Profile
Rebecca Duncan has taught at Meredith since 1997. Students who drop by to talk with her will find a nice comfy chair in her office, a place to sink in and take a calming breath. They may have to wait a second, though, while she clears away the latest stack of books, magazines and other writing samples that she’s cued up for “teaching moments.” On a recent day there was a newspaper photograph of traditional wedding dresses in India – to share with the Postcolonial Literature class, along with an edgy black and white ad for the Text and Image course. Every spring the English majors present a playful skit about their professors, and one year’s performance included the line, “Her office is a disaster, but at writing she’s the master!”
Academic Credentials
Ph.D. in British Literature at the Florida State University
M.A. in English at University of South Florida
M.A. in International Affairs and B.A. in history at Ohio University. She has studied and taught in Brazil, Bolivia, and Morocco.
Presentations
“Power, Gender and Mythmaking in Naomi Alderman’s The Power” at the Popular Culture Association conference in Washington, D.C. in April 2019.
“It’s all Good: Priorities and Consensus in General Education.” Association of General and Liberal Studies Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, October 2018.
“Asking the Right Questions: Student Reflections and Composition.” Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon University, Elon, NC, August 2017.
Keynote speaker, Phi Beta Kappa, Wake County Chapter. Raleigh, NC, April 2017.
“Utopia/Dystopia and the Sense of Place.” Session Chair. SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Language Association) Jacksonville, FL, November 2016.
“Landscapes of Fear in the Fiction of Zoila Ellis.” SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Language Association) Jacksonville, FL, November 2016.
“Go with the Flowers.” Vision and Voice: A Poetry Reading. Pittsboro: Joyful Jewel, 26 April 2015.
“Sustainability and a Sense of Place: Contemplations on Home.” TEDx Conference, Meredith College, Raleigh, NC. 26 January, 2013.
“New Media and Genre.” College English Association Conference. Richmond, VA, April 2012.
“Assessing Change: New Standards and Assessments that Reflect Who our Students Are.” NCICU Conference on Assessment, Fayetteville, NC, April 2011.
“Designing the Digital Self.” College English Association Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, April 2009.
“Cosmopolitanism and Aural Literacy: Shaping New Stories of Culture and Identity.” SAMLA Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 2007.
“Life of Pi as Postmodern Survivor Narrative.” SAMLA Convention, Charlotte, NC, November 2006.
“Relief for Research in a Flat World.” SAMLA Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 2005.
“Revising the Curse: Shrek, Eternal Happiness, and the Ethical Other.” SAMLA Convention, Roanoke, VA, November 2004.
“Gestures of Kitsch: Ellen Olenska as the ur-Cosmo Girl.” SAMLA Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 2003.
“Isabella Cannon: Gender Pragmatist.” Women’s History Conference, Meredith College, Raleigh, NC, March 2002.
“Text/Image/Space: The Art of Document Design.” College English Association Convention, Charleston, SC, April 2000.
“Communities of Readers, Viewers, Browsers: Jane Austen in Film and on the Web.” DeBartolo Conference on 18th Century Studies. Tampa, FL, February, 1999.
Awards
Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Alpha Theta, Mortar Board.
Carlyle Campbell Faculty Award
Howland High School Hall of Fame (Warren, Ohio)
Highest Distinction, MA written exams, University of South Florida
Finalist, World’s Best Short Short Fiction Contest, Southeast Review
Norma Rose Chair of English
Publications
Scholarly Publications
“Remembering Zoe Kincaid Brockman.” North Carolina Literary Review, Forthcoming, 2019.
“Yann Martel.” Critical Survey of American Literature, Salem Press and Grey House Press, 2016.
“Analyzing Nature as a Persuasive Tool in Advertisements.” Learned-Centered Teaching Activities for Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Loren Byrne, ed. Zug, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 2016.
Voices of Moroccan Youth. Co-edited with Lucy Melbourne et. al. Rabat, Morocco: Marsam, 2011.
“Reading Slumdog Millionaire Across Cultures.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature 46 (2): 311-326. June 2011.
“Faith and Change in Morocco.” Rev. of Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman’s Journey toward Independence, by Leila Abouzeid. The Washington Times. 8 January 2010.
“Life of Pi as Postmodern Survivor Narrative.” Mosaic: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 41 (2008): 167-83.
“Sense and Sensibility: A Convergence of Readers/Viewers/Browsers.” In Lambdin, Laura and Robert C. Lambdin, eds. A Companion to Jane Austen Studies. Westport, CN: Greenwood, 2000, 1-13.
“A Critical History of Sense and Sensibility.” In Lambdin, Laura and Robert C. Lambdin. A Companion to Jane Austen Studies. Westport, CN: Greenwood, 2000, 14-26.
“Virginia Woolf’s The Pargiters and the Dialogue of Genre.” Genre 28:1, Summer 1996, 171-84.
Creative Publications
Secrets of Gray Lake, a novel. Anaphora Press, 2015.
“Another Jessica.” Short Fiction. Pisgah Review, 2017.
“A Serious Man.” Short Fiction. Southeast Review, 2017.
“Order in the Game.” Short Fiction. Mused: Bella Online Literary Review. Spring 2017.
“Weisel’s Wisdom.” Letter to the Editor. News and Observer, July 5, 2016: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article87825557.html
“The dangers in college textbooks as a business.” Op-ed. News and Observer, 13 August 2015.
“Fifty Years Later, The Enduring Electricity of the Beatles (yeah,yeah,yeah).” News and Observer, 7 February 2014.
“Digging and Drilling in Fracktown, USA” The Huffington Post, 1 November 2013.
“People Can Change; Home Should Not.” The Huffington Post, 1 January 2013
