Educational Background
PhD English, Saint Louis University, 2011
MA English, University of West Georgia, 2007
BA Theology, Belmont Abbey College, 1984.
Interests and Specializations
British Modernist Literature, Queer Studies, Digital Composition, Literary Theory, Developmental Writing.
About
Dr. Sullivan’s research investigates the intersections of religious discourse and queer subjectivity in Modern British literature. Her dissertation—“A Religion From the Outside: The Modernist Queer Subject and Religious Discourse”—explores writings by Virginia Woolf, Djuna Barnes, and Sylvia Townsend-Warner. By analyzing textual dynamics such as Woolf’s rewriting of the Garden of Eden, and Barnes’ reconfiguration of the confessor figure, she demonstrates that these authors, despite clearly rejecting religious orthodoxy, nonetheless use religious narratives in the deconstruction, and subsequent reconstruction, of the queer subject.
In her courses, which include Advanced Composition, Beginning Composition, and Women Writers, Dr. Sullivan teaches fiction, nonfiction, critical thinking, and digital writing strategies.
Selected Publications
“‘Until I Have Given Lueli Back His God’: Queer Religion in Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Mr. Fortune’s Maggot.” Literature and Theology 25.2 (June 2011): 157-171.
“‘Let There Be Rose Leaves’: Lesbian Subjectivity in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves.” Virginia Woolf Miscellany 80 (Fall 2011): 8-10.