Jennifer Dawes, Ph.D.

Department Chair; Professor
Education
Ph.D., English, University of Nevada, Reno
M.A., English, University of Houston, Texas
M.A., Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia
B.A., English, Baylor University, Waco, Texas
Research
Dark Tourism Studies; Television and Film
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Books
Reintegrating Severance: Interdisciplinary Insights on AppleTV’s Dystopian Thriller, an international, interdisciplinary collection of essays co-edited with Nora M. Isacoff. Palgrave Macmillan, August 2024.
Includes the “Introduction” co-authored with N. Isacoff and my essay “‘Who are you?’: Memory, History, and Nostalgia on the Severed Floor.”
Dark Tourism in the American West. Editor. Palgrave Macmillan, August 2019.
Including book chapters: “Introduction: Dark Tourism in the American West,” “Revisiting Waco and the Branch Davidian Tragedy,” and “Postscript: How We Look at Dark Places”
Across the Plains: Sarah Royce’s Western Narrative. Women’s Western Voices Series. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2009. (as Jennifer Dawes Adkison)
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Dateline Waco: (Re)Inventing Dark Tourism” accepted for publication in The Business of Dark Tourism: Managing Difficult Heritage. Editor Philip R. Stone, 2026.
“The Desert as Dumping Ground in Popular Imagination,” in Reading Aridity. Jada Ach and Gary Reger, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020.
“Sacrament to Sacrilege: Human Flesh as Sustenance in Alive and The Road,” in Food on Film: Bringing Something New to the Table. Tom Hertweck, ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. 187-200. (as Jennifer Dawes Adkison)
“‘These is my words’ . . . Or Are They?: Constructing Western Women’s Lives in Two Contemporary Novels,” Great Plains Quarterly 26.1 (Winter 2006): 13-25. (as Jennifer Dawes Adkison)
“What Passes Away: Visions of Time in Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Rural Hours,” in Susan Fenimore Cooper: New Essays on Rural Hours and Other Works. Rochelle Johnson and Daniel Patterson, eds. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001. 154-168.
Teaching
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
English 44773/Rhetoric 54773, Special Topics in Nonfiction: Dark Tourism, online
English 31693, Writing for the Workplace, on campus
English 10103, Composition I, on campus
Midwestern State University
English 4953/5953, Contemporary Literature: Holocaust and Apocalypse Narratives, online
English 4613, Special Topics: Holocaust Narratives, on campus
English 4543, Film Narrative, Topics: Social Issues in Film and Technology and Consciousness in
Film; on campus
English 3743, Diverse Voices: Voices from the Fringe of the American Religious Landscape, on
campus
English 3503, Texts in Context: Fear in Film, on campus
English 3203, Technical Writing, on campus
English 2113, Intermediate Composition and Grammar, online and hybrid
English 1143, Academic Research and Writing, on campus
English 0043, Developmental Corequisite, Integrated Reading and Writing, online
Henderson State University
English 4963/5963, Special Topics: Gender in Literature, Film, and Culture, partially online
English 3613, Technical Writing, online
English 3063, American Literature Survey I, partially online
English 3073, American Literature Survey II, on campus
English 2013, World Literature I, on campus
English 2053, Studies in Literature, partially online
English 2683, Masters of Western Literature, on campus and partially online
English 1463, English A (first-year composition), on campus
English 1473, English B (first-year composition), on campus
Mass Media Communications 4423, Magazine and Feature Writing, on campus
Eastern Oregon University
English 381, American Literature I, on campus, online, and partially online
English 257, Writers of the American West, online
English 107, World Literature I, on campus
English 108, World Literature II, on campus
English 109, World Literature III, on campus
English 104, Introduction to Literature, on campus
Writing 320, Professional Writing, online
Writing 115, Developmental Writing, on campus
Idaho State University
All courses were taught on campus.
American Studies 200, Introduction to American Studies
English 668, Twentieth-Century Literature, Graduate Seminar
English 666, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Graduate Seminar
English 613, Editing the West: Methods of Scholarship/Literary Biography, Manuscripts, Editing
English 491, Senior Seminar: Women’s Lives in Literature
English 467/567; Women’s Studies 405, Women Writing the Gold Rush
English 467/567, Late Nineteenth-Century Literature
English 466/566, Early Nineteenth-Century Literature
English 353, The West in American Literature
English 328, Gender in Literature: American Women’s Narrative
English 307, Technical Writing
English 277, Survey of American Literature I
English 115, Literature and the Natural World
English 110, Introduction to Literature
English 102, Critical Reading and Writing
English 101, English Composition
English 090, Basic Writing
Academic Skills 102, First Year Seminar
Memberships
Popular Culture Association
Western Literature Association
Service
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education Executive Council, July 2024-present
Dining Committee, Fall 2026
Academic Technology and Computing Committee, Fall 2025-present
Faculty Professional Development Committee, Fall 2025-present
Planning and Finance Committee, Fall 2025-present
Academic Affairs AI Task Force, Fall 2025-Spring 2026
CHASSE Ad Hoc AI Task Force, Fall 2025-Spring 2026
Faculty Appeals Council, Fall 2025-present
Work History
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Chair and Professor, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, July 2024-present
Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas
Chair and Professor, Department of English, Humanities, and Philosophy, August 2019-June 2024
Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Professor, English, August 2017-June 2019
Associate Professor, English, August 2014-July 2017
Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, Oregon
Associate Professor, English/Writing, September 2011-June 2014
Assistant Professor, English/Writing, September 2010-August 2011
Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho
Associate Professor, English, August 2008-May 2010
Director, American Studies Program, August 2009-May 2010 (Interim Director, 2005)
Assistant Professor, English, August 2003-August 2008
Lecturer, English, August 2002-August 2003
