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About
Marist College to Become Marist University
University designation reflects breadth of global opportunities and bold vision for Marist's next century.
About
-
Academics
Marist College to Become Marist University
University designation reflects breadth of global opportunities and bold vision for Marist's next century.
Academics
-
Admission & Financial Aid
Marist College to Become Marist University
University designation reflects breadth of global opportunities and bold vision for Marist's next century.
Admission & Financial Aid
-
Student Life
Marist College to Become Marist University
University designation reflects breadth of global opportunities and bold vision for Marist's next century.
Student Life
- Athletics
Dr. Stephen M. Mercier
Lecturer of English
Bio
Dr. Stephen M. Mercier grew up in Cumberland, Rhode Island. He attended Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he majored in Psychology. After college he lived in Studio City, California, where he worked for four years as a Production Assistant on television situation comedies. He also recorded music and performed on the Sunset Strip. Returning to his home state, he attended the University of Rhode Island (URI) in Kingston, where he completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in English in May of 2004. For three years Steve worked in the Writing Center and was the Assistant Editor of the academic quarterly, ATQ: 19th-Century American Literature and Culture. In Autumn 2008 he guest edited a special issue on John Burroughs in the Hudson River Valley for The Hudson River Valley Review. His dissertation is titled: "Revaluing the Literary Naturalist: John Burroughs's Emotive Environmental Aesthetics." He was interviewed for pieces about Burroughs that appeared in The New York Times and on National Public Radio (NPR). Steve has taught courses in English and Composition at URI, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Wheaton College, and SUNY New Paltz.
He has affiliations with the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), the John Burroughs Association (JBA), the New York College English Association (NYCEA), the Modern Language Association (MLA), and the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE).
Education
Ph.D. University of Rhode Island
M.A. University of Rhode Island
B.A. Clark University
Research Interests / Areas of Focus
Composition studies, nineteenth-century American literature, nature writing, environmental aesthetics, place studies, and ecocriticism.
Selected Publications
"Epic Narratives of Evolution: John Burroughs and Loren Eiseley." in Artifacts and Illuminations: Critical Essays on Loren Eiseley. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012. 253-69.
"John Burroughs and the Sentimental: Revaluing the Literary Naturalist." Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE) 17.3 (Summer 2010): 507-25. Published by Oxford University Press.
"John Burroughs in the Hudson River Valley: An Introduction." The Hudson River Valley Review (Autumn 2008): 1-9.
"John Burroughs and the Hudson River Valley in Environmental History." The Hudson River Valley Review (Autumn 2008): 57-77.
"Ornithological Testimonies: Letters to John O'Birds." ATQ: 19th C. American Literature and Culture New Series 21.4 (December 2007): 151-64.
"John Burroughs and the Nineteenth Century." ATQ: 19th C. American Literature and Culture New Series 21.3 (September 2007): 151-64.
"John Burroughs Transpersonal Identity with Place." Book Chapter in Writing the Land: John Burroughs and his Legacy. Cambridge Scholars Press. 2008.
Book Review of Priscilla Coit Murphy's What a Book Can Do: The Publication and Reception of Silent Spring. Amherst, MA: U of Massachusetts P, 2005. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE) 14.2 (Summer 2007): 280-81.
"Ornithological Testimonies: Letters to John O'Birds." ATQ: 19th Century American Literature and Culture New Series 21.4 (December 2007).
"When Congress Debated Migration: John Burroughs, Henry Ford, Ernest Thompson Seton, and the Congressional Debate over the Weeks-McLean Law." Wake-Robin: Newsletter of the John Burroughs Association at the Museum of Natural History (AMNH) 39.2 (Winter 2007): 6-10.
"Into the Pond-Lily's Heart: The Influence of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass on John Burroughs." Wake-Robin 38.3 (Spring 2006): 4-8.
"Letters to John O'Birds." Wake-Robin 38.1 (Spring 2005): 3-7.
Creative Work
Conferences & Workshops
June 4-8, 2012. "'Sharp Eyes' VII: Is Nature Writing Dead?" SUNY Oneonta. Opening Address: "John Burroughs: Life & Works."
June 7-10, 2010. “'Sharp Eyes' VI: Old Lessons for a New Millennium: Nature Writing and Environmentalism in the 21st Century.” SUNY Oneonta. “John Burroughs’s ‘The Long Road,’ Loren Eiseley’s The Immense Journey, and the Genre of Natural History.”(Conference Paper)
June 27-29, 2008. The Keyboard in the Garden: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Literature and Mediated Nature. Doyelstown, PA. “Edenic Images in United States Nature Writing.” (Conference Paper)
June 15-19, 2008. “‘Sharp Eyes V’: John Burroughs and Nineteenth-Century Science.” Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. “John Burroughs and the Passenger Pigeon.”
(Conference Paper)
November 7, 2008 “Self-Invention and Emily Dickinson: Reading, Writing, and the Construction of the Poetic Self.” Workshop at Bard College
April 18, 2008 “Why Write? Vision and Purpose in the Classroom” Workshop at Bard College
December 7-9, 2007 “Writing and Thinking” Workshop at Bard College
November 9, 2007 Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY - Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking. Attended workshop "Biography as Literary and Historical Text: Mark Lytle's The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement."
March 22-25, 2006 Chicago, IL. "Composition in the Center Spaces: Building Community, Culture, Coalitions." Fifty-Seventh Annual Convention of the College Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC)
July 9-15, 2006 Concord, MA. Selected to participate in National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop, titled "Concord, Massachusetts, and American Utopian Thought in the Early 19th Century."
Selected Presentations
June 21, 2001 Flagstaff, Arizona. "Persuasive Strategies in United States Nature Writing: Toward a Taxonomy for the Twenty-First Century" delivered at the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment's (ASLE) Fourth Biennial Conference at Northern Arizona State University.
June 6, 2003 Boston, Massachusetts. "John Burroughs's Ecological Sublime View of Evolution" delivered at ASLE's Fifth Biennial Conference at Boston University.
February 21, 2004 Saratoga Springs, NY. "The Emotive in Environmental Aesthetics" delivered at the Fourteenth North American Interdisciplinary Conference: Environment and Commmunity.
May 15, 2004 West Park, NY. Guest Speaker for Slabsides Day at the John Burroughs Sanctuary. Talk was titled "Intimate Ornithological Testimonies: Letters to John O'Birds."
June 9, 2004 Oneonta, NY. "Intimate Ornithological Testimonies: Letters to John O'Birds" also presented at "Sharp Eyes III: John Burroughs and His Contemporaries, Near and Far: A Summer Conference on John Burroughs and Nature Writing" at SUNY Oneonta
May 21, 2004 West Park, NY. Guest speaker for Slabsides Day at the John Burroughs Sanctuary. Talk was titled "Into the Pond-Lily's Heart: The Influence of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass on John Burroughs."
June 5, 2006 Oneonta, NY. "John Burroughs's Transpersonal Identity with Place" delivered at "Sharp Eyes IV: Writing the Land: John Burroughs and his Legacy." SUNY Oneonta
April 14, 2007 (Morning) New Paltz, NY. "John Burroughs's Rhetoric of Evolution: Poetry, Science, and Spirituality" delivered at the New York College English Association (NYCEA) conference on "Literature on Evolution/Literature on Revolution" at SUNY New Paltz.
April 14, 2007 (Afternoon) West Park, NY. "The Life and Writings of John Burroughs" delivered at Slabsides. Invited to speak to honor students from Mount Saint Mary College.
June 2007 Spartanburg, South Carolina. "John Burroughs and the Sentimental" delivered at ASLE's Seventh Annual Biennial Conference at Wofford College.
October 27, 2007 West Park, NY. "John Burroughs, Environmentalism, and The Hudson Valley" delivered at Pond House. Invited to speak to honors from Mount Saint Mary College.
February 29, 2008 “John Burroughs – An Overview.” Invited Lecture at Town of Esopus Library. Port Ewen, NY.
April 29, 2008 “The Life and Writings of John Burroughs.” Invited Lecture to be keynote speaker for The Falconer Natural History 2008 Spring Lecture Series. Sponsored by the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the University of Albany.
June 10, 2008 “John Burroughs and the Hudson River Valley” Invited Lecture at The Hudson River Maritime Museum. Kingston, New York.
Awards and Honors
Faculty of the Year Award, Liberal Arts, 2011-2012
Faculty of the Year Award, Liberal Arts, 2010-2011
Special Recognition Award, School of Liberal Arts, 2009
Recipient of the Thomas W. Casey Fellowship, 2008