Faculty Biographies
John Lennon
Director of Graduate Studies & Associate Professor
CONTACT
Office: CPR 360 D
Phone: 813-974-2663
Email: jflennon@usf.edu
LINKS
BIO
I am an associate professor of English and the University of South Florida. At USF, I mainly teach courses in 20th-century American literature and film with a cultural studies orientation. As the Director of the graduate program for the English Department, I also teach the Introduction to Graduate Studies course for students in our Literature, Rhetoric and Composition and Creative Writing tracks.
My research interests are varied and I publish on a variety of subjects: from working-class literature to social-movements to film. No matter what I am publishing on, though, there is usually one thread that connects them all: my work is principally concerned with how marginalized individuals exert a politicized voice in collectivized actions. For example, my book Boxcar Politics: The Hobo in Literature and Culture 1869-1956 (UMASS Press, 2014) reestablishes the hobo’s political thorns, examining this figure as part of a resistive working-class collective. Working Class Literature(s): Historical and International Perspectives Volume I and II are open access co-edited collections that explore working class literature from a global perspective. My work has appeared in various edited volumes and journals including Cultural Studies Review, New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry, American Studies, Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, and Acoma. Please see my Publications page for more examples of my work.
My newest book, Conflict Graffiti: From Revolution to Gentrification, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2021. For this project, I am enormously grateful to have received various grants (including an NEH Summer Grant) to travel to Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, England, Sweden, Brazil, Germany and, within the U.S., New Orleans and Detroit.
Please check out my evolving thoughts (and photos) here.
If you are interested in my work, please follow me on twitter or please email me at jflennon@usf.edu.
PROSPECTIVE BA STUDENTS
At USF, I have had the opportunity to teach undergraduate courses for English majors as well as General Education courses. These courses include: American Modernism, Working-Class Literature, Film and Culture, Contemporary U.S. Literature, Film as Narrative Art and Cultural Studies and the Pop Arts. Since I have become Graduate Director, I teach mostly in the Graduate Program.
PROSPECTIVE MA STUDENTS
In an effort to get to know all MA and MFA students entering the department, for the past few years I have been teaching mostly service courses (although in Spring 2020 I did teach a Working-Class Literature course).
At USF, I have chaired four MA students’ thesis portfolios and have been on many others as a committee member. The process of working with students to revise their papers with an eye to publication is a ton of fun. For students who wish to work with me (and please do!), we will discuss not only “how-to” issues directly connected to the thesis paper such as research, strong-writing, and editing but we will also discuss professional concerns such as publication, conferences, and potential PhD writing samples. We will meet regularly while you revise, and you will have weekly check-ins with me to discuss your progress and issues (and successes) you are encountering. If you are interested in working with me, set up an appointment and I’ll be happy to discuss possibilities.
PROSPECTIVE PHD STUDENTS
As you can see from my publications and research interests, I work with a wide variety of texts, time periods and methodologies in US literature and culture. One of the greatest pleasures for me as a researcher is to latch onto to a topic and then chase the idea where ever it leads me. But one research thread—that is more like a rope—is my interest in examining how minority figures exert their political voices. Whether it is writing about working-class hobos collectivizing their labor to fight against unjust hiring practices or graffiti writers marking walls with anti-government sentiments during large demonstrations, I’m interested in that way individual acts of resistance are intertwined with collective movements.
I am a reader on a number of PhD committees where I am working with students involved in a number of exciting projects: from examining the politized spaces between science-fiction literature and environmental concerns of climate change to understanding the way literature of war recreates tropes of toxic masculinity. I am currently chairing two PhD dissertations: One examines the politicized spaces of slaughterhouses through a feminist lens, the other examines the environmental and social effects of national dam building projects in the U.S., India and China.
If you are interested in working with me on your dissertation, please make an appointment with me and we can chat.