College of Arts & Sciences

Profile

Dr. Rasmussen (Ph.D. Indiana University, 2008) is a former Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellow in Religion and Ethics (Woodrow Wilson Foundation) and has served as Managing Editor of the journal Victorian Studies. He specializes in British literary and cultural history of the nineteenth century. His current book project, Spiritual Ethnographies: Science, Religion, and Ethics in the Nineteenth Century, explores religion’s role in shaping nineteenth-century social science. A recent article on this topic, "From God's Work to Fieldwork: Charlotte Tonna's Evangelical Autoethnography," appears in the journal ELH (77.1).

Other book reviews and articles have appeared in Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net (RaVon) (http://www.ron.umontreal.ca/), Victorian Studies, and the Journal of Midwest Modern Language Association. He regularly presents papers at the North American Victorian Studies Association and the British Women Writers Associations.

Dr. Rasmussen's teaching interests include gender and literature, autobiography, critical theory, drama, literature and empire, literature and science, and critical reading and writing. He strives as much as possible to bring interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on the study of literature, writing, and culture and his courses are regularly cross-listed with the Gender Studies interdisciplinary minor. He sits on the Advisory Board of CLU's Office of Undergraduate Research and enjoys mentoring students on guided research projects. Dr. Rasmussen's recent literature courses include: "Sex and the City" (Eng352: Gender and Lit.); "Women on Stage: Gender in Performance" (English 343: Studies in Drama); "Contested Selves: Crossings, Vocations, Fictions," a Gender and Lit. course in women and autobiography (Eng352); and "Shakespeare's Critical Condition," a course in Shakespeare and literary criticism (Eng452). Upcoming courses include "Darwin's Literary Legacy" (Eng456: Major British Authors), a course in science, literature, and narrative. His English 111: Critical Reading and Writing course, Space & Practice, explores theories, arts, and cultures in the built environments of Los Angeles.

Education

Ph.D. Indiana University, Bloomington

B.A. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Expertise

Nineteenth-century British literary and cultural history; history and philosophy of science; religion and literature; gender and literature; critical theory

Publications

"From God's Work to Fieldwork: Charlotte Tonna's Evangelical Autoethnography." ELH 77.1 (Spring 2010): 159-94. (Available here with CLU login through Project Muse: http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.callutheran.edu/journals/elh/toc/elh.77.1.html)

Review: Anna Maria Jones, Problem Novels: Victorian Fiction Theorizes the Sensational Self. The Ohio State University Press, 2007. Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net 53 (Feb. 2009). (www.erudit.org/revue/ravon/2009/v/n53/029912ar.html)