COLIN JAGER
Department of English
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
848-932-7571
[email protected]
revised: October 2014
EDUCATION
PhD, English Language and Literature, University of Michigan, 2000
B.A., English, Calvin College, 1994.
EMPLOYMENT
Associate Professor of English (with tenure), Rutgers University, 2007-present
Assistant Professor of English, Rutgers University, 2000-2007
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
ACLS Fellowship, 2008-09
Faculty Fellow, Center for Cultural Analysis, Rutgers University, 2013-2014; 2007-2008; 2006-07,
2000-2001
Co-director, “Mind and Culture” seminar, “Objects and Environments” seminar
Life Member, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, 2003-2004.
Moscow Teaching Award, University of Michigan, 2000.
Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, 1997.
Pew Younger Scholars Fellowship, 1994.
Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, 1994.
BOOKS – single authored
Unquiet Things: Secularism in the Romantic Age, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
The Book of God: Secularization and Design in the Romantic Era, University of Pennsylvania Press,
2007.
Reviews in: TLS, SEL, Eighteenth-Century Life, Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net,
1650-1850, Studies in Romanticism, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Romantic Circles, Religion
and the Arts.
BOOKS – edited
Working with A Secular Age: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Charles Taylor's Master Narrative,
ed. Florian Zemmin, Colin Jager and Guido Vanheeswijck. Forthcoming, DeGruyter.
ARTICLES (peer-reviewd)
“Crossing the Line: Blasphemy, Time, and Revelation,” Qui Parle 22.2, Spring 2014.
“Common Quiet: Tolerance Around 1688,” ELH 79.3, 2012.
“Can We Talk About Consciousness Again?” Romantic Circles Praxis, September 2011
“Shelley After Atheism,” Studies in Romanticism, Winter 2010.
*winner of the Keats-Shelley Association Award for the year’s best essay in romantic
studies
“The Demands of the Day,” Pedagogy, 10.1, 2010.
“Introduction: Secularism, Cosmopolitanism, and Romanticism,” a special issue of Romantic Circles
Praxis, ed. Colin Jager, August, 2008. Essays by Paul Hamilton, Mark Canuel, Colin Jager, Bruce
Robbins.
“Byron and Romantic Occidentalism” Romantic Circles Praxis, August, 2008.
“Romanticism/Secularization/Secularism,” Blackwell Literature Compass 5, 2008.
“A Poetics of Dissent; or, Pantisocracy in America,” Theory and Event 10.1, 2007.
“After the Secular: The Subject of Romanticism,” Public Culture 18.2, 2006.
“Mansfield Park and the End of Natural Theology,” Modern Language Quarterly 63.1, 2002.
“Natural Designs: Romanticism, Secularism, Theory,” European Romantic Review 12.1, 2001.
“Sacrifice and the Public Sphere,” Contagion 5, 1998.
“Paying for Piety: Henryk Gorecki in the West,” Southern Humanities Review 31, 1997.
*Winner of the Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award for best essay to appear in Southern
Humanities Review for 1997.
ARTICLES (solicited)
“Reconciliation in South Africa: World Literature, World Religion, Global Capital,” in The
Routledge Companion to Literature and Religion, ed. Mark Knight (Routledge,
forthcoming 2015)
“The Entangled Spirituality of ‘The Thorn’” in British Romanticism: Criticism and Debates, ed.
Mark Canuel (Routledge, forthcoming, 2014)
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“Leaving for Germany: Literature, Theory, and Religion,” Nineteenth-Century Prose 39:2, 2012
(contribution to a forum on “The Sacralization of Literature in the Nineteenth Century”)
“Romanticism, Cognition, Culture: A Review Essay,” co-written with John Savarese, Romanticism
and Victorianism on the Net 57/58 (2010).
“Literary Enchantment and Literary Opposition from Hume to Scott,” Secular Faiths, ed. Vincent
Lloyd and Elliot Ratzman (Cascade Books, 2010).
“This Detail, This History: Charles Taylor’s Romanticism,” Varieties of Secularism in a Secular
Age, ed. Michael Warner, Jonathan VanAntwerpen, and Craig Calhoun (Harvard University Press,
2010).
REVIEWS
Review of Jasper Cragwall, Lake Methodism, BARS Bulletin, 2014
Review of David Collings, Monstrous Society (Bucknell), The Wordsworth Circle, 2011.
Review of Janet Todd, Jane Austen: An Introduction (Cambridge), 1650-1850, volume 16,
December 2009.
Review of Paul Hamilton, Metaromanticism: Literature, Aesthetics, Theory (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2003), Romantic Circles, September 2009
Review of Matthew J. A. Green, Visionary Materialism in the Early Works of William Blake
(Palgrave 2005), European Romantic Review, July 2008.
Review of Vincent Pecora, Secularization and Cultural Criticism (Chicago, 2006), Modern
Language Review, 102.3, 2007.
Review of Peter Knox-Shaw, Jane Austen and the Enlightenment (Cambridge, 2004), 1650-1850:
Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era vol. 13, 2006.
Review of Christopher Hodgkins, Reforming Empire: Protestant Colonialism and Conscience in
British Literature (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002), The Journal of Religion 84.1,
2004.
INVITED LECTURES
“Dim Sympathies,” University of Maryland, December 2014
“Love and Forgiveness in Prometheus Unbound,” University of Toronto, October 2014
“Reconciliation in Prometheus Unbound,” The “Unbinding Prometheus” Project, University of
Pennsylvania, September 2014
“The Melancholy of Secularism,” University of Arizona, English Department, February, 2014.
“London’s Overthrow,” University of Arizona, “Rethinking Secularism” Symposium, February,
2014.
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“Coleridge at Sea: Kubla Khan and the Invention of Religion,” University of Michigan, November
2012.
“Coleridge and the Invention of Religion,” Wheaton College, October 2012.
“Justified Sinners and Religious Minorities: Scott, Hogg, Benjamin,” CUNY Graduate Center,
March 2012.
Roundtable on “Secularization and Literature,” MLA 2012, Seattle, WA.
“Hogg’s Justified Sinner and the Creation of Religious Minorities,” Harvard University, February
2011.
“Kubla Khan and the Invention of Religion,” Yale University, September 30, 2010
“Shelley’s Atheism,” University of Wisconsin, February 2010.
“After Atheism,” National Humanities Center, North Carolina, October 2009.
“Shelley, Said, and Secularism,” Re-visioning Romanticism Seminar, Oxford University, October
23, 2008
“Charles Taylor’s Romanticism,” Yale University, April 4-5, 2008.
Respondent, Panel on “Romanticism, Secularism, and Religion,” Modern Language Association,
Chicago, December 2007.
“Can we talk about consciousness again?” Washington Area Romantics Group, University of
Maryland, October 2007.
“Is Critique Secular?” UC Berkeley, October 2007.
“Secularism, Enchantment, Reflexivity,” Theory of Literature seminar, Columbia University,
September 2007
Panelist, “Colloquium on Secularism,” Social Science Research Council and Rutgers Center for
Cultural Analysis, New York, NY, May 10, 2007.
“Romanticism and Secularism: Byron and Wordsworth,” CUNY Eighteenth-Century Group, New
York, NY, February 2005.
“Romanticism and Secularism,” ASH Lecture, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, March 2004.
“The Secular Subject of Romanticism,” Cambridge Romanticism Group, February 2004.
CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS
“The Cosmopolitical Differend,” NASSR, Washington, D.C., July 2014
“Reform, the Buffered Self, and the Subtler Languages: A View from Literary Studies,” Working
with a Secular Age Conference, Berne, Switzerland, March 2014.
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“The Conflict of the Faculties; or, Who Invented Romantic Religion?” MLA, Boston, MA, January
2013.
“Occupation and Neutrality: Switzerland, Schmitt, and the Shelleys,” NASSR, Neuchatel,
Switzerland, August 2012.
“Coleridge at Sea,” MLA, Seattle, WA, January 2012.
“Kubla Khan in Vancouver,” NASSR, Vancouver, BC, August 2010.
“Democrat, Philanthropist, and Atheist,” International Conference on Romanticism, New York,
November 2009.
“Shelley and Reconciliation,” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, Toronto,
Canada, August 2008.
“Religious Ambivalence in Byron and Wordsworth,” MLA, Washington, D.C., December 2005.
“Byron and Religious Pluralism,” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, Montreal,
Canada, August 2005.
“A Poetics of Dissent; or, Pantisocracy in America,” Conference on Romanticism, History,
Historicism, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, June 2004.
“Romanticism, Secularization, and the Problem of Evil,” North American Society for the Study of
Romanticism, New York, New York, 2003.
Organizer, special session on “Romanticism and the Secular” North American Society for the Study
of Romanticism, London, Ontario, 2002.
“’Prayers Plow Not!’ Blake, Paley, and the Division of Labor” North American Society for the
Study of Romanticism, London, Ontario, 2002.
“‘With what sense does the parson claim the labour of the farmer?’ Blake, Paley, and Natural
Theology,” MLA, New Orleans, December 2001.
“The Secular Subject of Romanticism,” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism,
Seattle, Washington, August 2001.
“Waiting for Enlightenment: Anna Barbauld and Joseph Priestly,” International Society for
Eighteenth Century Studies, Dublin, Ireland, July 1999.
“The Fetishism of Natural Theology and the Secret Thereof,” Midwestern Society for EighteenthCentury Studies, Mackinaw City, Michigan, October 1998.
“An Instantaneous Explosion: Joseph Priestley, Theology, and Sacrifice,” American Society for
Eighteenth-Century Studies, South Bend, Indiana, April 1998.
“Mastering the World, Listening for God: Anna Barbauld’s Debate with Joseph Priestley,” Northeast
Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Boston, Massachusetts, December 1997.
“The Ethics of Sympathy: David Hume and Carol Gilligan,” South Central American Society for
Eighteenth-Century Studies annual meeting, Edmond, Oklahoma, February 1997.
“Paying for Piety: Henryk Gorecki in the West,” Sixth Annual Symposium on Cultural Studies of
Eastern Europe and Eurasia, University of Michigan, April 1996.
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COURSES TAUGHT
Undergraduate:
English 219: Principles of Literary Study
English 226: British Literature 1800-present (Honors)
English 250: Introduction to Children’s Literature
English 307: Early Romantic Literature
English 308: Later Romantic Literature
English 392: Issues and Problems in the 19th century: the two cultures
English 436: Nineteenth-Century Seminars: “Romanticism and Beyond,” “Romanticism,
Secularism, Modernity,” “Romantic Politics” (theory seminar)
English 491: “Global Secularism, Global Religion” (theory seminar)
Graduate:
English 500: “Publishing Scholarly Essays” (2012, 2014)
English 536: “Romanticism and Epistemology” (2002)
English 561: “Writings of the British Romantic Period” (2003, 2005, 2010, 2013)
English 632: “Romanticism and Consciousness” (2006)
English 634: “Secularism from Enlightenment to Romanticism” (2007)
CLEN 6300 (at Columbia University): “The Political Possibilities of Romanticism” (with Akeel
Bilgrami and David Bromwich, 2012)
SERVICE
Professional Service
Reader, Routledge, University of Toronto Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Harvard
University Press
Reader, European Romantic Review, Modern Philology, Journal of the History of Ideas, PMLA,
Studies in the Novel, Pedagogy, Keats-Shelley Journal, Romantic Circles Praxis, Literature
Compass
Advisory Board, Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon
Promotion-to-tenure reviews: Portland State
Rutgers University Service
A&P Committee (promotion-to-tenure), 2013-2016
Fulbright Advising Committee, 2010-present
Bevier Award Committee, the Graduate School, 2014, 2013
Rutgers English Department Service
Associate Chair, English Department, (2011-2012)
Chair, Graduate Admissions Committee (2013, 2012, 2010, 2008)
English Department Executive Committee (2011-14; 2004-07; 2001-03)
Graduate Admissions Committee (2001, 2002, 2006, 2007)
Graduate Executive Committee (2001-02, 2006-07; 2012-14)
Graduate Placement Committee (2000-present)
Student Review Committee, graduate program (2013-14)
CCA Executive Committee (2010-2014)
INCS program committee (2006)
Undergraduate Advising Committee (2000-2003)
Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (2002-2003)
English Department Search Committees:
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Nineteenth Century (2005); Poetry and Poetics, Modernism, American, and African American
(2011); Eighteenth Century (2012)
Reader, Graduate Student Symposium, 2001
Reader, Catherine Musello Cantalupo Prize, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2012
Reader, Spencer Eddy Prize, 2007
Reader, Moynahan Prize, 2014
Graduate Program Faculty Roundtable, 2006, 2011
Reader, Daniel Scherwatzky, (2013-14)
Reader, Honors Theses, Thomas Moomjy, Victoria Whitfield (2007-8)
Reader, Honors Theses, Kellie Walsh, Nick Bujak (2006-2007)
Reader, Honors Thesis, Christiane Gannon (2003-2004)
Director, Honors Theses, Smita Ganatra, Patrick Carr (2002-2003)
Reader, Honors Thesis, Roger Schwartz (2000-2001)
Graduate Orals Exams
2015: Bakary Diaby
2014: Isaac Cowell
2013: Jason Gulya, Mimi Winick, Alex Solomon, Julie Camarda
2012: Anne Terrill, Vivian Kao, Randalle Hughes, Matthew Sherrill
2010: Joshua Fesi, Greg Ellermann
2009: Jesse Hoffman, John Savarese
2007: Sean Barry
2006: Cale Scheinbaum
2005: Madhvi Zutshi
2003: Sharon McGrady, Alexandra Socarides
2002: Kristin Girten
Director of Dissertation
John Savarese (defended May 2012; post-doc UT Austin, ACLS New Faculty Fellow, UC
Berkeley, Assistant Professor, U Waterloo)
Greg Ellermann (co-director with William Galperin)
Member, Dissertation Committees
Kristin Girten, defended August 2006; Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska,
Omaha)
Daniel Kelly, (philosophy, outside reader), defended August 2007; Associate Professor,
Purdue University
Sharon McGrady, defended September 2009 Writing Instructor, Seton Hall University.
Devin Griffiths, defended April 2010, Assistant Professor, USC.
Sean Barry, defended September 2012, Assistant Professor, Longwood University
Andrew Winckles (Wayne State University, outside reader) defended August 2013
Nathan Peterson
Matt Sherrill
Anne Terrill
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Member of the Modern Language Association and the North American Society for the Study of
Romanticism.
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WFCA 2014 Honorable Mention All