Trisha M. Brady
Assistant Professor
English
EMAIL: tbrady@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-751
Office Hours: in N-772 M and TR: 11:00-11:30; and via Zoom on Wed. 2:00-4:00.
Phone: +1 (212) 220-8000;ext=7390
Dr. Brady is an Assistant Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College where she teaches diverse courses in American and World literature along with intensive writing and composition. Her teaching and research interests span nineteenth-century and twentieth-century American literature and modern World literature. A native of East Tennessee, Dr. Brady was a first-generation college student who received her B.A. in English from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She completed her M.A. in English with a Certificate in Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, and earned her doctoral degree at the State University of New York, Buffalo.
Expertise
Rhetoric and Composition, American Literature, Modern World Literature, Literary Theory, Literary Criticism
Degrees
- Ph.D. S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, English, 2010
- M.A. University of Pittsburgh, English with a Certificate in Cultural Studies, 2001
- B.A. University of Tennessee, English, 1999
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
- 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 381 (American Literature from the Colonial Era to the Civil War)
- This course surveys American literature from its colonial beginnings to the American Renaissance of the nineteenth century-from Ann Bradstreet and Cotton Mather to Walt Whitman and Herman Melville. Students learn about the cultural milieu that influenced writers, read major and representative works and sharpen their critical abilities.
- 3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS.ENG 382 (American Literature from the Reconstruction Era to the Present)
- Though English 381 is not a prerequisite, this course begins where 381 leaves off and covers select fiction and poetry from the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century to the present. Students study major writers and literary movements; and an effort is made to place literature in its cultural context. Works by such writers as Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, T.S. Eliot, Richard Wright, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Toni Morrison may be included.
- This course presents a global approach to literature by introducing prose, poetry and drama representative of different world cultures and historical periods, from antiquity to the early modern era. Students engage in close readings of individual texts and contextual/comparative analyses. Written and spoken activities are designed to enhance students' appreciation of literature and their awareness of the ways it arises from, shapes and reflects the world's cultures.
- This course presents a global approach to literature by introducing prose, poetry and drama representative of different cultures and historical periods, from the 17th century to the present. Students engage in close readings of individual texts and contextual/comparative analyses. Written and spoken activities are designed to enhance students? appreciation of literature and their awareness of the ways it arises from, shapes, and reflects the world?s cultures.
Research and Projects
Dr. Brady’s current project, “Unsettled Readers: Dissemblance, Storytelling, and Chesnutt’s Art of Resistance in The Conjure Woman,” examines how Charles Chesnutt’s fiction represents the possibility for community and fraternity through storytelling. She is interested in how Chesnutt’s writing reflects the interpretation of alternative accounts of history that are distorted and embedded in fiction. For example, her analysis of The Conjure Woman (1899) meditates on Chesnutt’s strategic use of storytelling. In particular, she considers how Chesnutt’s conjure tales attempt to unsettle his readers’ interpretive strategies and communities and incite empathetic and ethical responses to representations of traumatic recollection.
Publications
Review of The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Civil War and Reconstruction ed. by Kathleen Diffley and Coleman Hutchison. Journal of Southern History, vol. 90 no. 1, 2024, pp. 172-173. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/soh.2024.a919005.
“The Body is a Vessel,” Alchemy, vol. 45, June 2019, pp. 14-16.
“Teaching Students to Engage Scholarly Sources: A Sequential Assignment,” Teaching English in the Two-Year College, vol. 46, no. 3, March 2019, pp. 243-244.
“‘what rainbows teach and sunsets show’: departure, return and synchronicity,” Months to Years, Summer 2018, pp. 26-29.
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Masterplots II Christian Literature. Salem P, 2007.
“The Souls of Black Folk,” Masterplots II Christian Literature. Salem P, 2007.
“A Poem for Black Hearts,” Masterplots II Poetry Series, Revised Edition. Salem P, 2002.
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
Honors and Awards:
Grants:
Recipient, PSC-CUNY Grant Award, Traditional A Award, Cycle 51, 2020.
Awards:
Nominee, Distinguished Teaching Award, BMCC, Spring 2020.
Nominee, Distinguished Teaching Award, BMCC, Spring 2019.
Membership in Professional Societies:
Modern Language Association
Northeast Modern Language Association
Society for the Study of American Women Writers
Additional Information
Selected Conference Presentations:
Roundtable presentation, “Encouraging Students to Use Their Multilingual Skills in English 101 Essays,” Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA, Sheraton Boston, March 7-10, 2024. Panel 6.35 Centering Multilinguality in First-year Composition Classes: Creative and Inclusive Approaches.
Roundtable presentation, “Eliciting Fear and Sympathy: Stereotypes, Metaphors, and Tropes of Disease and Illness (Cholera, Tuberculosis, and Covid-19),” Society for the Study of American Women Writers, Baltimore MD, Royal Sonesta Harbor Court Hotel, Nov. 4-7, 2021. Panel 16-A Shelter in Place: Lessons on Pandemic Life from 19c American Women Writers and Culture.
Paper presentation, “‘Was It Love?’: Deferred Desire and the ‘Republic of the Spirit’ in Wharton’s The House of Mirth,” Edith Wharton’s New York Conference, Wharton Society, New York, NY, The New Yorker Hotel, June 17-20, 2020. Panel: Session 12-A: Class, Mobility, and Place. (Conference cancelled due to COVID-19.)
Roundtable presentation, “Reading and Walking in Whitman’s New York City: An Experiential Writing Assignment,” Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA, Marriott Copley Place, March 5-8, 2020. Roundtable panel: How to Teach Walt Whitman in the 21st Century (Part 2).
Paper presentation, “Whitman’s Spiritual Song of Resistance,” Northeast Modern Language Association, Washington D.C., Gaylord National Harbor Conference Center, March 21-24, 2019. Panel: American Renaissance: Conflicts, Resistance, and Reform.
Paper presentation, “Slippages in Stowe’s Argument for Abolition in Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Society for the Study of American Women Writers, “Resistance and Recovery across the Americas,” Denver, Colorado, Nov. 7-11, 2018. Panel: Christianity and Resistance in Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe Society panel).
Paper presentation, “Teaching Anzaldúa, Negotiating Linguistic Borderlands, and Valuing Linguistic Diversity in a Community College Composition Classroom,” TYCA-NE (Two- Year College English Association) 2018 Conference, “English at the Crossroads: Power and Possibilities,” LaGuardia Community College, Queens, NY, Oct. 11-13, 2018. Panel: M-108 Understanding the Self, Understanding Others: Designing Effective Assignments for a Multiple-identity Classroom.
Paper presentation, “Psychoanalytic Approaches to Teaching Antigone,” Northeast Modern Language Association, Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, MD, March 23-26, 2017. Panel: Psychoanalysis and Greek Tragedy.
Paper Presentation, “Answering the Call to Respond: The Christian Service and Literary Work of Octavia Albert,” Northeast Modern Language Association, Hartford, Connecticut, March 17-20, 2016. Panel: The Bible and 19th-century American Women Writers.
Paper presentation, “‘Froze(n) … forever’: The Newsreel and the Possibility for Grace in O’Connor’s ‘The Displaced Person,’” Northeast Modern Language Association, Toronto, Ontario, CA, April 30 – May 3, 2015, Panel: Ghosts in the Machine: Technology, Image, Body, Language.
Paper presentation, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s ‘Awful Solitude,’” Northeast Modern Language Association, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; April 3-6, 2014, Panel: Figurations of Solitude and Loneliness in American Literature.
Prior to Appointment at BMCC:
Paper presentation, “The Nightmare of the Abyss in Herman Melville’s Battle-pieces and Aspects of the War,” PCEA, Gettysburg, PA, March 15-17, 2013, Panel: Poetry of Battle.
Paper presentation, “Hegel and Terror: On the Logic of the Terror of the French Revolution and the Fury of the General Will,” Northeast Modern Language Association, New Brunswick, NJ, April 7-10, 2011, Seminar Panel: Revolutionary Terror
Paper presentation, “Representations of the Catastrophe and the Longing to Return in Palestinian Personal Account Narratives” Northeast Modern Language Association, April 7-11, 2010, Seminar Panel: Displacement, Dispossession, and Uprootedness.
Paper presentation, “Catastrophe, Collective Memory, and Belonging: Reconstructing Palestinian Identity,” Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 12-15, 2009, Panel: Violent Migrations.
Paper presentation, “Representing the Trauma of War: H.D.’s Trilogy.” Lifting Belly High: A Conference on Women’s Poetry Since 1900, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 11-13, 2008, Panel: Violence, Trauma, and the Body.
Paper presentation, “Yearning for Redemption in the New South: Absence and Loss in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury.” Northeast Modern Language Association, Buffalo, NY, April 10-13, 2008, Seminar: Representing Trauma: American Redemption Stories and Lost Cause Narratives.
Paper presentation, “Faulkner and the Rhetoric of Reconstruction and Redemption in the New South,” Midwest Modern Language Association, Chicago, IL, November 9-12, 2006, Special Session Panel: A Popular Reconstruction: Imagining Reunion in Post-Civil War American Literature.
Paper presentation, “From White Masks to Black Skin: Progressive Resignification in Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle,” Popular Culture Association, Philadelphia, PA, April 11-14, 2001, Panel: African-American Culture.
Other Presentations and Lectures:
Paper presentation, “Roadside Redemption: Approaches to Teaching Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find,’” BMCC, New York, NY, October 26, 2018, Hudson Room, Panel: BMCC English Department Short Story Panels. (Invited.)
Paper presentation and discussion, BMCC CETLS, FIG presentation and discussion on cultural transitions students experience in classes at the Language, Culture, and Society FIG, New York, NY, April 23, 2015, 4:00 PM in room S-341. (Invited.) Theme: Cultural Transitions: Students, Panelists: Laszlo Arvai (Academic Literacy and Linguistics), Trisha Brady (English), Patrizia Comello Perry (Modern Languages)
Paper presentation, BMCC English Department Faculty Forum, presenting “The Shadow of the ‘Iron Dome’: The Fear of Dominion Without Liberty in Melville’s Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, BMCC, Department of English, Faculty Forum, New York, NY, March 6, 2015. (Invited.)
Prior to Appointment at BMCC:
Paper presentation, “Economies of Desire and the Impossible Possibility for Love in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth,” Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture, S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, April 20, 2006, Symposium: Works in Enjoyment.
Guest Lecture in Professor Arabella Lyon’s Practicum in Teaching (English 599) course for new Teaching Assistants, “Commenting on Student Papers,” S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, August 23, 2005, (Invited.)
Paper presentation, “Philosophies of and Pedagogical Strategies for Teaching Composition,”Teaching Composition Symposium: Graduate Orientation for New Teaching Assistants, S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, Department of English, Buffalo, NY, August 2002. (Invited.)
Panels Organized and Chaired:
Co-Chair and Organizer, Society for the Study of American Women Writers, Baltimore MD, Royal Sonesta Harbor Court Hotel, November 7, 2021, Panel: 16-A Shelter in Place: Lessons on Pandemic Life from 19c American Women Writers and Culture.
Chair and Organizer, Northeast Modern Language Association, Washington D.C., March 23, 2019, Panel: American Romanticism: Conflicts, Resistance, and Reform.
Co-chair, Northeast Modern Language Association, Pittsburgh, PA, April 14, 2018, Panel: Psychoanalysis, Literature, and Culture.
Chair and Organizer, Northeast Modern Language Association, Baltimore, MD, March 25, 2017, Panel: Psychoanalysis and Greek Tragedy.
Chair and Organizer, Northeast Modern Language Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 3, 2015, Seminar: Multimodal Representations of War.
Chair, Transitions and Transactions II Conference, Panel Chair, New York, NY, CUNY, BMCC, April 25-27, 2014, April 26, 2014, Panel: B. 1 – Teaching Canonical Texts and “A Little Light Theory.”
Prior to Appointment at BMCC:
Chair and Organizer, Northeast Modern Language Association, New Brunswick, NJ, April 7-10, 2011, Seminar Panel: Revolutionary Terror.
Chair and Organizer, Northeast Modern Language Association, Montreal, Quebec, April 7-11, 2010, Seminar Panel: Displacement, Dispossession, and Uprootedness.
Chair and Organizer, Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 12-15, 2009, Panel: Violent Migrations.
Organizer, Northeast Modern Language Association, Boston, MA, March 26, 2009, Seminar: Twentieth-Century American War Narratives: Representing Trauma.
Chair and Organizer, Northeast Modern Language Association, Buffalo, NY, April 10-13, 2008, Seminar: Representing Trauma: American Redemption Stories and Lost Cause Narratives.
Organizer, Northeast Modern Language Association, Baltimore, MD, March 1-4, 2007, Panel: American Literature, Literary Theory, and Constitutional Law.
Organizer, Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture, S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, NY, April 20, 2006, Symposium: Works in Enjoyment.
Special Topics Courses:
Fall 2014: Dr. Brady taught ENG 350, section 003, as a Special Topics course entitled American Literature and Law. Literary representations of the legal system and legal discourse can perpetuate or challenge cultural ideas and norms, including notions of justice. This course explored the intersections between the justice system and American literature by considering the way various American writers have represented societal conflict, the law, and the legal system in the United States. The class discussed the larger questions of social injustice, legal justice, and ethics while reading engaging works of fiction and non-fiction.
