Jessica Baldanzi
Professor of English
Education
- B.A., Northwestern University, 1992
- M.A., Indiana University Bloomington, 1997
- Ph.D., Indiana University Bloomington, 2003
Contact
- jbaldanzi@goshen.edu
- (574) 535-7518
- Wyse 103
Read interview with Jessica Baldanzi.
My current research interests are comics/graphic novels and gender studies. Ms. Marvel’s America: No Normal, a collection of scholarly essays that I co-edited with fellow comics scholar Hussein Rashid, was published by University Press of Mississippi in 2020.
Thanks to a Goshen College Presidential Renewal Grant and a brief sabbatical, I’m now developing a book manuscript of my own, tentatively called Bodies and Boundaries: Representing Women in Graphic Fiction. The proposal is currently under review.
I also recently published an article about teaching comics in the edited collection Lessons Drawn: Essays on the Pedagogy of Comics and Graphic Novels, edited by David Seelow, with a foreword by James Sturm.
You can find my comics review blog at commonscomics.com. You can read an article about my work with comics here, and one about the special journal issue I co-edited here.
I’m always working on creative pieces of my own, mostly fiction and creative nonfiction. I’m working on a book proposal about returning to pregnancy after experiencing a stillbirth. I’ve published two pieces about that stillbirth–see “Selected Publications” below.
I’ve also recently returned to poetry, which I studied as an undergraduate, and am revising an epistolary manuscript that I wrote with my aunt, poet Linda Baldanzi, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2018. I took a draft of the manuscript to the Indiana University Writers’ Conference in Bloomington, where I participated in a small workshop run by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
I love experimenting with new genres, and recently completed my first feature-length screenplay.
I especially love working with my creative writing students to experiment with their language, and to take the next step in the creative writing process and send out their work for publication.
Fall 2019
ENGL 203, Introduction to Creative Writing
ENGL 235 AW (CORE), Graphic Novel
SPRING 2020
one-semester sabbatical
MAY 2020
WGS 275/Comm 385, Gender and Popular Culture
Historic Courses
CORE 100, Identity, Culture, and Community
CORE 110, Academic Voice
CORE 184 Goshen Seminar, “Are We Still Human?”
ENGL 110 Literature and Writing: “Truth, Fiction, and Storytelling,” “Medical Myths”
ENGL 201 Postcolonial Literature
ENGL/COMM 204 Expository Writing
ENGL 300 Critical Theory
ENGL 303 American Literature Survey
ENGL 307/WOST 325, Writing the Body
ENGL 309 American Literature II
ENGL 330 Writing Fiction
ENGL 336 Writing Memoir
MCLL 300, International Classics
Ms. Marvel’s America: No Normal. Co-editor with Hussein Rashid. Forthcoming on University Press of Mississippi, 2019.
“Beyond Hair Bows and Cleavage: Helping Women Draw Their Iconic Selves.” Lessons Drawn: Essays on the Pedagogy of Comics and Grahpic Novels , ed. David Seelow, McFarland Books, 2019.
Review of Monster Portraits for Journal of Mennonite Studies (2019).
Graphic Novel special issue, Center for Mennonite Writing Journal, co-editor with Mary Roth, 2016
Review of Blush for Journal of Mennonite Studies (2016).
“Instructions for the Bereft. Chapter VIII: Returning to Work. b) In a Small Town.” Booth: A Journal. November 2015. http://booth.butler.edu/2015/11/27/instructions-for-the-bereft/
Broken and Blessed: The Writing of Heidi Siemens-Rhodes. Co-editor with Bethany Swope. Pinchpenny Press, June 2015.
“Thoughts on Letting Go.” Essay in Three Minus One, book project accompanying the film Return to Zero. Eds. Brooke Warner and Sean Hanish. She Writes Press. April 2014.
Review of Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels for Mennonite Quarterly Review, January 2014.
Review of Demanding Respect: The Evolution of the American Comic Book. Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies 12:1 (January 2011). www.safundi.com
“Jean Toomer.” Entry in Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
Maple Scholars project begun summer 2010, “Stories of Traumatic Birth, Grief, and Hope,” interview project with student Chelsea Kauffman.
Review of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. Center for Mennonite Writing Journal 1:5 (September 2009). www.mennonitewriting.org
“Bloodlust for the Common Man: The Sopranos Confronts Its Volatile American Audience.” Reading the Sopranos: Hit TV from HBO. Ed. David Lavery. Reading Contemporary Television Series. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006.
“Stillborns, Orphans, and Self-Proclaimed Virgins: Packaging and Policing the Rural Women of Cane.” Genders 42 (Fall 2005): 17 pp. www.genders.org
“What Remains: (De)composing and (Re)covering American Identity in As I Lay Dying and the Georgia Crematory Scandal.” Co-written with Kyle Schlabach. Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 36.1 (Spring 2003): 38-55.
Goshen College
- Mininger grant, summer 2020 for nonfiction manuscript workshop. COVID-delayed until summer 2021.
- One-semester sabbatical, spring 2020
- Mininger grant, summer 2019, Indiana University Writer’s Conference, poetry workshop with Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- President’s Renewal Grant, 2018-19 to develop book manuscript on comics and the female body
- Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Finalist for Best Community Volunteer Program, “Could Lead to Dancing” WGCS 91.1 The Globe, 2019
- Maple Scholars 2018, co-led with Jeanette Shown, AI Meets the Graphic Nerd
- Mininger grant summer 2018 for Screenwriting at Interlochen College of Creative Arts, MI
- Mininger grant summer 2017 for Blogging for Artists and Writers class at Interlochen College of Creative Arts, MI
- Mininger grant summer 2016 for Typesetting One at the Center for Book Arts, NYC
- Mininger grant summer 2015 for Indiana University Writers’ Conference (with Lynda Barry and Dan Chaon)
- Mininger grant summer 2014 for online Fiction Writing class at the New School, New York City
- Mininger grant summer 2011 for Fiction Writing workshop at Drew University, Madison, NJ
- Maple Scholars, Summer 2010, Interview project, “Stories of Traumatic Birth, Grief, and Hope”
- Mininger Conference Grant, March 2009, Iowa Summers Writers’ Conference
- Mininger Conference Grant, March 2008, Indiana University Writers’ Conference
Indiana University, Bloomington
- Departmental Teaching Fellow, Fall 2002–Spring 2004
- President’s Summer Undergraduate Research Initiative Grant, Summer 2003
- Dissertation-Year Fellowship, Indiana University English Department, Fall 2001–Spring 2002
- TERA Award for Outstanding Teaching, Spring 2000
Northwestern University
- Honors Thesis in Women’s Studies, Spring 1992
- Phi Beta Kappa, Spring 1992
- Expanded Directors’/Supervisors Forum, summer 2020
- CORE assessment team for critical and reflective thinking, summer 2020
- PALNI grant for no-cost course development, summer 2020
- Humanities School co-chair Fall 2019
- English department co-chair 2019-2020
- Faculty governance task force, summer-fall 2019
- Storytelling Center planning retreat with Communications Dept., June 2019
- PALNI workshop, May 2019
- Association of College and University Educators online course for Effective Teaching Practices, 2018-2019
- Hiring committee chair, Assistant Professor of English, spring 2019
- Multiple promotion committees
- Council for Independent Colleges Workshop, “Strengthening Department and Campus Leadership,” Summer 2018
- Adviser for Creative Writing Club
- Co-adviser, with Anna Kurtz Kuk, for Goshen Monologues
- Space Planning Committee
- Higher Learning Commission Committee
- MLK, Jr., Day Coffeehouse, coordinator
- Adviser for Pinchpenny Press
- Academic Voice convocation coordinator
- Academic advising
- Faculty Mentor (past)
- Academic-Athletic Committee (past)
- Core Curriculum Committee (past)
- Evaluator of scholarship applications for Celebrate Scholars weekend (past)
- Mininger Review Team (ad-hoc)
- Grievance Committee (past)
- Maple Scholars committee (past)
- Adviser for Red Cents (past)
- Adviser for Is the Word poetry slam (past)
- Disc Jockey, “Could Lead to Dancing,” WGCS-FM, The Globe, 2007-present
- Narrator, Deep Dive documentary, Spring 2018
- Narrator, live script reading, “Untitled Breakup Comedy” by Jim Strouse, Riverbend Film Festival, Spring 2016
- Youth Mentor, Assembly Mennonite Church
- Sunday School substitute and assistant, Assembly Mennonite Church
- Worship Leader, Assembly Mennonite Church, Fall 2014
- Visits to teach in Campus Center for Young Children classes, Spring 2013 and 2014
- Conversational Spanish class, Spring 2012
- Help-a-House, Summer 2011
- Globe Fund Drive, yearly
- Disc Jockey (DJ NoCoast), “Crop Circles,” Breakthruradio.com, Fall 2008-Spring 2010
- Actor and bassist, “Action Comedy,” New World Arts, Spring 2007
“Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam: The Promise and Perils of Utopian Bodies, Spaces, and Genres.” Michigan State University Comics Forum, East Lansing MI, February 2020.
‘Tis the Season benefit, co-host and invited reader, Ignition Music Garage, Winter 2019
“Monstrous Resistance: The Horror of the Female Body in Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing Is Monsters,” Popular Culture Association, Washington DC, April 2019
“Ms. Marvel’s America: Comics and Cultural Conversation,” GC Faculty Scholars Series, March 2019
Writing Reproductive Loss, discussion circle co-leader with Susanna Childress, Festival of Faith and Writing, Grand Rapids MI, April 2018
Goshen Writers Read, invited speaker, fall 2018
History of Comics talk at Goshen Public Library for Free Comic Book Day, May 2017
Faculty and alumni reading, spring 2017
“I Heart Comics: The Cultural Power of Comics and Graphic Novels,” Afternoon Sabbatical, February 2017
‘Tis the Season benefit, invited reader, Ignition Music Garage, Winter 2016
Goshen Writers Read, invited reader, Art House, Fall 2016
Goshen Green Drinks, invited speaker, Summer 2016
“The New Ms. Marvel: ‘Inhuman’ Teen, Muslim Superhero, Cyborg Goddess,” Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association National Conference, Seattle, WA, March 2016
Goshen Writers Read, invited reader, Fall 2015
“Shape-Shifting to Fit the Body Politic: Ms. Marvel’s Complex Battle for Justice, Assimilation, and Survival,” University of Florida Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, Gainesville, Florida, April 2015
Three Minus One book release, Better World Books, Goshen IN, June 2014
Sermon, “Living with the Lost: Story as Resurrection,” Assembly Mennonite Church, Goshen IN, May 2014
Goshen Graphix II book release, Better World Books, Goshen IN, April 2014
“Chris Ware’s Building Stories: Revisiting and Revising Modernism in the Midwest,” The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, University of Louisville, Louisville KY, February 2014
Presentation on Goshen College at What English Professors Do All Day, Notre Dame Graduate English Department, South Bend IN, November 2013
“Representing Reproduction in Aya of Yop City,” Midwestern Conference on Language, Literature, and Media, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb IL, March 2013
Excerpt from “Spring and Fall,” Art in the Barn, Goshen IN, October 2011
“The Changing Student ‘Self’ at a Religious Liberal Arts College: Assessing and Adjusting the First-Year Writing Curriculum to Address Major Changes in the Student Body,” Panel Presentation, International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Bloomington IN, October 2009
“Freaks, Geeks, and Paupers: Biologizing Class in a Democratic Utopia,” University of Louisville Twentieth-Century Literature Conference, February 2007
“The Bluest Eye: Story over Stereotype,” Women’s Studies Week Lecture, Goshen College, February 2007
“Eugenics and Popular Culture,” Invited Class Presentation, History of Eugenics Graduate Seminar, Indiana U—Purdue U, Indianapolis, November 2006
“What Remains? Composing and Decomposing National History with the Georgia Mortuary Scandal” (joint presentation with Kyle Schlabach, Midwest Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Minneapolis, MN, November 2002
“Whose New Race? Sanger, Toomer, and 1920s Narratives of American Eugenics, ” Society for Literature and Science Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, October 2000
“Engineering Subversion: Our Geek American Heritage,” University of Louisville Twentieth-Century Literature Conference, February 2000
“Reproducing a Feminist Nation from 1915 to the Edge of the Millennium,” University of Louisville Twentieth-Century Literature Conference, February 1999
“Mothering Subversion: Pop Culture Moms ‘Nurture’ Resistance to Institutionalized Reproduction,” Society for Literature and Science Annual Convention, Gainesville, FL, November 1998
“Protecting Our Mothers, Defining Ourselves,” University of Louisville Twentieth-Century Literature Conference, February 1998
Modern Language Association
Midwest Modern Language Association
Science and Literature Society
Popular Culture Association