Michael Rex joined the faculty at Cumberland University in the fall of 2006. Prior to coming to Cumberland, he taught at various universities in the Detroit, MI area including Wayne State University, University of Detroit-Mercy, University of Michigan Dearborn, and Oakland University.
 

Dr. Rex’s areas of interest fall mainly in British and World Literature particularly 16^th, 17^th, & 18^th-century British Literature and Culture. In addition to British Literature courses, he teaches courses in Shakespeare, Classical and Early Modern World Literature, Science Fiction and Fantasy as well as The Legends of King Arthur. Dr. Rex tends to combine standard canonical authors with their lesser known contemporaries to produce a balanced picture of the literary landscape. He encourages students to go beyond the content offered in class and to explore issues involving art, history, politics, music, technology, and their own experiences.

 

Dr. Rex also serves as the faculty advisor to The Cumberland Chronicle -- the student newspaper, The Lyre of the Phoenix -- CU's literary magazine and The Voice of the Phoenix -- the student-run radio station (91.5 FM). For fun, he plays viola, collects antique books and gemstones, and makes quilts and miniature furniture. He loves roses and most other flowers – gardening is a special passion.

 

Dr. Rex holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and History from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX, with a Master of Arts in English with concentrations in 17^th century British Literature, Rhetoric & Composition, and ESL from Texas A&M University. His PhD, concentrations in 17^th & 18^th century British and Medieval and Arthurian Literature, comes from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

 

In Fall 2009, Dr. Rex served as the host for the 20^th Anniversary Aphra Behn Society for Women in the Arts 1660 – 1830 Conference. The Conference included a keynote address by the Abbott Chair in Literature at Texas A&M University, Margaret J.M. Ezell, as well as presentations by over 40 scholars from 30 states and 4 countries. The conference also included a performance of Aphra Behn’s The Lucky Chance in the traditional Country House style, staring Cumberland students Nicholas Williams as Sir Cautious Fulbank, Charity Cruz as Lady Julia Fulbank, Megan Hunt as Letica, and Dr. Rex as Sir Feeble Fainwood.

 

Selected Publications:

The Heroines’ Revolt: Women Writing Epic Poetry 1650-1800. Under consideration at Ashgate Press.

 

Nice Girls Don’t: A Romance in 5 Acts. Accepted for production by 5 Points Theatre Company of Nashville, TN.

 

A Little Merry Christmas. Under consideration for production by 20% Theatre Company Twin Cities of Minneapolis, MN

 

“Education for Women? Get Serious: A Look at the Argument for Women's Rational Education in the Works of Anne Killigrew, Mary Astell, Mary Pix, and Mary Lady Chudleigh” in Literature Criticism From 1400 to 1800, Vol. 149. Cengage. July 2008.

 

“The Nature of Epic: Margaret Cavendish’s Poems and Fancies and the Construction of a ‘New’ English Epic Ideology.” in Genre in the Long Eighteenth-Century. Ed. Sandro Jung. Forthcoming. 2010.

 

“Eyes on the Prize: The Search for Personal Space and Stability in Eliza’s Babes.” in Discovering and (Re)Covering the Seventeenth-Century Religious Lyric, eds. Jeffrey Johnson and Eugene Cunnar. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 2001. pp. 205-230.

 

Entry on Jean Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear in Novels for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thompson. 10th edition. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 1999. 12 pp.

 

“Tasso’s Wild Women: The Female Characters of Jerusalem Delivered” in Epics for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Bellaluna. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 2000. 12pp.

 

“The Good Daughter, Wife, and Mother: Breaking the Traditional Feminine Roles in Ana Castillo’s So Far from God” in Literature of Developing Nations for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Bellaluna. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 2000. 12 pp.

 

“When the Words Get in the Way: The Influence of Translation on Interpretation in Aristophanes’s Lysistrata” in Drama for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Bellalouna. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 2000. 8 pp.

 

Selected Presentations:

“A Pox on Thee! Teaching the Bad Girls in the Bible Belt” at Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. Johnson City, TN 17 – 19 February, 2010.

 

“When is a Slut a Slut?: Female Sexual Excess in Early Drama by Women” at the annual Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies Conference. Philadelphia, PA 20-23 November 2008.

 

Panel Presentation: A New Illumination: Film Adaptations of Medieval Texts – with Jeremy Jenkins and Brittany Huffman at the annual Kentucky Philological Association Conference. Louisville, KY 8-9, March, 2008.

 

“‘I’ve Got your Back, Mate!’ The Art of Writing the Sidekick in Restoration Drama” at the annual South East American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Conference. Alburn, AL, 14-18 February, 2008.

 

“Sorry, But Not Really: The Long Eighteenth Century and the Rhetorical Modes of Artistic Expression” at the Aphra Behn & Women in the Arts Society 1660 - 1800 Conference. Albuquerque, NM, October 25 – 27, 2007

 

“Awash in Bitter Tears: Early Modern Women Dramatists and the Philosophy of Female Political Agency.” Panel: Feminist Philosophers of the Early Modern Period, at the National Women’s Studies Association 28^th Annual Conference. Chicago, July 2007.