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Jean Murley

Liberal arts professor

Education

  • Ph.D., English, City University of New York
  • B.A., English, Hunter College

Credentials

  • Professor of liberal arts, 2022–present, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
  • Full professor of English, 2020–22, Queensborough Community College, CUNY
  • Instructor, 2020, Columbia University’s MFA Writing Program
  • Associate professor of English, 2010–20
    Assistant professor of English, 2004–09, Queensborough Community College, CUNY
  • Research fellow, 2003–04, CUNY Collaborative Programs
  • CUNY writing fellow, 2001–03
    Test preparation workshop instructor, 2003, New York City College of Technology
  • Adjunct lecturer of English, 2000–01, 1199 BSN Program
    Learning skills specialist, 2001, Lehman College
  • Self-regulated learning facilitator, 2000, New York City College of Technology
  • Graduate teaching fellow of English, 1998–99, Queens College
  • Adjunct lecturer of English, 1997, Borough of Manhattan Community College
  • Writing instructor, 1997, Hunter College

Awards, recognitions, and honors

Teaching activities, grants, and awards

  • Participant, University of Virginia's Motivate Lab innovations in pedagogy online course on motivating students, January 2021.
  • "Writing Darkness: How to Tell Powerful – and Ethical – Stories About Crime, Trauma, and Injustice," presented at Columbia University M.F.A. Writing Program Master Seminar, March–May 2020.
  • Co-Coordinator of an English Department "English Reads" program and event centered on E.M Forster's short story "The Machine Stops," Fall 2019.
  • Created and led a faculty pedagogy reading group with invited speaker Cathy Davidson, March 2019
  • Coordinator of an English Department "English Reads" program and event with a talk and performance by musicians from Lincoln Center discussing jazz music and its relation to James Baldwin's short story "Sonny's Blues," October 2018
  • Coordinator and host of multiple public speaking events at Queensborough, including repeated talks by Exonerees, guests from The Innocence Project, Jennifer Thompson, and General Stefan Feller, 2010–17
  • Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America for The Rise of True Crime: 20th Century Murder and American Popular Culture, April 2009
  • CUNY Faculty Development Grant, "Bridging the Gap between Basic Skills Education and Freshman Composition with the Study of the Local Cultures of Queens," with Professors Jan Ramjerdi and Nancy Laurel Pettersen, Fall 2006–Spring 2007
  • "Teaching in the Diverse 21st Century Classroom: Challenges and Opportunities," guest lecturer for QCC Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), April 2006.
  • "Using Ethnography to Teach Freshman Writing," QCC Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) Award for Pedagogical Research Project with Prof. Jan Ramjerdi, July 2005.

Fellowships, grants, and scholarships

  • PSC-CUNY Research Foundation Grant for book project, "Collateral Damage," Summer 2013
  • PSC-CUNY Research Foundation Grant for book project, "The Rise of True Crime: 20th Century Murder Narratives and American Popular Culture," Fall 2007
  • PSC-CUNY Research Foundation Grant for manuscript revision and book project, "The Rise of True Crime: 20th Century Murder and American Popular Culture," Summer 2006
  • PSC-CUNY Research Foundation Grant for research in the Library of Congress on true-crime magazines. Title: "American Murder and Its Literary Consequences: The Rise of True Crime," Summer 2005
  • CUNY Collaborative Programs Research Fellowship, 2003–04
  • CUNY Writing Fellowship, 2001–03
  • University Tuition Scholarship, 2000–04
  • CUNY Graduate Teaching Fellow, 1998–99
  • Grove Foundation Alumni Scholarship for Graduate School, 1997
  • John Potter Memorial Prize for Outstanding Work in Literature, 1997
  • Charlotte Newcombe Award, 1995–96
  • Philip & Aida Siff Educational Foundation Grant, 1996

Organizations

  • American Popular Culture Association, 2000–12
  • Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1997

Publications and presentations

Books

  • The Rise of True Crime: 20th Century Murder Narratives and American Popular Culture, Westport, CT, Praeger, 2008.

Articles and essays

  • "Aftermath: The True Crime Memoir Comes of Age," Crime, Deviance, and Popular Culture, eds. Dimitris Akrivos and Antoniou Alexandros, Palgrave, 2019.
  • "Making Murderers: The Evolution of True Crime," A History of American Crime Fiction, ed. Christopher Raczkowski, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  • "Documenting Murder Before In Cold Blood: The 1950s Origins of True-Crime," Violence in American Popular Culture, ed. David Schmid, Praeger/Greenwood, 2015.
  • "Ordinary Sinners and Moral Aliens: The Murder Narratives of Charles Brockden Brown and Edgar Allan Poe," Understanding Evil: An Interdisciplinary Approach, ed. Margaret Sönser Breen, Rodopi Press, 2003.

Book reviews

  • Review of David Schmid's Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2005) for the Journal of Popular Culture, October 2006.