Dinsman, Melissa
 

Dinsman, Melissa


Assistant Professor
English

Phone: 718-262-2525
Office Location: AC-2B10
MDinsman@york.cuny.edu

Office Hours  
Wednesday  2-4 pm 

Education

Degree Institution Field Dates
PhD  University of Notre Dame  Literature  2013 
MA  University of York  Modern Literature  2006 
BA  University of Nevada, Las Vegas  English and German  2003 
Melissa Dinsman holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Notre Dame and specializes in twentieth-century British literature, media studies, and the digital humanities. Her first book, Modernism at the Microphone: Radio, Propaganda, and Literary Aesthetics During World War II (Bloomsbury 2015), explores the intersection of modernism and media aesthetics, bringing together her interest in late-modernist radio broadcasting, archival recovery, and information networks. Dinsman’s current book project, America’s Blitz, looks at the ways in which British and U.S. writers, directors, and broadcasters translated British wartime experiences for American audiences during World War II. Her most recent work can be found in places such as Contemporary Women’s Writing, The Space Between, and the L.A. Review of Books.

Areas of Expertise

20th-Century British and American Literature
Media Studies
Digital Humanities

Books in Field Of Expertise

Dinsman, Melissa. Modernism at the Microphone: Radio, Propaganda, and Literary Aesthetics during World War II. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. 262pp.

Articles in Field Of Expertise

Dinsman, Melissa. "Forthcoming: Mrs. Miniver Builds the Home Front: Architecture and Household Objects as Wartime Propaganda." Modernism/Modernity. June 2017: 40 pages.

Dinsman, Melissa. "Militarizing the Messiah: Britain’s Wartime Re-Branding in The Man Born to Be King." The Space Between. 11.1 Feb. 2016: online.

Dinsman, Melissa. "‘A river is not a woman’: Re-visioning Finnegans Wake in Eavan Boland’s ‘Anna Liffey.’." Contemporary Women's Writing. 7.2 July 2013: 172-189.

Dinsman, Melissa. "Parody, Play, and Purposeful Deconstruction: A Discussion of Umberto Eco’s Hermeneutic Theory in Relation to his Parodic Practice." Literature Interpretation Theory. 23.1 2012: 70-88.

Dinsman, Melissa. "Imperial Brecht? Bertolt Brecht’s Complex Portrayal of Empire in Mann ist Mann." The Brecht Yearbook. 36 2011: 248-262.

Chapters in Field Of Expertise

Dinsman, Melissa, Carrie Johnston, and Liz Rodrigues. "Animating the Shell: Reading Cities and the Labor of Digital Humanities as Blended Learning." Forms of Digital Labor, Past and Present. Forthcoming 2019: 23 pages.

Dinsman, Melissa. "Adapting Women’s Writing: Melodrama and World War II." Teaching Modernist Women’s Writing in English, MLA book series. Forthcoming 2018: 10 pages.

Dinsman, Melissa. "Opposing Perspectives: Technology in Modernist Literature." Critical Insights: Technology and Humanity. 2012: 146-163.

Non Refereed Proceedings in Field Of Expertise

Dinsman, Melissa. "Late to the Party." Modernism/modernity’s “In These Times”. Feb. 7, 2017: online.

Dinsman, Melissa. "ispatch for “Enter the Pussyhat: On the Women’s March, Disrupt J20, and #IWillGoOut." n+1 magazine. Jan. 2017: online.

Dinsman, Melissa. "Interview on Intermodernism." The Space Between. Oct. 2016: online.

Dinsman, Melissa. "The Digital in the Humanities: A Special Interview Series." Los Angeles Review of Books. Mar-Aug 2016: online.

Dinsman, Melissa. "Markus Krajewski’s World Projects: Global Information Before World War I." Los Angeles Review of Books. Oct. 2015: online.

Reviews in Field Of Expertise

"Emily Bloom's Wireless Past: Anglo-Irish Writers and the BBC, 1931-1968 for Space Between" Forthcoming: 2018: 6 pages.

"Daniel Gilfillan’s Pieces of Sound: German Experimental Radio for Modernist Cultures" 2012: 309-311.

"Sungook Hong’s Wireless: From Marconi’s Black-Box to the Audion for The Information Society" 2012: 55-56.

"Alexandra Peat’s Travel and Modernist Literature: Sacred and Ethical Journeys for Modern Fiction Studies" 2011: 810-812.

 

Presented Papers, Lectures, and Exhibitions and Performances

" Perceiving the Enemy that Was and Is to Come in the Thrillers of Hamilton and Greene " June 2017: The Space Between.

" Invited Talk. Mrs. Miniver Builds the Home Front " Feb. 2017: University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

" Recovery Work: Digital Approaches to the Archive " Jan. 2017: Modern Language Association.

" Crossing the Boundaries: Feminism, Pedagogy, and the New Modernist Studies " Jan. 2017: Modern Language Association.

" Panel Organizer. Modern Sound and the War Industry " Nov. 2016: Modernist Studies Association.

" Hamilton’s Radar: Weaponizing Sound in WWII " Nov. 2016: Modernist Studies Association.

" Lightning Talk. Reading Cities " Nov. 2016: CUNY DHI: Digital Humanities Community.

" Patrick Hamilton, Graham Greene, and the Sound of Surveillance " June 2016: The Space Between.

" Panel Organizer. Networking Modernisms " Mar. 2016: American Comparative Literature Association.

" Melodrama and Propaganda: Narration in 1940s Modernism " Mar. 2016: American Comparative Literature Association.

" Dreaming Too Big? How Cross-and Intra-Institutional Collaboration Saved ‘Reading New York' " Nov. 2015: Digital Scholarship Conference.

" Building the Home Front: Architecture and Domesticity in MGM’s Melodrama " June 2015: The Space Between.

" New Modernist Networks: Orwell and Anand in the BBC’s Indian Section " Nov. 2014: Modernist Studies Association.

" Seminar Paper. Melodramatic Scenery as Cinematic Propaganda " Nov. 2014: Modernist Studies Association.

" Wartime Adaptation as Cultural Crossing: Jan Struther Spans the Atlantic " July 2014: The Space Between.

" America’s Blitz: Hollywood’s Re-Writing of Jan Struther’s Mrs. Miniver " Apr. 2014: Northeast Modern Language Association.

" Playing with Ghostly Networks: Thomas Mann’s BBC Broadcasts " June 2013: The Space Between.

" Clogged Networks: The Theoretical and Practical Difficulties of Radio Archivization " Mar. 2013: Society for Cinema & Media Studies.

" Panel Organizer. Sound Effects: Radio and Aural Spectacle in the Second World War " Oct. 2012: Modernist Studies Association.

" War on the Air: MacLeish and Welles’s Spectacular Events " Oct. 2012: Modernist Studies Association.

" The Power of the Adornian Voice in Orson Welles’s The War of the Worlds " Mar. 2012: American Comparative Literature Association.

" Seminar Paper. Networking Potential in George Orwell’s Radio Images " Oct. 2011: Modernist Studies Association.

" Imperial Brecht? A discussion of Bertolt Brecht’s Complex Portrayal of Empire and the East as Seen in Mann ist Mann and Die Maßnahme " May 2010: 13th Symposium of the International Brecht Society.

" Playboys Learning the Language of Caliban: An Analysis of the Post-colonial Condition in Three Versions of The Playboy of the Western World " Apr. 2010: American Conference for Irish Studies.

" Cooperative or Co-opted Communication? Understanding Bertolt Brecht’s Radio Plays " Apr. 2010: Northeast Modern Language Association.

Professional Honors, Prizes, Fellowships

CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for Visual Studies: 2015-2016.

Grants-In-Aid

PSC-CUNY, Weaponized Modernism and the Home Front: Surveilling the Enemy Within. July 2017: $3,490.

William Stewart Travel Award, MSA Conference Travel. Nov. 2016: $300.

CLIR Visual Studies Digital Humanities Grant, Reading Cities. 2016-2017: $5,000.

Offices Held In Professional Societies

Co-Web Manager, The Space Between Society: June 2017 - present.

Advisory Board Member, The Space Between Society: June 2016 - present.

Other Professional Activities and Public Service

Peer-reviewer for Radical History Review: 2016.