Jessica Smith: Curriculum Vitae

Education

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Ph.D. in English Abandoned.  President’s Fellow.
Oral Examination Fields: Anglo-American Modernism; Critical Theory (Post-Structuralist Feminism concentration)

State University of New York at Buffalo (University at Buffalo), NY
M.A. in Comparative Literature: Critical Theory 2005.  4.0 GPA
M.A. Thesis: “Sonic Territories: Deleuze and the Politics of Sound in Kafka and Duras”  Directed by Henry Sussman. Fields of Specialization: Modernism, Romanticism, literary theory, poetics, aesthetics.

B.A., summa cum laude, 2002.  Phi Beta Kappa.  Comparative Literature: Language Theory (Special Major) and English double major; 3.92 overall GPA. 4.0 in graduate coursework.

Honors

Affiliations           
Phi Beta Kappa, University at Buffalo
Northeast Modern Languages Association (NEMLA)
Golden Key International Honour Society, University at Buffalo
English Honors Program, University at Buffalo
University Honors Program, University at Buffalo

Awards
Literature Compass Graduate Essay Prize—20th Century Literature, 2005
Academy of American Poets Prize, University at Buffalo, 2002 and 2004
Friends of the University Libraries Undergraduate Poetry Prize, University at Buffalo, 2001

Major Grants and Scholarships
President’s Fellowship, University of Virginia, 2005-2009
College of Arts and Sciences College Fellowship, University at Buffalo, 2004-2005
Graduate Student Employees Union Ph.D. Student Retention Award, University at Buffalo, 2003
DAAD Hochschulsommerkurse Fellowship, Freie Universität Berlin’s Summer University, 2003
Teaching Assistantship, University at Buffalo (includes full scholarship), 2002-2006
College of Arts and Sciences Special Tuition Scholarship, University at Buffalo, 2002
Semifinalist, Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, 2002
New York State SUNY Scholarship for Academic Achievement, University at Buffalo, 2001
University at Buffalo Current Student Honors Scholarship, 1999-2001

Publications

“The Plasticity of Poetry” in Literature Compass (Blackwell, Spring 2006)

Selected Conference Papers

“Valentines for the Future: Zukofsky’s Alternate Poetics,” at The Louis Zukofsky Centennial Conference at Columbia and Barnard, September 2004. 
“India Song and the Language of Deterritorialization,” NEMLA 2004 Convention, Pittsburgh, PA.
“Dada and Memory,” the 32nd Annual Twentieth Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville, KY, February 2004. 
“The Aesthetic Implications of ‘Julia’s Wild,’” at the Re-Reading Louis Zukofsky's Bottom: On Shakespeare Symposium, Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2003, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. 
“On the Plasticity of Poetry,” NEMLA 2003 Convention, Boston, MA (Poetry & Space I panel). 
“’The intention is always to thwart design’: Reading The Black Debt through McCaffery's Poetics of Excess,” the 31st Annual Twentieth Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville, KY, February 2003. 
“Lorine Niedecker’s Poetics of Fragile Environments,” the 12th Annual Central New York Conference on Language and Literature, SUNY Cortland, NY, October 2002. 
"Time's Flat Surface in Thomas Bernhard's Correction,” the 30th Annual Twentieth Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville, KY, February 2002. 

Editorships

Editor of Outside Voices, a small press for experimental poetry, at present.
Associate Editor of theory@buffalo Issue 8: “Deleuze and Feminism” (2003).  theory@buffalo is an interdisciplinary journal of graduate student writing.  Edited the call for papers and articles.
Founding Editor of name magazine, the undergraduate poetry magazine of University at Buffalo, January 2000 to May 2002.  I established and maintained financial sponsorship, which grew by over 500% under my leadership; formatted each issue using Adobe products; directed dozens of editors; moderated an undergraduate poetry listserv; and organized release parties and additional name-sponsored poetry readings.  I continued to advise undergraduate editors after leaving the editorial board in 2002.  From 2000-2004, name was sponsored by grants from the Edward Butler Chair (Barbara Bono and Joseph Conte), the Edward McNulty Chair (Dennis Tedlock), the David Gray Chair (Charles Bernstein), and the Samuel P. Capen Chair (Robert Creeley).

Pedagogy

Awards
Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award, University at Buffalo, 2005

Courses: Literature
HMN 242: Hermann Hesse’s World.  University at Buffalo, Fall 2003.  Readings included Demian, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, The Glass Bead Game; Kafka’s The Metamorphosis; and theoretical texts on Modernism, Existentialism, Buddhism, Post-modernism, and German history.

Courses: Composition
ENG 201: Advanced Writing I.  University at Buffalo, Spring 2003.  Students read Aristotle’s Poetics, Euripedes’ Medea and Shakespeare’s The Tempest and watched Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books before reading performance poetry and music scores.  Student research led to final papers developing individual “poetics” with regard to different art forms (film, music, etc.).
ENG 102: Honors Writing II.  University at Buffalo, Spring 2004 and Fall 2004.  This course combines ENG 101 and 201 for University Honors students.  In Spring 2004, we read Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and engaged with the history of literary criticism surrounding it while honing our critical reading skills.  In Fall 2004, I taught the same course using Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. 
ENG 101: Writing I.  University at Buffalo, Fall 2002.  Although the text for my first semester of teaching was pre-assigned, I devised ways of relating the required topic, “literacy,” to new media for my block of Media Studies majors.  We made documentaries to reinforce the idea that the structure of an essay carries the ideas that the author wants to transmit.  The students were able to see the structure of an argument more clearly after recognizing it in a medium with which they were familiar, and by the end of the semester could produce organized, well-written essays.  
ENWR 380: Academic and Professional Writing.  UVA, Fall 2006.  A one-semester advanced course in professional and advanced academic writing based on the “Little Red Schoolhouse” teaching method. I led weekly workshops for a small group of students.

Courses: Other
UBE 101: The University Experience. University at Buffalo, Fall 2000.  Teaching Assistant.  UBE 101 is a semester-long freshman orientation course.  The counseling aspect of this class helped me develop a sense of what goes on in a freshman’s life.  My consideration of classroom and student psychology now helps my students to produce their best work.  

Instruction
ENG 599: Practicum in Teaching.  University at Buffalo, Fall 2002.  This course provides ideas for instruction, course materials, grammar and writing activities, grading strategies, and assignments.  Teaching Assistants are required to familiarize themselves with pedagogical theory and to create their own statements of pedagogy. 
ENPG 880: Pedagody.  UVA, Spring 2006.  An introduction to undergraduate courses at UVA.
UBE 499: Independent Study.  University at Buffalo, Fall 2000.  Required for all T.A.s for UBE 101: The University Experience, this weekly seminar emphasizes leadership qualities and awareness of classroom dynamics.  Moreover, it advises T.A.s on how to counsel freshmen. 

Academic Service

IREWG Gender Institute Graduate Student Steering Committee, University at Buffalo, 2004-05. 
Reader, College of Arts and Sciences Poetry Contest, University at Buffalo, February 2003 and 2004. 
Organizer, “Le 3rd Sexe Qui Parle,” Gender Week (IREWG) Poetry Festival, University at Buffalo, September 2004.  At the request of Barbara Bono, IREWG Director, I organized, advertised, and emceed a two-hour reading for female poets from the University, including Susan Howe.  I also organized “Le 2nd Sexe Qui Parle” in 2003 and “Le Sexe Qui Parle” in 2002.
Artistic Consultant, Theater and Dance Department production, University at Buffalo, Spring 2003. 
Volunteer Assistant,E-POETRY, 2001: An International Digital Poetry Festival, University at Buffalo, NY, Spring 2001.  Organized registration and guest accommodations under Charles Bernstein.
Organizer, English Department Undergraduate Convocation, 2000 to 2002. 
Undergraduate Representative to the Department of English Undergraduate Review Committee, October 2000 to May 2001. 

Employment : Library and Archival 

Archivist, Poetry and Rare Books Collection, University at Buffalo, NY, 8.2001-11.2002.  Worked with Adobe Photoshop to prepare a true-color version of the Ulysses manuscripts for publication.  Archived the Clark Coolidge, Ed Dorn, Kenneth Rexroth, and Sand Dollar Press/Måyå magazine collections under the direction of Curator Michael Basinski.  Also helped patrons from the front desk and retrieved, copied, and filed materials in the closed stacks.
Archivist of correspondence for Charles Bernstein and the University at Buffalo Poetics Program, Summer 2000.

Employment : Design

Artistic Director for the publicity materials for the Department of Comparative Literature, Fall 2004. 
Artistic Director, EMF CD 133, including David Felder's In Between and Morton Feldman's Instruments II and The Viola in My Life IV, Summer 2001. 
Concert Assistant, Slee Concert Hall, University at Buffalo, NY, 8.1999-7.2000.  Wrote and distributed press releases, acted as usher and house manager for concerts, and performed general office tasks.  Responsibilities also included helping to organize June in Buffalo 2000 (25th Anniversary), a week-long festival of concerts and retrospective exhibitions

International Study

Alpha Sprachinstitut, Vienna, Austria, January and February 2005.  Six weeks of intensive German language review at Mittelstufe II-III levels.
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, July and August 2003.  Summer coursework focusing on German Expressionist literature.  Funded by a Hochschulsommerkurse Fellowship from the DAAD.
People to People International Student Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, June 1996.  Traveled along China’s eastern seaboard with People to People, a student leadership program.

Languages

German: Advanced reading, writing, and comprehension; intermediate speaking ability.  High school and college instruction with brief periods of immersion. (TELC C2/C1)
French: Beginning reading, speaking, listening comprehension.  High school instruction. (TELC A1/A2)
Swedish: Beginning intermediate reading, speaking, listening comprehension.  Immersion. (TELC B1)

References available upon request