.
  • ENGL 2322: British Literature I. A survey of the development of British literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Eighteenth Century. Students will study works of prose, poetry, drama, and fiction in relation to their historical, linguistic, and cultural contexts. Texts will be selected from a diverse group of authors and traditions.
  • ENGL 2323: British Literature II. A survey of the development of British literature from the Romantic period to the present. Students will study works of prose, poetry, drama, and fiction in relation to their historical and cultural contexts. Texts will be selected from a diverse group of authors and traditions.
  • ENGL 2327: American Literature I. A survey of American literature from the period of exploration and settlement through the Civil War. Students will study works of prose, poetry, drama, and fiction in relation to their historical and cultural contexts. Texts will be selected from among a diverse group of authors for what they reflect and reveal about the evolving American experience and character.
Education
  • Baylor University. Waco, Texas. Ph.D. in Contemporary American Literature, 2007-2013.
  • University of Dallas. Irving, Texas. B.A. in English Literature, concentration in Latin. 2003-2007.
Teaching Experience
  • Temple College, Assistant Professor of English, 2019-present.
  • Wiley College, Assistant Professor of English, 2013-2018.
  • Baylor University, Instructor of Record, 2008-2013.
Professional Publications

  • “‘The Moral Equivalent of War’”: Fungible Transcendentals in The Pale King.” David Foster Wallace and Religion: Essays on Faith and Fiction. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

  • “‘Constant Bliss in Every Atom’: Tedium and Transcendence in David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King.” Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 403 (2017): 220-32. Reprint.

  • “A Class Act.” Review of Class and the Making of American Literature, Andrew Lawson, Ed. HJEAS 22.2 (Nov. 2016): 311-13.
  • “‘Constant Bliss in Every Atom’: Tedium and Transcendence in David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King.” Arizona Quarterly 70.4 (Winter 2014): 167-190.
  • “Disaster Stamps: The Significance of Philately in Louise Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves.” ANQ 26.4 (Nov. 2013): 266-72.
  • “‘A Sanguinary and Murderous Disposition’: Edgar Huntly, Slavoj Zizek, and the Ethics of Misdirected Violence.” HJEAS 19.2 (Fall 2013): 205-306.
  • “Liturgical Patterns in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.” The Explicator 71.2 (2013): 140-3.
Professional Presentations

  • “Lieta No, Ma Sicura”: Embalming and Memory in Leopardi and Tokarczuk.” South-Central MLA (Houston 2021)

  • “The Red and the Black: The Future of the Symbol in the Age of Re-Nazification.” South-Central MLA (Little Rock 2019)

  • “‘The Everlasting Universe of Things / Flows Through the Mind’: English Romanticism at Zero Cost.” UNCF Teaching & Learning Summit #GoOpen (Marshall 2017)
  • “Desertification, Climate Change, and the Paradoxical Optimism of A Visit from the Goon Squad.” South-Central MLA (Austin 2014)
  • “‘Empty space, but inhabited’: Ghostly Voices and Theological Politics in Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day.” South-Central MLA (San Antonio 2012)
  • “‘What Keeps us Waiting (Forever)’: Nothingness, Catalogue, and Deferral in the Short Fiction of Donald Barthelme.” South-Central MLA (Hot Springs 2011)
  • “Remembrance and Expectation: The Architecture of One by One in the Darkness.” ACIS South (Savannah 2011)
  • “Creating Chaos out of Order: Liturgy and Perception in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.” South-Central MLA (Baton Rouge 2009)
Awards
  • Amanda P. Winters Award, presented by Wiley College Student Government, 2017-18
  • Wiley College Junior Faculty of the Month, January 2016
  • Wiley College English Department Teacher of the Year, 2014-15
  • Baylor University Outstanding Graduate Student Award, 2013
  • Poetry in the Arts, Inc. Dr. Jesse T. Airaudi Prize, 2013
  • Nominated, Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor, Spring 2011
  • Poetry in the Arts, Inc., Dr. James Barcus Prize, 2011
  • Dorothy Scarborough Fiction Award, 3rd Place, 2009
  • The House of Poetry Award, 2008
Research Interests
  • American Literature after 1960
  • Literary Theory
  • Romanticism
  • Literature in Translation
  • Politics and Literature