Cover Letter

My PhD is from Texas A&M, in Literature with specialties in American Women and Minority writers, and Film and Popular Culture Studies. I love teaching any Literary text I can possibly research, and recently reminded myself of favorites all the way back to "The Wanderer."  My dissertation analyzes the image of the witch in film, television, and literature, performing a feminist reading of a genre of literature I define as “Magical Feminism.” In it, analyzing Pan-American texts, I argue that the history of the depiction of witchcraft intersects the history of the feminist, and that women’s rights have been often treated as a kind of empowering magic. I finally point out that contemporary texts have developed this magical feminism into a strong undercurrent within mainstream media.

Community & Scholarly Publications: My primary research explores how popular culture intersects with more traditional canonical American Literature. These frequently marginalized and under-represented texts and cultures, especially women’s writing and experiences, redefine the canon of American Literature, and have much to say about women’s power. I have publications on folklore of the American Southwest (La Malinche, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and shamanism) as well as African-American studies (Juneteenth and Anansi).  I have also published articles on Harriet Jacobs and Louisa May Alcott. I have presented widely at conferences, including authors Nalo Hopkinson, Jovita González, Alice Hoffman, Sean Stewart, Chitra Divakaruni, and John Updike. I chaired multiple panels on “The Bad Girl” in popular media and literature at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of The Southwest/Texas PCA/ACA.  I was a Co-Chair of that Area in 2004-2005, which also led to a co-editorship of the online peer-reviewed journal Reconstruction 5.4. I have given several invited speeches on women writers and feminism and constantly emphasize that the wider canon of American Literature must expand to include commonly neglected authors. Starting in 1998,  I  edited the website Women Writers, which was a peer-reviewed journal that featured both scholarly and creative work, including the “Domestic Goddesses” collection. The scholarly section of that website published special issues on Autotheory, Feminist Mentorship, Afro-Caribbean religion, and Feminist Psychoanalysis and ended after 20 years of publication. 

Creative Fiction/Editing: I have written two speculative fiction novels, one of which is also available as an audio book, and in 2016 I co-edited two anthologies of short fiction, essays, poetry, and other work. I have also had several short stories published in anthologies. These are all available online at Amazon.com.

Teaching: I’ve been teaching composition and rhetoric in one capacity or another for over 20 years and I joined the San Antonio College staff as a full time faculty member in 2023 teaching writing and composition. I had applied for numerous positions over the years but the position at SAC genuinely feels like the place where I belong. I grew up in the same kind of working-class families to which many of the students who attend SAC belong and I have never been at a school where I feel I can help the kind of student that I was as much as I can here. I truly enjoy interacting with the student body at SAC and I believe firmly in the power of the community college to bridge the gap between secondary and college level education and more.

Since working at SAC, I have enjoyed teaching ENGL 1301, 1301+, 1302, and the INRW classes of developmental reading and writing. Helping these students to develop their college level writing and learning skills has been very rewarding and I look forward to growing in this field even more. I am teaching a Dual-Enrollment British Literature course this semester and rediscovering how much I love teaching across the entire English Literary canon.

Aside from a short gap, I have been teaching either at the college level or Secondary (including Middle & High School, from 8th grade to seniors) since 1996. I won teaching awards in 2000, 2007, and 2008, including when as an adjunct I was a top-20 finalist in a student-voted “Professor of the Year” contest at LSUS.  I have taught numerous First-Year composition courses, Introduction to Literature courses, and Technical Writing. In 2008, I taught a survey of American Literature course, titled “Call & Response of the American Canon” at LSUS. I designed the course as an introduction to the classic canon as well as a survey of the too often left-out texts of women and African-American authors (all syllabuses are included in my online teaching portfolio). 

I have designed multiple specific, advanced, and graduate-level American literature syllabuses, including Magical Feminism, The "Otherwise" Award (formerly known as the Tiptree, LGBT and Feminist Sci-Fi), Women Naturalists & the 20th Century Novel, Queer/Drag Literature, Speculative Fiction of the African Diaspora, Post-Feminism, Masculinity in Film Studies. I also have designed author-specific courses on Zora Neale Hurston, Modernist & PostModernist Poetry, and LaLlorona that show how an upper-level or graduate focus on one important author can enhance the overall study of the American canon.  

For samples of my creative writing or poetry, check out my creative website: http://kimwells.net/