Vera, Ryan
Title(s):
PhD Student
Email:
ryan.ignatius.vera@gmail.com
Institutional Affiliations: CUNY Graduate Center
Research Interests: Disability Studies, Ecocriticism, Gothic texts, History of the Novel, Popular Culture, Victorian Literature
My research is currently focused on “the-condition-of-England” novel and “middle-class” and “bourgeoisie” Victorian writers’ portrayal of the poor, and their depiction of mill and factory towns and sanitation conditions in Victorian England. I am also interested in the [alleged] paternalism displayed by such Victorian “condition-of-England” writers. I am wowed and enthralled by Victorian texts depicting “monstrosity” such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Robert Louis Stevensons’ Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I am, after all, also interested in Gothic texts (including movies). It’s also a scholarly excuse to watch horror movies and media. I am also interested in Disability Studies, in particular, the language of mental illness in literature and the cultural psychopathology of mental illness; the recent boom of Ecocriticsm in Victorian studies in regards to sanitation conditions and the notion of “embodied” landscapes; the history of the novel; and the wide field of Cultural Studies.
I am a teaching fellow at Baruch College where I teach composition courses based around writing through the lens of Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, race and criminal justice, and about “the Immigrant/American Experience”.
I have a great fondness for cats, Dunkin Donuts, Magic: The Gathering, Dallas BBQ, and board games. I also don’t take myself very seriously and I like to have a good laugh.
