Thomas J. Brennan, SJ

BA Georgetown University, 1982

MA Fordham University, 1989

MDiv, Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, CA 1995

PhD (expected), Brandeis University, 2001

General Fields of Professional Interest

19th century British Poetry, especially elegies
lesbian and gay studies
psychology and literature
teaching non-traditional (continuing education) students

Pedagogical Style

I try to vary my approach as much as possible: lecture, question and answer, weekly writing assignments to generate discussion, quizzes. In composition classes, I put a lot of stress on the use of prose models. These may derive from essays the students read, from my own work, and from the students' work. In addition, depending on the task, I will also ask students to work in small groups so that they can develop a sense of an audience for their work beyond the teacher.

Selected Publications

"Hope Crossed, Hope Elicited: Wordsworth's Drowned Man at Esthwaiteand the French Revolution," [conference paper] Cross Currents in Romanticism, American Conference on Romanticism, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA Oct.16-18, 1998