Chamutal Noimann
Associate Professor
English
EMAIL: cnoimann@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-751P
Office Hours:
Phone: +1 (212) 776-6352
I am Professor of British literature specializing in children’s literature, Childhood Studies, Victorian Literature, fantasy, Steampunk, and Game pedagogy. I am the Coordinator of the Children & Youth Studies Associate of Art degree program at BMCC. This program offers an interdisciplinary perspective on children; from birth to adolescence, through a curriculum with courses in Education, English, Ethnic Studies, Health Education, Human Services, Media, Music & Art, Psychology, Sociology and more. Graduates of the program may seamlessly transfer to the Children & Youth Studies Program at Brooklyn College/CUNY or the Youth Studies Program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies, to complete their BA degree.
Expertise
Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Childhood and Adolescence Studies, Writing Across the Curriculum, Victorian Literature, Popular Culture, Nineteenth-century English literature, Steampunk, Fantasy, Ethics and Censorship, Games in Education and Games Studies, Fatherhood, English Education, Community Colleges,
Degrees
- B.A. Hunter College, CUNY, Double major in English literature and Special Honors Curriculum, 1997
- Ph.D. Graduate School and University Center, CUNY, English (Victorian Literature, Children’s literature, and Romanticism), 2007
- Advanced Certificate “Child Protection: Children’s Rights in Theory and Practice.” HarvardX, Harvard. 2023
Courses Taught
- Students placed in ENG 100.5 are offered extra support, afforded through additional instructional time. Students completing ENG 100.5 will have mastered the fundamentals of college-level reading and writing, including developing a thesis-driven response to the writing of others and following the basic conventions of citation and documentation. They will have practiced what Mike Rose calls the "habits of mind" necessary for success in college and in the larger world: summarizing, classifying, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Students will be introduced to basic research methods and MLA documentation and complete a research project. Students are required to take a departmental final exam that requires the composition of a 500 word thesis-driven essay in conversation with two texts. Successful completion of this course is equivalent to passing ENG 101.
Prerequisite: English Proficiency Index of 64 and lower or a score of 43-55 on the CAT-W and exemption from ACR 95 or successful completion of ACR 95. This course is not open to ESL students.
Please note: Tuition for this corequisite course is charged by the equated credit (hours) not per credit. - English Composition is the standard freshman writing course. The course introduces students to academic writing. By its conclusion, students will be ready for English 201 and for the writing they will be asked to do in advanced courses across the curriculum. Students completing ENG 101 will have mastered the fundamentals of college-level reading and writing, including developing a thesis-driven response to the writing of others and following the basic conventions of citation and documentation. They will have practiced what Mike Rose calls the "habits of mind" necessary for success in college and in the larger world: summarizing, classifying, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Students will be introduced to basic research methods and MLA documentation and complete a research project. Students are required to take a departmental final exam that requires the composition of a 500 word, thesis-driven essay in conversation with two designated texts. Prerequisite: Pass the CAT-R and CAT-W or Accuplacer tests
- This is a course that builds upon skills introduced in English 101. In this course, literature is the field for the development of critical reading, critical thinking, independent research, and writing skills. Students are introduced to literary criticisms and acquire basic knowledge necessary for the analysis of texts (including literary terms and some literary theory); they gain proficiency in library and internet research; and they hone their skills as readers and writers. Assignments move from close readings of literary texts in a variety of genres to analyses that introduce literary terms and broader contexts, culminating in an independent, documented, thesis-driven research paper. By the conclusion of English 201, students will be prepared for the analytical and research-based writing required in upper-level courses across the curriculum; they will also be prepared for advanced courses in literature. Prerequisite: ENG 101
- 6 CRS.7 HRS.NULL LAB HRS.ENG 121 (English Composition & Introduction to Literature in Tandem)
- This course combines English 101 and 201 into a one-semester course. It is designed for students with a high level of reading and writing proficiency. Departmental permission is required. Prerequisite: Pass the CATW and CATR tests
- This course studies and analyzes outstanding classical, contemporary and multicultural literature for children and adolescents, arranged by genre. Students are given an overview of the evolution of the literature from its cultural roots in myth and legend to its present role as a reflector of modern society. Pre-Requisite: ENG 101 and ENG201 or ENG121
- This course will focus on a specific theme, concept, cultural milieu, or major author to be announced in advance. Topics for the following semester will be made available by the English Department during registration. Each section of the course will cover in-depth a single special topic, such as one of the following: the Harlem Renaissance, Literature and the Environment, Utopian and Dystopian Literature, Literature and Medicine, The Beat Generation, Literature of the Working Class, Satire in the 18th Century, Censorship and Literature, Literature of Immigration, War in Literature, Madness and Inspiration in Literature, Gay and Lesbian Literature, and Women in Shakespeare. Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
- 3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS.ENG 372 (British Literature from the Romantic Era through the Twentieth Century)
- This survey course is independent of English 371, which is not a prerequisite. It covers the principal figures, styles, themes and philosophies represented during three literary periods: the Romantic Era, the Victorian Age and the Twentieth Century. It exposes students to major works of literature including poetry, plays, short stories, novels and essays. It enables students to appreciate the thoughts and contributions of outstanding writers such as Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats and Eliot, as well as Dickens, Joyce and Lawrence.
- English III consists of the English electives which appear in the catalog as courses numbered English 301 or higher. The literature courses consider, in depth, major writers, literary periods, or genres. The writing courses are workshops where students can develop their writing talents in specialized fields. The English III courses are similar in structure, organization and content to courses at four-year colleges. Students who plan to transfer to four-year colleges are urged to contact those colleges to find out which English electives should be taken at BMCC to fulfill their admission requirements. Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
Research and Projects
Research and Projects. Cosmopolitanism and Victorian Fantasy. I am examining how Carroll, Kipling, Ingelow, Rossetti and others created fantasy literature that answers to the very heart of Victorian cosmopolitanism by redefining the Romantic image of the child from a character that connotes the rural, local, and national to one that transcends and defies these limitations.
Publications
“Censorship, Book Bans, and Our Role in the Prevention of Harm.” Inquirer. Holly Messitt & Elizabeth Missinger, Eds. Vol. 30 (Fall 2023). https://openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu/inquirer/2023/10/03/censorship-book-bans-and-our-role-in-the-prevention-of-harm/
“Fishing and Other Writings.” Children Of The People. Grace M. Cho & Rose M. Kim Eds. DIO Press. 2022. 297-302. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-children-of-the-people-rose-m-kim/1141939320
“Ewing, Juliana.” (2022). In: Scholl L. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writings. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_318-1
“The Hero of Time: The Legend of Zelda as Children’s Literature.” Mythopoetic Narrative in The Legend of Zelda. Anthony G. Cirilla Ed. Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature. 2020. 171-187
“Steampunk Kim: The Neo-Victorian Cosmopolitan Child in Philip Reeve’s Larklight.” The Victorian Period in 21st-Century Children’s Literature: Representations & Revisions, Adaptations & Appropriations. Sara K. Day and Sonya Sawyer Fritz Eds. New York: Routledge, 2018. 88-103
“Empowering Nonsense: Reading Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky in a Basic Writing Class” College English Association Forum. Vol 43, No 1 (2014). 21-36
“Animals as Paternal Surrogates in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden” DU Journal of English Studies. Vol. 21 (March 2013) 36-54.
‘He a Cripple and I a Boy’ R. L. Stevenson’s Redefinition of the British Gentleman in Treasure Island’s Long John Silver.” 2012, The Washington and Jefferson Review. Vol. 58. (September 2012). 55-71
“’Poke Your Finger into the Soft Round Dough’: The Absent Father and Political Reform in Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. 30.4 (Winter 2005)
“Recasting the Past: The Middle Ages in Young Adult Literature” Review. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. 26.2 (Summer 2001): 106-7
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
BMCC Leadership Fellow 2018
BMCC Faculty Research Grant. “Dicky Birds that Never Die: Substitute Fathers in Victorian and Edwardian Children’s Literature.” January 2017
Awarded BMCC Distinguished Teaching Award 2016
PSC-CUNY 44 Research Award for ” Steampunk Kim: The Victorian Cosmopolitan Child in Philip Reeve’s Larklight.” 2013
PSC-CUNY 41 Research Award for “Dicky Birds that Never Die: Substitute Fathers in Victorian and Edwardian Children’s Literature.” 2010
Dissertation of Note by Children’s Literature Annual of the Children’s Literature Association and the Modern Language Association Division on Children’s Literature. Vol. 37, 2009
Hannah Beiter Student Research Grant by the Children’s Literature Association 2007
Additional Information
Children & Youth Studies AA Program page: https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/academics/departments/english/children-and-youth-studies/
