Miranda Butler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English, Snow College.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in English, University of California, Riverside
Dissertation Committee: Dr. Susan Zieger (chair), Dr. Sherryl Vint, Dr. Adriana Craciun
Research Fields: Nineteenth-Century British Literature; Science, Technology, and Media Studies
Designated Emphasis: Speculative Fiction & Cultures of Science.
Master of Arts with Distinction in English, University of California, Riverside, 2015
Fields of Specialty: Victorian Studies, Science and Technology Studies
Bachelor of Arts with Honors, summa cum laude, University of Arizona, 2013
Majors: English; Creative Writing
Minors: Linguistics; Classics
Languages: Ancient Greek (excellent), Latin (good), French (reading knowledge), Spanish (beginner)
Publications
In print
“Should Victorian Studies Be Posthuman?” Roundtable discussion with interdisciplinary scholars, commissioned and edited by Megan Ward. Forthcoming in Victorian Review, 2022.
“Darwin, Phenomenology, and Sound Studies,” in After Darwin, eds. Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel. Forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, 2022.
“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” Annotated bibliography for researchers. Commissioned by Oxford Bibliographies Online, September 2021.
“Science Fiction Double Feature,” Symposium piece on Mary Shelley’s sexuality and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and 200 years of women in sf. Science Fiction Film and Television 11.2, June 2018.
“Not that Cthulu,” book review of Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble. Science Fiction Studies, July 2017.
On the web
“The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter: Human-Directed Evolution in Theodora Goss's Victorian Crossover Novel.” Neo-Victorian Reviews, British Association of Victorian Studies (BAVS) Postgraduate Blog. July 2017.
“Different Houses Built on the Same Foundation: Science and Spiritualism in V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic Trilogy.” Neo-Victorian Reviews, British Association of Victorian Studies (BAVS) Postgraduate Blog. March 2017.
Weekly blog posts for the FrankenBlog, the official UCR Library website for the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy’s 200 Years of Frankenstein exhibit. January 2017 to July 2017.
“She Seems Dead, but She’s a Vampire, Right?: (Re)Mediating Carmilla through Millennial Webculture.” Neo-Victorian Reviews, British Association of Victorian Studies (BAVS) Postgraduate Blog. July 2016.
Grants, Honors, & Awards - Graduate Student
Recipient, UCR Department of Comparative Literature and Languages Barricelli Memorial Award grant, for research on Critical Disability Studies, Spring 2018.
Recipient, Humanities Graduate Student Research Grant (HGSR), from UCR's interdisciplinary Center for Ideas and Society. Grant awarded to conduct archival research on Charles Darwin at the University of Cambridge, UK. Summer 2017.
Recipient, Graduate Research Mentoring Program (GRMP) fellowship funding for dissertation year research at UCR, Winter and Spring 2017.
William H. Scheuerle Graduate Student Paper Award for the best paper by a graduate student, presented at the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States, October 2014. For the paper "Cartes-de-Visite: Victorian Social Media." Winter 2014.
Outstanding Teaching Assistant award, 2014-2015, UCR’s University Writing Program.
Nominee, UCR’s Graduate Students in English Association Departmental Service Award, 2014-2015.
Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellowship, University of California Riverside, 2013-2019.
2013 Rhodes Scholarship Candidate (M.A. applicant), October 2012.
Invited Presentations & Guest Lectures
“Darwin and Sound.” Invited presentation via George Levine and the North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA) Supernumerary Conference. Florence, Italy. May 2017.
"Mary Shelley's Frankenstein," Public Lecture at the Riverside Dickens Festival. Downtown Riverside, February 2018.
“A Tale of Two Frankensteins,” Guest Lecture for Dr. Sherryl Vint's English 20C course, Another World is Possible. University of California, Riverside, April 2017.
“The Riddle of Nuclear Waste,” Guest Lecture for Stina Atteberry’s English 1B course, Intermediate Composition. University of California, Riverside, February 2017.
“Poe: That’s so Raven,” Guest Lecture for Dr. Susan Zieger’s English 127T course, Special Topics in Nineteenth-Century Literature, The Poetry of Darkness: Poe, Baudelaire, Swinburne. University of California, Riverside, January 2017.
“Death is only the End if You Assume the Story is About You: Reading Modernism through Joyce’s ‘The Dead,’” Guest Lecture for Dr. Stanley Stewart’s English 20A course, Survey of British Literature. University of California, Riverside, November 2015.
“Victorian Photos and Photo Albums,” Guest Lecture for Mackenzie Gregg’s English 1C course, Victorian Photographic Fictions. University of California Riverside, April 2015.
Conferences
“Darwin and Braille.” North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA) Conference. Banff, Canada. November 2017.
Panel Organizer and Moderator: New Approaches to Darwin. Speculative Fictions and Cultures of Science event, UC Riverside, January 2017.
Dickens Universe 2016: UC Riverside Student Representative. The Dickens Project, University of California, Santa Cruz. July 2016.
Panel Chair: Biopolitics and Ecology: Neoliberalism, Catastrophe, and Resilience and Presenter: “A Canticle for Benjamin: The Radioactive Decay of History and its Redemption through the WIPP Permanent Markers Project.” The Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA) Conference. Houston, TX. November 2015.
“Cartes-De-Visite: Victorian ‘Social’ Media.” The Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States (VISAWUS), 2014 Conference. California State University, Fullerton. October 2014.
“I’m Evo-Devo: Darwin, Neolution, and The Posthuman in Orphan Black.” Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies Designated Emphasis Conference, University of California, Riverside. March 2014.
“Eufuia: The Nineteenth-Century Rise of English as a Form of Elevation.” The State of English (Symposium), University of California, Riverside. March 2014.
“Speculative Fiction in Retrospect: Thing Theory and Astounding Science Fiction.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations (SWTX PCA/ACA) Conference, February 2013.
Research & Curatorial Positions
Production Assistant, The Story of Science Fiction (TV Documentary, AMC). Left/Right Productions, Summer 2017.
Research Consultant, 200 Years of Frankenstein exhibit at the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy. University of California, Riverside, 2016-2017.
Research Assistant, Fanzine Digitization Project at the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Summer 2016.
Honors & Awards - Undergraduate
Samuel & Louise McMillan Memorial Scholarship for female leadership, 2012.
Winner of National Novel Writing Month: November 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015.
Excellence in Arts Writing Award as an arts & features columnist for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, May 2011.
Winner, John Hearst Poetry Prize, 2011.
University of Arizona’s Wildcat Excellence Award, academic scholarship, 2009-2013.
Affiliations & Service
American Graduate Student Representative, North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA) Executive Board & Advisory Council. 2018-2019.
Graduate Student Representative, UCR's interdepartmental emphasis program in Speculative Fictions and Cultures of Science (SFCS), 2016-2017.
Registered DisAbility Ally, trained through UCR's Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) in collaboration with UCI's Disability Services Center.
Greater Riverside Area Dickens Fellowship, community reading group.
Stack Reader, The Getty Research Institute.
Member, Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA).
Member, North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA).
Chair of Catering, (dis)junctions Conference, University of California Riverside, 2014 and 2015.
Vice President, Graduate Students in English Association, 2014-2015.
Member, Phi Beta Kappa.
Programming Assistant, The Big Read Project. Tucson, AZ, 2012.
Former Publishing Intern, Kore Press. Tucson, AZ, 2012.