Keridiana W. Chez
Associate Professor
English
EMAIL: kchez@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-771A
Office Hours:
Phone: +1 (212) 776-7839
Expertise
Degrees
- New York University School of Law, J.D., 2002
- Ph.D. The Graduate Center, City University of New York, English, 2012
Courses Taught
- 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
- 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
Research and Projects
Publications
Books
Potter Stinks: Gender and Species in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series (UP of Mississippi, expected 2025)
Victorian Dogs, Victorian Men: Affect and Animals in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture (The Ohio State UP, 2017)
Edited Edition
Annotated edition of Margaret Marshall Saunders’ 1893 novel, Beautiful Joe (Broadview P, 2015)
Articles and Chapters
“Sorry, Not Sorry: The Limits of Empathy for Non-Human Creatures in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter,” in Open at the Close: Literary Essays on Harry Potter, ed. Cecilia Konchar Farr (UP of Mississippi, 2022)
“Still Lives: Victorian Representations of Masters and Pets,” in Victorian Pets and Poetry, ed. Kevin Morrison (Routledge, 2021)
“The Man-Eating Tiger: Wild Animal Politics and Colonial Indian Identity,” Victorian Review 46.2 (2020)
“Wanted Dead or Alive: Rabbits in Victorian Children’s Literature,” in Animals and Their Children in Victorian Culture, ed. Brenda Ayres and Sarah Elizabeth Maier (Routledge, 2019)
“Man’s Best and Worst Friends: The Politics of Pet Preference at the Turn of the Century,” in American Beasts: Perspectives on Animals, Animality, and U.S. Culture, 1776-1920, ed. Dominik Ohrem (Neofelis, 2017)
“The Mandrake’s Lethal Cry: Homuncular Plants in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” in Plant Horror: Approaches to the Monstrous Vegetal in Fiction and Film, ed. Dawn Keetley and Angela Tenga (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
“Creating Carnivores and Cannibals: Animal Feed and the Regulation of Grief,” in Mourning Animals, ed. Margo DeMello (Michigan State UP, 2016)
“‘You can’t trust wolves no more nor women’: Canines, Women, and Deceptive Docility,” Victorian Review 38.1 (2012)
“Popular Ethnic Food Guides as Auto/Ethnographic Project: The Multicultural and Gender Politics of Urban Culinary Tourism,” Journal of American Culture 34.3 (2011)
