Department of English ~ 9030 Haley Center ~ Auburn University ~ Alabama 36849-5203

Phone: (334) 826-6422

 e-mail: wysshil@auburn.edu

Ph.D. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1998).

Dissertation: “Captivity and Christianity: Narrating Christian Indian Identity, 1643-1829.”

Director: Philip F. Gura.

M.A. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1991).

Thesis: “The Colonial Experience in Behn’s Oroonoko and Beverley’s The History and Present State of Virginia.” Director: Robert Bain.

Coursework, Breadloaf Graduate School of English, Santa Fe campus (Summer 1991). Native American literature seminar with N. Scott Momaday.

B.A. Hamilton College, Clinton, New York (1986).

Double Major: French and English Literature

Department of English, Auburn University, Alabama:

        Graduate Studies Coordinator, 2004-present.

        Associate Professor, 2003-present.

        Assistant Professor, 1998-2002.

College of Liberal Arts Summer Research Grant, Auburn University (2005)

College of Liberal Arts Research Travel Grant, Auburn University (2004)

ACLS /Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for Junior Faculty, American Council of Learned Societies, New York (2003).

Competitive Research Grant, Office of the Associate Provost and Vice President for Research, Auburn University (Summer 2002).

Competitive Research Grant, Office of the Associate Provost and Vice President for Research, Auburn University (Summer 1999).

Faculty Mentoring Program Grant, Office of the Associate Provost and Vice President for Research, Auburn University (1999).

Holman Dissertation Award for Outstanding Dissertation in American Literature, Department of English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1997-98).

Off-Campus Dissertation Research Fellowship, Graduate School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Spring1997).

Ruth and Lincoln Ekstrom Fellowship, John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island (Fall 1997).

Phi Beta Kappa, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York (1986).

Magna Cum Laude; Departmental Honors in French and English, Hamilton College (1986).

Daniel F. Breeden Teaching Grant, Office of the Provost for Academic Affairs, Auburn University (2002).

Instructional Technology Summer Academy for Auburn Faculty, Office of Information Technology and the College of Liberal Arts, Auburn University (Summer 2002)

Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award. Graduate Student Council, Auburn University (2001-02).

Senior Teaching Fellowship, Graduate School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1996-97).

Teaching Fellowship, Princeton-in-Asia Fellowship Program, Princeton University (1988-89).

BOOKS:

Early Native Literacies in New England: a Documentary and Critical Anthology. Contributing editor (with Kristina Bross). Under contract to University of Massachusetts Press; anticipated publication date in 2006.

English Letters: Native American Literacies, 1750-1850. Manuscript on Native American education in early America. ACLS Fellowship awarded in 2003 for this book project.

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS:

“Samson Occom’s Wife: Gender and Native Literacy in Colonial New England.” (under submission)

     “Beyond the Printed Word: Native Women’s Literacy Practices in Colonial New England.”  Invited chapter for an essay collection compiled by Sandra Gustafson and Caroline Sloat based on selected papers from the “Histories of Print, Manuscript, and Performance conference” at the American Antiquarian Society, 2005.

Writing Indians: Literacy, Christianity, and Native Community in Early America. University of Massachusetts Press, 2000; Paperback edition 2003.

“Indigenous Literacies: New England and New Spain.” The Companion to the Literatures of Colonial America, eds. Ivy Schweitzer and Susan Castillo. Blackwell Publishing. 2006: 387-401.

 “Missionaries in the Classroom: Bernardino de Sahagún, John Eliot, and the Teaching of Colonial Indigenous Texts from New Spain and New England.” Early American Literature, vol. 38.3, 2003: 503-518.

 “William Apess, Mary Jemison, and Narratives of Racial Identity.” American Indian Quarterly. Vol. 23.4, 1999: 63-82.

 “‘Things that do accompany Salvation’: Colonialism, Conversion, and Cultural Exchange in Experience Mayhew’s Indian Converts.”  Early American Literature, vol. 33.1, 1998: 39-61.

Review of The Poor Indians: British Missionaries, Native American, and Colonial Sensibility by Laura M. Stevens. .New England Quarterly, vol. 78.2, 2005: 328-330

Review of Writing Indian Nations: Native Intellectuals and the Politics of Historiography, 1827-1863 by Maureen Konkle. The Journal of American History, March (2005):46.

Review of The Story of A: The Alphabetization of America from The New England Primer to The Scarlet Letter by Patricia Crain. South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 67.1, (2002): 196-98.

Review of The Indian Captivity Narrative 1550-1900 by Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola and James Levernier. Early American Literature, vol. 29.2, 1994.

“Native Women and Writing in Colonial New England" "Histories of Print, Manuscript, and Performance in America" American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts June 2005

“English Letters: Native Education in Colonial New England.” American Studies Association, Atlanta, Georgia November 2004.

Session organizer with Kristina Bross: “Roundtable: Early Native Literacies.” Society of Early Americanists, Old Town Alexandria, Virginia March 2005.

Session organizer and panelist: “Editing and Reading Native ‘Texts.’” Second Ibero-Anglo Summit Beyond Colonial Studies: An Inter-American Encounter, Providence, Rhode Island. November, 2004

Co-Chair, “Native American Literacies and Indigenous Textualities,” Society of Early Americanists, Providence, Rhode Island, April 2003.

Invited paper, “Native American Women Writing: Reading between the Lines” Society of Early Americanists, Providence, Rhode Island, April 2003.

Panel organizer, “Representational Violence: Samson Occom and the Position of the Christian Indian in Early American Studies” American Studies Association, Hartford, Connecticut October 2003.

Chairperson and respondent, “Between Orality and Literacy: Defining the Loci of Enunciation in Colonial North America” Ohmundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, New Orleans, Louisiana June 2003.

Invited paper, “Native American Literary Traditions in the Early Americas.” First Early Ibero/Anglo Americanist Summit, Tuscon, Arizona, May 2002.

Chair and Respondent, “The Occom-Wheelock Circle.” Society of Early Americanists, Norfolk, Virginia, March 2001.

“Conversion and the Struggle for Identity among the Stockbridge Indians, 1734-1753.” American Studies Association, Montreal, Canada October 1999.

Chair and panel organizer, “Marks of Native Identity.” Society of Early Americanists First Annual Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, March 1999.

“Patriarchy and Christianity: Native Identity and Educational Discourses of 18^th -century Colonial America” Society of Early Americanists First Annual Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, March 1999.

“‘Things that do accompany Salvation’: Indian Converts and the Uses of Literacy.” Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture Conference, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, June 1997.

“‘One head, one heart, one Blood’: The Christian Indians of the Brotherton Settlement, 1774-1818.” Revolutions and Watersheds: Transatlantic Dialogues, 1775-1815, Grongingen, the Netherlands, May 1997.

“‘Taken by the Indians’: William Apess, Mary Jemison, and Negotiations of Transcultural Identity.” American Studies Association Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, November 1996.

“Competing Voices of Conversion: Experience Mayhew and the Pokanokets of Martha’s Vineyard.” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 1996.

“Conversion and Captivity: Ethnic Identity in Two Nineteenth-Century Narratives.” Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States Conference, Greensboro, North Carolina, April 1996.

“Captivity and Autobiography: Metaphor in the Narratives of William Apess and Mary Jemison.” Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Tallahassee, Florida, February 1996.

“‘The Naked Truth’: Robert Beverley’s Narrative Strategy and the Gendered Native American Subject.” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Dallas, Texas, October 1995.

¨      Seminar participant in The 2005 American Antiquarian Society Summer Seminar in the History of the Book in American Culture, "Publishing God: Printing, Preaching, and Reading in Eighteenth-Century America" led by Michael Warner and Peter Stallybrass, June 2005.

¨      Editorial Board Member, Early American Literature, 2003-06

¨   Reader for University of Oklahoma Press, Broadview Press, Library of America, Longman's  

¨      Peer Reviewer for African American Review,  American Indian Quarterly, Book History, Early American Literature, MELUS, PMLA, William and Mary Quarterly, XVIII: New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century

¨      Chair of SASA at SAMLA, 2001-02

¨      Reviewer of book proposal for Broadview Press, 2000.

¨      Secretary of SASA at SAMLA, 2000-01.

Graduate Courses

*   Early American Women Writers

*   Directed Reading in Comparative English and Spanish Colonial Literatures

*   Crosscultural Conversations in Early America

*   Native American Literature

Undergraduate Courses

*   Early American Women’s Writing

*    Survey of American Literature

*    The American Novel

*    Native American Literature

*    Early American Literature

*    Honors Composition

*    Great  Books I and II

Courses as Graduate Instructor:

*     Native Identities: History, Literature, Autobiography (American Studies)

*     Survey of American Literature (English Department)

*     Introduction to Fiction (English Department)

*     Basic Writing for African American and Native American freshmen. (Summer Bridge Program; 1994-97)

*     Basic Writing (English Department)

*     Writing Across the Curriculum (English Department)

*     Advanced Composition (English Department)

Courses as Graduate Assistant:

*     Native American Voices (Professor Blythe Forcey, American Studies; Spring 1996)

*     Survey of American Studies (Professor Joy Kasson, American Studies; Fall 1994)

*     Computers and Philosophy (Professor John Halton, Computer Science; Fall, 1992)

*     ESL Composition

*     ESL Spoken English

Graduate Student Advising:

     Dissertation Director: Derrick Spradlin, Cathy Rex, Amy Qualls

     Thesis Advisor: Jill Parrot, Jill Frank, Amy Qualls, Sarah Leichty, Kathryn Privett

     Committee Member: Katherine Perry, Elizabeth Dillard, Deborah Walling, Jennifer Reid, Saiward Pharr

     Outside Reader: Tom Glynn, Becky Matthews

Coordinator of Graduate Studies, Department of English (2004-2007).

Executive Committee member, Department of English (2004-2007)

    Planning Committee member, Alabama Prison Arts & Education Project (2004-present)

Search Committee member, Graduate School internal search for Interim Associate Dean of the Graduate School (2005)

Senior Mentor, Department of English for untenured faculty members (2003-present)

Undergraduate Studies Committee, English Department, Auburn University. (2001-2002)

Selection Committee, Faculty Mentoring Grant. Office of the Associate Provost and Vice President for Research, Auburn University. (2001)

Screening Committee, English Department, Auburn University. Screening committee member for two positions: American Literature 1820-1865 and American Literature 1865-1900. (1999-2000)

Composition Committee, English Department, Auburn University. Among other tasks the committee redesigned the composition curriculum for the transition from quarters to semesters (1999-2002)

Native American Forum Director, American Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Coordinated an inter-campus Native American studies colloquium to establish and coordinate Native American studies programs throughout the 16-campus University of North Carolina system. (Spring 1996)

Feminist Alliance Conference Coordinator, Women’s Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Co-directed an interdisciplinary graduate conference in women’s studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. (Spring 1996)

Peer Review Committee, English Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Elected by the graduate students to observe and support teaching fellows. (1995-96)

Modern Language Association

American Studies Association

Society of Early Americanists

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