Staff Profile
Dr Anne-Marie Evans
Head of School: Humanities
I joined York St John as a Lecturer in American Literature at York St John in 2011. I became a Senior Lecturer in 2013, and was subsequently appointed as Subject Director and then later Associate Head of School for English Literature. Since May 2022, I am the Interim Head of School for Humanities, and am responsible for overseeing the successful running of the School. Previously, I worked at the University of Central Lancashire, where I spent two years as a Lecturer in American Studies and English Literature.
My main area of interest is early twentieth-century American Literature. I completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield where I also held a part-time Teaching Fellowship for three years. My thesis examined the work of writers such as Edith Wharton, Ellen Glasgow, Gertrude Stein, Fannie Hurst and Zora Neale Hurston in terms of literature, consumerism and the articulation of female identity. My research interests are fairly broad but are always connected to American literature and culture, and I have published on a variety of topics, including the rise of the 'femoir', Mae West's comedy novels, Colson Whitehead's speculative fiction, and Edith Wharton and fashion. My current project involves exploring representations of the First Lady in literature, film, and culture.
Outreach and widening participation is very important to me, and I worked as a Literature tutor for the Villiers Park Educational Trust in Cambridge for 15 years. The Trust aims to encourage young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to consider going to university, and I was one of the tutors on the English Literature residential weeks, which took place twice a year. I was also the Lead Researcher for their online activities project for English Literature. In 2010 I successfully applied for the Fulbright Commission’s American Studies Summer Institute, which involved spending a month studying at New York University. I remain part of the Fulbright community and spent 8 years as elected member of the Fulbright Alumni Council.
- School – School of Humanities
- Email – a.evans@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 334
Publications
Books (as editor)
Writing into the Twenty-First Century: Negotiating Change in the American Novel, eds. Elizabeth Boyle & Anne-Marie Evans (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010)
Reading America: New Perspectives on the American Novel, eds. Elizabeth Boyle & Anne-Marie Evans (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008)
Chapters in Books
'Funny Women: Political Transgressions and Celebrity Autobiography' in The Transgressive Humor of American Women Writers, ed. Sabrina Fuchs-Abrams (Palgrave, 2017).
'Sentimentalism and Celebrity Culture: Mae West as Novelist' in The Sentimental Mode: Essays in Literature, Film and Television, eds. Jennifer A. Williamson, Jennifer Larson & Ashley Reed (North Carolina: McFarland, 2014).
'Wharton's Writings on Screen' in Edith Wharton in Context, ed. Laura Rattray (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 167 – 177.
'Public Space and Spectacle: Female Bodies and Consumerism in
Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth', Inside Out: Women Negotiating, Subverting, Appropriating Public/ Private Space, eds. Teresa Gómez and Aránzazu Usandizaga (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008), 107-124.
Articles and Reports
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals
“Fashionable Females: Women, Clothes and Culture in the Big Apple”. Comparative American Studies, 11.4 (2013), 361-373.
“Shopping for Survival: Conspicuous Consumerism in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth and Ellen Glasgow's The Wheel of Life.” Edith Wharton Review, 22.2 (2006), 9-15.
“Intrusive Portraits: Deciphering Art in the Fiction of Siri Hustvedt” MODE, Cornell University, New York, September 2004.
Selected Shorter Articles
Evans, Anne-Marie, ‘Fannie Hurst’. The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 October 2010
‘Introduction’, co-authored with E. Boyle, Writing into the Twenty-First Century: Negotiating Change in the American Novel, eds. Elizabeth Boyle & Anne-Marie Evans (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), 1-7.
‘Introduction’, co-authored with E. Boyle, Reading America: New Perspectives on the American Novel, eds. Elizabeth Boyle & Anne-Marie Evans (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 1-6.
‘America Actually: An Introduction’, U.S Studies Online Special Conference Issue (2006).
Pedagogical Reports
‘American Studies Literature Review’ in Rethinking Pedagogical Models in E-Learning, eds. Terry Lamb and Danielle Barbereau, English Subject Centre (2006).
Conference Presentations
April 2014 ‘Cooking the Books: Women, Food and Capitalism in Fannie Hurst’s Imitation of Life’. American Culture Association Conference, Chicago.
May 2012 ‘Spending, Spelling, and Speculation in Anita Loos’s Gentleman Prefer Blondes’. American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco.
April 2011 “Kissing your hand may make you feel very very good but a diamond and sapphire bracelet lasts forever”: Women, Shopping and Consumerism in Anita Loos’ Gentleman Prefer Blondes. BAAS Annual Conference, University of Central Lancashire.
April 2009 ‘Money, Marriage and Materialism: Women and Consumerism in the Contemporary New York Novel’, BAAS Annual Conference, University of Nottingham.
April 2007 ‘Money, Money, Money: Working Women and Consumerism in the Sentimental Fiction of Fannie Hurst’, PCA/ACA Annual Conference, Boston.
June 2005 ‘Shopping for Survival: Conspicuous Consumerism in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth and Ellen Glasgow’s The Wheel of Life’, Edith Wharton Society ‘The House of Mirth’ Centenary Conference, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York.
March 2005 ‘Narcissistic Consumerism: The Horrors of Materialism in the Fiction of Bret Easton Ellis’, PCA/ACA Annual Conference, San Diego, California.
September 2004 ‘Public Space and Spectacle: The Female Body and Consumerism in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth’, ESSE Annual Conference, Zaragoza, Spain.
November 2003 ‘Subversive Images: Deciphering Art in the Fiction of Siri Hustvedt’, BAAS Postgraduate Annual Conference, Glasgow University.
September 2003 ‘Deconstructing the Black Body Space: Urban Race and Identity as Perception and Performance’, City and Literature Conference, Worcester College, Oxford.
