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  1. Reloads current page: Ariel Clark Silver
Faculty

Ariel Clark Silver

Assistant Professor of English

Email: New Window for emailariel.silver@svu.edu

Professor Ariel Silver

“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

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