Program Affiliations

Director of the Undergraduate Minor Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Biography

Dr. Jaime Cantrell is an Associate Professor of English and Director of the Program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the Department of Arts, Media, Communication, and English at Texas A&M University Texarkana. She’s been awarded library and research grants from Cornell University, Duke University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Cantrell is the author of essays and reviews appearing in Feminist Formations, the Journal of Lesbian Studies, Study the South, Notches, the Journal Homosexuality, This Book is An Action: Feminist Print Culture and Activist Aesthetics (UIP Press, 2015), and The Bohemian South: Creating Countercultures, from Poe to Punk (UNC Press, 2017). In 2015, she co-edited Out of the Closet, Into the Archives: Researching Sexual Histories, published by the Queer Politics and Cultures series at SUNY Press. With a foreword by Ann Cvetkovich, Out of the Closet, Into the Archives is a 2016 Lambda Literary Award finalist for Best LGBT Anthology. She currently serves on the South Central Modern Language Association’s Executive Committee. From 2014-2018, she served on the National Women’s Studies Association Governing Council, which represents the largest national network of feminist scholars, educators, and activists, drawing over 2,500 conference attendees annually. Iced coffee-sipper, scone-baker, cat-lover, crawfish-peeler, festival-goer, and garden-grower, Jaime knows what it means to miss her hometown of New Orleans. 

Professional Experience

Visiting Assistant Professor of English, The University of Mississippi (2014-2018) 

Education

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, Ph.D. in English Literature, Track: Writing & Culture, 2014

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, M.A. in Women’s Studies, May 2009

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI, B.A. in English, Women’s Studies minor, May 2007 

Areas of Interest 

Literary Criticism and Critical Theory; 20th c American Literature; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with special emphasis in queer theory; LGBTQ literatures; oral history and archival studies; food studies of the U.S. South.

Teaching

I am a nationally recognized educator, and innovative teaching is crucial to my academic identity. Quite simply, we persist in this profession for our students—and because of them. I urge my students to see themselves as both an evolving individual and as a key contributor to the robust collective engaged in the work of making knowledge to be shared within and beyond the classroom. I emphasize that their critical work circulates in a scholarly community enriched by their insights, and I find that students work most energetically when they are asked to create knowledge for one another and in the service of parallel communities outside their learning walls, where people work together in meaningful, creative, and unexpected ways to transform lives through critical consciousness and informed action. Several of my classes are experiential learning (EL) certified, inspiring students to connect course content with real-world problems and needs through service-learning initiatives. After attending a National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute on “Teaching from the Archives” several years ago, I developed high-impact classroom assignments in ENG442 Advanced American Literature where students worked collaboratively with archivists at The National Archives to generate Citizen Archivist Transcription Projects that empower students to view knowledge production as something they actively create, critique, curate, and preserve. 

Scholarship & Creative Activity

Out of the Closet, Into the Archive: Researching Sexual Histories. Amy L. Stone and Jaime Cantrell, eds. Albany: SUNY Press Cultures series, December 2015.

Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Best LGBT Anthology, 2016.

Selected Scholarship and Creative Endeavors

Articles and Book Chapters

“Sexuality and the Works of Kate Chopin”. Invited contribution to The Routledge Companion to the Literature of the U.S. South, Kate Burnett, Monica Miller, and Todd Hagstette, eds. Forthcoming, fall 2022. Pandemic delay in publication, postponed from 2021.

“Desiring Down-Home and Out: Southern Lesbian Poetry and the Sex Life of Food.” Invited contribution to The Bohemian South, Shawn Bingham and Lindsey A. Freeman, eds. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2017.

“Coming Out and Tutor Text Performances in Jane Chambers’ Lesbi-dramas” in This Book is Action: Feminist Print Culture and Activist Aesthetics. Jaime Harker and Cecilia Farr, eds., Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2015: 163-187.

Online Publications

“Teaching From the Archives.” NARAtions: The blog of the National Archives. February 2017. https://narations.blogs.archives.gov/2017/02/09/teaching-from-the-archives/ 

“Out of the Closet, Into the Archive.” Invited contribution to Notches: remarks on the history of sexuality. October 2016. http://notchesblog.com/2016/10/20/out-of-the-closet-into-the-archives-researching-sexual-histories/        

“Profiles in Research: On Southern Lesbian Literature.” The Devil’s Tale: Dispatches from the David. M Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Duke University. August 2015. http://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2015/08/03/11069/ 

Grants and Awards

Humanities Texas (HTX) Women’s History Month Exhibition Award (2022)

Texas A&M University Texarkana Excellence in Teaching Award (2021)

Advanced Oral History Summer Institute, University of California Berkeley (2021)

The Oral History Certification Program of Completion, Oral History Institute at Baylor University (2021)

Texas A&M University Texarkana Faculty Research and Development Enhancement Funds Grant (2020)

TAMUT Faculty Research Advancement & Professional Development Award (2020)

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Seminar Award, “Elizabeth Bishop and the Literary Archive” (2017)

The College of Liberal Arts Course Development Grant (2), The Sarah Isom Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Mississippi (2017)

Mississippi Z-Initiative Grant, The University of Mississippi with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (2016)

Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Best LGBT Anthology, Out of the Closet, Into the Archives: Researching Sexual Histories (2016)          

Southeastern Colleges and Universities Faculty Travel Grant Awardee, University of Mississippi (2015)

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute Award, “Early American Women’s History: Teaching from within the Archives” (2015)

Mary Lily Research Grant, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library (2015)

Professional Affiliations

South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA)

Society for the Study of Southern Literature (SSSL)

Southeast Women’s Studies Association (SEWSA)

National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)

The Oral History Association (OHA)

Texas Oral History Association (TOHA)