A letter to my student
A student wrote me: Dr. Matthew, As a hopeful future educator, DeVos' hearing downright broke me. Her basic lack of knowledge about our school system and it's prevailing issues is yet another example...
View ArticleOn Writing What Needs to be Written
I was asked to write an essay for The Atlantic reflecting on Jane Austen’s bicentennial, and I was so glad to do it. I have a complicated relationship with Austen, but I’ve made my peace with it,...
View ArticleProtecting Writing Time
A new friend asked me this weekend how I keep myself motivated to write. I had some answers that weren’t particularly original. But one thing I advised didn’t really have anything to do with...
View ArticleWriting How I Know
I’ve been thinking a lot about Wordsworth’s sonnet “Nuns fret not” for the last three weeks, usually around 4:30 in the morning (4:38 to be exact). I’ve especially been thinking about “the weight of...
View ArticleThe Cat Tweeted Back
I’m not interested in cruises. One of my versions of hell is being stuck with 4,000 people listening to muzak versions of Adele (or just Adele, if I’m being honest). The buffet culture doesn’t interest...
View ArticleLucille Clifton, Memory, and Remembering: A Reflection
The Network for Responsible Policy invited me to join a panel to talk about “gender.” Their goal is to bring experts together to talk to their community about politics, policy, and culture. Last...
View ArticleSpring 2019
I’m on research leave until September 2019. I’m going to leave that sentence on its own because it’s just so pretty. It’s one of my favorite sentences, somewhere between “turns out you were right” and...
View ArticleAbLit: Course Materials
Here’s a list of primary texts I’ve taught (in whole or excerpted) in my British abolitionist literature courses. I’ve also included a list of lectures (I’ll add to this over time) and a bibliography.*...
View ArticleFall 2019
This fall I’m giving three talks, and I’m curious and interested in each one for different reasons. The PublicsLab at The Graduate Center invited me to share my thinking about what it means to...
View ArticleCFP Race, Blackness & Romanticism: A Forum
Race, Blackness & Romanticism:A ForumStudies in RomanticismEdited by Patricia A. MatthewDeadline: January 15, 2021Essay Length: 3000Review Process: AnonymousProjected Publication Date: Spring 2022
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