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Faculty
Ariel Clark Silver
Assistant Professor of English
“To teach is to set transformative conversations in motion – with ourselves, with others, with those whose works we encounter. The mode of conversation – giving and receiving, speaking and listening – respects all who participate and considers each contribution. It cultivates individual as well as collective enlargement. Through engagement with literary texts, I hope to help students open the book of life and read it for themselves.”
Education
- Ph.D. English, Claremont Graduate University, 2011
- A.M. Religion & Biblical Literature, University of Chicago, 1996
- A.B. Religion & Biblical Literature and Dance, Smith College, 1993
Courses
- Core: Classics of Western Literature, Advanced Composition
- Major: American Literature I & II, Topics Courses, and Senior Paper
- Honors: Focus Courses and Seminars
Teaching Positions & Professional Experience
- Joined Southern Virginia University faculty in 2022
- English Program Associate Coordinator, Southern Virginia University, 2024–present
- Faculty Member, Columbus Ohio Institute of Religion, 2013–22
- Faculty Member, The Waterford School, 1995–97
Scholarship & Creative Work
- link to youtube video“The Book of Esther” Follow Him Podcast
- link to articleEsther in America
- link to youtube video“The Scarlet Letter as a Great American Novel”
- link to article“Search for Eve in Twain’s Garden of Eden”
- link to article“Queen Aster and Queen Esther”
- “The Sensational Possibilities of the Double-Proposal Marriage Plot in Alcott’s Moods” in Beyond Little Women, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024
- “The Story of Hagar and American Exile,” in Jewish History and American History: The Living Connection, edited by Wilfred M. McClay, Koren Books, 2024
- “Faith and Female Exegesis” in Every Needful Thing, BYU Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book, 2023
- Book chapter in The Forgotten Alcott: Essays on the Artistic Legacy and Literary Life of May Alcott Nieriker, Routledge, 2022
- Book review of Melville’s Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America, Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies, 2022
- Published book chapter in Esther in America, edited by Stuart W. Halpern, Maggid Books, 2020
- Published journal article “Joan of Arc as Avatar of Female Agency and Action in America,” RFEA, 2019
- Published monograph The Book of Esther and the Typology of Female Transfiguration in American Literature, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018
Awards, Leadership & Service
- Lead Organizer, International Poe/Hawthorne “Dis/embodiments” Conference, Paris, France, July 2025
- President, Hawthorne Society, 2023–present
- Alyson R. Miller Fellow in Women’s History, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2023–24
- Quarry Farm Fellow, Center for Mark Twain Studies, 2022
- MWHIT Independent Scholar Award, 2021
- Women’s Author Initiative, Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2021
- External Peer Reviewer, Israeli Science Foundation, Anthem Press, Neophilologus, 2020–22
- Panel Creator and Organizer, NeMLA, 2020–21
- Panel Chair, American Literature Association, 2018, 2021, 2024
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute Fellowships, 2017, 2018, 2023
Memberships
- Modern Language Association
- American Literature Association
- C19