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Curriculum Vitae

Adobe PDF version Microsoft Word version About Michael Michael E Bryson Department of English California State University, Northridge 18111 Nordhoff St. Northridge, CA 91330 818-677-5695 michael.bryson@csun.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3383-8101 https://michaelbryson.academia.edu/ EDUCATION PhD   English Northwestern University 2001 MA   English Truman State University 1996 BA    English Truman State University 1994 PUBLICATIONS BOOKS (Scholarly) The Routledge Companion to Humanism and Literature (Ed.) Routledge, 2022 2022 The Humanist (Re)Turn: Reclaiming the Self in Literature Routledge, 2019 2019   Love and its Critics: From the Song of Songs to Shakespeare and Milton's Eden (with Arpi Movsesian) Open Book Publishers, 2017, Reprinted by Saint Philip Street Press, 2020 2017 The Atheist Milton Ashgate Press, 2012, Reprinted by Routledge, 2016  2012  The Tyranny of Heaven: Milton’s Rejection of God as King U. Delaware Press, 2004. 2004 BOOKS (Poetry) The Suicide Cafe Inner Core of Rage Press, 2020 2020   JOURNAL ISSUES  (Edited) Humanities, Special Issue: “Translation and Relocation: Literary Encounters East and West” 2021 MANUSCRIPTS (IN PREPARATION) Better Thou Hadst Not Been Born: Children as Property in Shakespeare   ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS     “Gilgamesh: The First Bildungsroman, or Portrait of the King Becoming a Man” in The Monarch and the (Non)Human in Literature and Cinema: Western and Global Perspectives. Ed. Nizar Zouidi. (Routledge, 2023, 65-87.) 2023 “The Old Argument: Humanism and Anti-Humanism.” Introduction to The Routledge Companion to Humanism and Literature. (Routledge, 2022, 1-8.) 2022 “Woman is the Measure of All Things: Authoritarianism and Anti-Humanism in the Criticism of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.” The Routledge Companion to Humanism and Literature. (Routledge, 2022, 173-90). 2022 “‘The Quest for the Fiction of an Absolute’: The Mystic’s Movement from Ancient Sacrifice to Supreme Fiction in Wallace Stevens.” IJAH, 6.2, 2020, 1-15. 2020 Carpe Diem: Love, Resistance to Authority, and the Necessity of Choice in Andrew Marvell and Elizabeth Cary Humanities 2018, 7(2), 61 2018 “The Artist as Critic: Two Modern Musical Responses to Paradise Lost.” Milton Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 2, 2017, 146-52. 2017 “On ‘Sunday Morning’.” Modern American Poetry. Eds. Bartholomew Brinkman and Cary Nelson, Framingham, MA: Framingham State University (2013). 2013 “The Gnostic Milton: Salvation and Divine Similitude in Paradise Regained” The New Milton Criticism. Eds. Peter C. Herman and Elizabeth Sauer, Cambridge UP, 2012, 102-19. 2012 “The Problem of God” Approaches to Teaching Paradise Lost. 2nd ed. Ed. Peter C. Herman. MLA Press, 2012, 76-83. 2012 “From Last Things to First: The Apophatic Vision of Paradise Regained” Milton and the Visionary Mode: Essays on Prophecy and Violence. Eds. Peter E. Medine and David V. Urban. Duquesne UP, 2010, 241-65. 2010 “A Poem to the Unknown God: Samson Agonistes and Negative Theology.”  Milton Quarterly, March 2008, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2008, 22-43. 2008 “The Mysterious Darkness of Unknowing: Paradise Lost and the God Beyond Names” A Poem Written In Ten Books: Paradise Lost 1667, Eds. John Shawcross and Michael Lieb. Duquesne UP, 2007, 183-212. 2007 “'His Tyranny Who Reigns': The Biblical Roots of Divine Kingship and Milton's Rejection of Heav'n's King” Milton Studies 43, 2004, 111-144.  2004 “Thomas Shadwell” The Age of Milton: An Encyclopedia of Major 17th-Century British and American Authors. Ed. Alan Hager. Greenwood Press, 2004, 287-91. 2004   “Dismemberment and Community: Sacrifice and the Communal Body in the Hebrew Scriptures” Religion and Literature 35.1 (Spring 2003),  1-21. 2003   “'That be far from thee': Divine Evil and Milton's Attempt to 'Justify the ways of God to men'” Milton Quarterly, May 2002, vol. 36, no. 2, 87-105.   2002   “The Horror is Us: Western Religious Memory and the Colonialist God in Heart of Darkness” Henry Street (9.1), Spring 2000, 20-39. 2000 REVIEWS Review of Timothy Rosendale, Theology and Agency in Early Modern Literature. Journal of British Studies 58.2 (Winter 2019), 430-32. 2019 Review of Stephen Greenblatt, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve. Spenser Review 48.2 (Spring-Summer 2018). 2018 Review of Gordon Teskey, The Poetry of John Milton. Spenser Review 45.3.15 (Winter 2016). 2016 Review of William Walker. Antiformalist, Unrevolutionary, Illiberal Milton: Political Prose, 1644-1660. Milton Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 4, 2015, 275-79. 2015 Review of Stephen Dobranski, ed. Milton in Context. Milton Quarterly, volume 46 issue 1 (March 2012), 29-31. 2012 Review of Abraham Stoll, Milton and Monotheism. Renaissance Quarterly, volume 62 issue 4 (1 December 2009), 1391-1392. 2009 Review of Victoria Silver, Imperfect Sense: The Predicament of Milton's Irony and David Loewenstein, Representing Revolution in Milton and his Contemporaries Religion and Literature 37.3 (Autumn 2005) 127-36. 2005 WEBSITES John Milton: Background, Summary, and Analysis Site dedicated to Milton’s prose works in their historical contexts. 2000 SELECTED PRESENTATIONS Keynote Address--"Open Access Publishing and Digital Research: The Changing Landscape of Scholarship in the Internet Age" BUC Fifth International Conference. Technology, Language and Literature: Intersections and Convergences. Al Buraimi University College, Al Buraymi, Oman 2019 "Paradise Lost: Love Against Tyranny in Eden, and the Authoritarianism of Critics." Renaissance Society of America 2018 "An You Be Mine, I'll Give You to My Friend: The Dawn Song, Marriage, and the Authority of the Father in Romeo and Juliet and Paradise Lost" Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association 2015 "The Gnostic Milton" Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies 2010 “From Last Things to First: The Apophatic Vision of Paradise Regained” Modern Language Association 2006     "The Libertine Samson: Samson Agonistes and the Rakes of Restoration Drama" Renaissance Society of America 2006   “Samson Agonistes And The 'Intimate Impulse': Negative Theology in Milton” Modern Language Association 2005   “Embarassed Into Silence: Samson Agonistes as Milton's Negative Theology” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association 2005   “The Satanic Samson” Eighth International Milton Symposium 2005   “The Negation of God: Samson Agonistes and Negative Theology” Newberry Library Milton Seminar 2005   “Samson Agonistes and Negative Theology” Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, Notre Dame 2004 Panel: “Crossing Through Theory: The New Milton Criticism” American Comparative Literature Association 2003 “'Though ye rebel': The Motivation for Satan’s Rebellion in Paradise Lost” Seventh Annual International Milton Symposium 2002 “To Prove that God is not the Devil”: Kingship and Milton’s Struggle to Re-Imagine God Yale Divinity School Religion and Literature Symposium Series 2002 “'That be far from thee': Divine Evil and Milton's Attempt to 'Justify the ways of God to men'” Renaissance Conference of Southern California 2001 “'His Tyranny Who Reigns': The Biblical Roots of Divine Kingship and Milton's Rejection of “Heav'n's King” Modern Language Association  2000 “The Tyranny of Heav'n: Milton, Magistrates and the Rhetoric of Satan's Protestantism in Paradise Lost” Renaissance Society of America 1999 “Western Religious Memory and the Colonialist God in Heart of Darkness” Northern Illinois University Conference on Language and Literature 1998 EDITORIAL ROLES Editor-in-Chief, Literature in the Humanities section, Humanities Reviewer, PMLA Reviewer, Milton Quarterly Reviewer, Spenser Review Reviewer, Renaissance Quarterly Reviewer, Religion and Literature Reviewer, Journal of British Studies Reviewer, Anthem Press Reviewer, McGill-Queen's University Press Reviewer, Routledge   LANGUAGES Reading competency in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Occitan, Spanish, Italian, French, German   TEACHING (College and University Level) Professor of English 2014- California State University, Northridge Designed, taught, and evaluated Shakespeare: Female Rage from Medea to Lady Macbeth, Love and its Critics, The Poet as Critic, Renaissance Drama, Shakespeare: Of Lovers and Tyrants, Milton, Donne and Herbert, Research Methods and Bibliography, Milton's Gods, The Bible as Literature, Restoration Drama, Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Machiavelli, 17th Century Literature, 16th Century Literature, Introduction to Literature Associate Professor of English 2009-2014 California State University, Northridge Assistant Professor of English 2004-2009 California State University, Northridge Designed, taught, and evaluated such courses as Milton, Donne and Herbert, Research Methods and Bibliography, Milton's Gods, Restoration Drama, Shakespeare, Shakespeare and Machiavelli, 17th Century Literature, Writing About Literature, and Composition Visiting Assistant Professor of English 2003-2004 DePaul University Designed, taught, and evaluated such courses as Introducing Shakespeare, Bible as Literature, and Composition Visiting Assistant Professor of English 2001-2003 Northwestern University Designed, taught, and evaluated courses in the departments of English and Religion, including the upper division courses Topics in Religion, Studies in 17th Century Literature, Topics in Shakespeare, and Studies in Theory and Criticism,  as well as a Freshman Seminar entitled Heroes and Antiheroes, and an Introduction to Reading and Interpretation course. AWARDS CSUN English Department Excellence in Teaching Award 2017-18 CSUN English Department Excellence in Teaching Award 2016-17 CSUN English Department Excellence in Teaching Award 2015-16 CSUN College of Humanities Polished Apple Award 2007-08 DePaul Multicultural Student Affairs Teaching Award 2003-04   ONLINE TEACHING AND INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN (Corporate and Academic) Certificate in Teaching Online Using QLT, 2022 CSU Academic Technology Services, Online Course Services Program Designer/Instructor of Fully-Online-Asynchronous University Courses, 2020-Current California State University, Northridge Designed and taught multiple FOA sections of English 255 (Introduction to Literature), English 316 (Shakespeare), English 417 (Shakespeare). Designer/Instructor of Fully-Online-Synchronous University Courses, 2020-2022 California State University, Northridge Designed and taught multiple FOS sections of English 420 (Milton) and English 620 (Graduate-level Shakespeare). Instructional Designer and Online Instructor, 2004-2019 Wyzant.com and Freelance Created and delivered course materials for individuals and groups addressing high school and university work, standardized test preparation, corporate (HR) projects and industrial report requirements. Clients included high-school/university students and working professionals. Courses taught as FOA, FOS, and/or in-person. Instructional Designer and In-House Online Instructor, 2000-2001 R.R Donnelly Corporation, Chicago Worked with in-house design and instruction team on instructional videos and online classes for employees at various levels, from production through management. Instructional Design Consultant 2000-2001 Iowa State University—Professional Communication Online Project Consulted on instructional and interface design issues with a team of professors and graduate students working to produce an extensive series of online Rhetoric and Professional Communication courses. Web Designer/Producer 1996-2001 American Medical Association, Chicago Independently designed and produced the AMA’s Directory of Physicians Product Support web site. Performed update and maintenance tasks as needed. Instructor, Content Developer, Instructional Designer 1999-2000 UNext.com Wrote, co-designed, and served as instructor for two series of internet-delivered courses: one on Shakespeare and leadership, the other on web design, usability engineering, and e-commerce, both offered as part of a distance-learning MBA program. Internet Design Consultant 1998-1999 Rauland-Borg Corporation Researched, wrote, and presented a 45-page report in June of 1998 analyzing how Rauland-Borg could redesign its web site in order to consistently achieve higher rankings in search engine queries. Created asynchronous in-house training class to teach principles of SEO for web design. Produced monthly follow-up reports and analyses for a period of one year. Researcher, Writer, Web Site Designer 1997 Northwestern University Collaborated with Dr Lawrence Lipking of Northwestern University on prototype for the Norton Anthology of English Literature 18th-century literature and culture site. Included interactive learning experiences for site users. Researcher/Writer 1996 The Monument Project Researched, compiled, and organized content for a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting religious tolerance. Created interactive learning experiences for site users.   PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS Shakespeare Association of America Milton Society of America Modern Language Association Renaissance Society of America American Comparative Literature Association