Jeana DelRosso

Professor

Faculty School of Arts, Sciences & Business English Department
JDelrosso@ndm.edu 410-532-5515 Caroline Hall (CHL) 430
Jeana DelRosso
This profile is currently being updated. Some information may be incomplete.

Education

  • Ph.D., English, University of Maryland, May 2000.
  • Graduate Certificate, Women's Studies, University of Maryland, May 1998.
  • M.A., English, University of Maryland, December 1993.
  • B.A. with honors, English, State University of New York at Binghamton, May 1992.

Research

Interests

  • Catholicism and Women’s Literature
  • Contemporary World Literature
  • Post-Colonial Literature
  • Cultural Studies
  • Media Studies

Publications

  1. Unruly Catholic Feminists: Prose, Poetry, and the Future of Faith. Edited with Leigh Eicke and Ana Kothe. SUNY Press, 2021.
  2. Unruly Catholic Nuns: Sisters’ Stories.  Edited with Leigh Eicke and Ana Kothe. SUNY Press, 2017. Unruly Catholic Women Writers: Creative Responses to Catholicism. Edited with Leigh Eicke and Ana Kothe. SUNY Press, 2013. *Finalist in the 2013 ForeWord Book of the Year Award in the Anthologies Category.
  3. The Catholic Church and Unruly Women Writers: Critical Essays. Edited with Leigh Eicke, Grand Valley State University, and Ana Kothe, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2007.
  4. Writing Catholic Women: Contemporary International Catholic Girlhood Narratives. Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2005.
  5. “Blue Sugar.” The Bangalore Review. January 2022. bangalorereview.com/2022/01/blue-sugar/
  6. “Art Begins with Resistance: Utopias, Dystopias, and Science Fiction in the Literature Classroom.” Authored with Anne Henderson, edited by Gerry Canavan, Teaching Science Fiction in the Literature Classroom, MLA Press, 2027.
  7. “‘The voice always did have a Biblical way with it’: The Voice of God in Naomi Alderman’s The Power.” Religion and Literature, vol. 57, no. 3, 2026.
  8. “De-tangling Motherhood: Adoption Narratives in Disney’s Tangled.” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 48, iss. 3, 2015, pp. 522-535.
  9. “Fixing and Fictioning: The Uses of Memory and Catholicism in Louise DeSalvo's Vertigo.”  Personal Effects: Essays on Memory, Culture, and Women in the Work of Louise DeSalvo, edited by Edvige Giunta and Nancy Caronia, Fordham University Press, 2014, pp. 62-74.
  10. “The Convent as Colonist: Catholicism in the Works of Contemporary Women Writers of the Americas.” MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, vol. 26, iss. 3. 200, pp. 183-201.
  11. “Catholicism’s Other(ed) Holy Trinity: Race, Class, and Gender in Black Catholic Girl School Narratives.” National Women’s Studies Association Journal, vol. 12, iss. 1, 2000, pp. 24-43.
  12. “The Womanization of Utopias: Sally Miller Gearhart’s Rhetorical Fiction.” Extrapolation, vol. 40, iss. 3, 1999, pp. 213-223.

Presentations

  • “The voice always did have a Biblical way with it”: Utopia and Religion in Naomi Alderman’s The Power.” The 50th Anniversary Conference for the Society for Utopian Studies, Wrightsville, NC, October 2025.
  • “‘The voice always did have a Biblical way with it’: The Voice of God in Naomi Alderman’s The Power.” Annual Conference of Science Fiction Research Association, University of Tartu, Estonia (virtual presentation), May 2024.
  • Invited panel presentation, “Unruly Catholic Feminists.” Ex Libris Author Series, Saint Mary’s College, Center for Spirituality, South Bend, IN, March 2023.
  • Invited lecture, "On Unruly Catholic Nuns: Creative Responses to Catholicism." Women Who Changed the Church Public Lecture Series, Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in Cambridge, UK, March 2022.
  • Book reading, Unruly Catholic Women Religious: Sisters’ Stories. The Ivy Book Shop, Baltimore, MD, October 2018.
  • Book reading, Unruly Catholic Women Writers: Creative Responses to Catholicism. The Ivy Book Shop, Baltimore, MD, July 2014.
  • Book reading, Unruly Catholic Women Writers: Creative Responses to Catholicism. National Association of Women in Catholic Higher Education Conference, Seattle, WA, June 2014.
  • “All Tangled Up: Motherhood and Adoption Disney’s Tangled.” IRSCL Children’s Literature and Media Cultures Conference, Maastricht, The Netherlands, August 2013.
  • “De-Tangling Motherhood: Adoption Narratives in Disney’s Tangled.” Fourth International Conference on Adoption and Culture: Mapping Adoption—Histories, Geographies, Literatures, and Politics, Claremont, CA, March 2012.
  • “Catholic Memoir and Imaginings: Louise DeSalvo’s Vertigo.” 43rd Annual Conference of the American Italian Historical Association, New York, NY, November 2010.
  • “Feminism and Women’s Leadership.” United Way Women’s Leadership Council, Baltimore, Maryland, October 2009.
  • “Locating Women's Studies at Religious Institutions.” Panel presentation, The National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Oakland, California, June 2006.
  • “Unruly Catholic Women Writers Through the Centuries.” Paper presentation and panel chair, Women and Creativity Conference: Examining the Past/Composing the Future, Morgantown, West Virginia, October 2004.
  • “From the Supernatural to the Spiritual: Magical Realism and Catholicism in Contemporary Women’s Writings.” South Central Modern Language Association Conference, Tulsa, Oklahoma, November 2001.
  • “What’s So Funny? Feminism, Catholicism and Humor in American Women’s Literature.” Conference on Popular American Humor, Dayton, Ohio, April 2000.
  • “A Catholic Education: The Effects of Race, Class, Gender, and Religion in Black Girl School Narratives.” Women’s Studies Conference: Girls and Women Claiming an Education, New Paltz, New York, November 1999.
  • “Re-Writing the Canon, or, Veiled Threats: International Catholic Literature by Contemporary Women Writers.” International Conference on Religion and Literature, Oxford, England, September 1998.
  • “The Convent as Colonist: Catholicism in the Works of Contemporary Women Writers of the Americas.” St. Charles Borromeo Conference on Catholicism in Literature, Little Rock, Arkansas, April 1998.
  • “Asylum: Political or Lunatic? Madness and the Sexual Politics of the Convent in the Works of Contemporary Women Writers of the Americas.” 20th-Century Literature Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, February 1998.

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

  • Modern Language Association
  • National Women's Studies Association
  • American Association of University Women

Awards

  • Sister Maura Eichner Endowed Professor of English, August 2018-May 2025.
  • Director, The Elizabeth Morrissy Honors Program, August 2012-May 2018.
  • Chair, Department of English, Notre Dame of Maryland University, 2006-2012.
  • Interim Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, August 2009-July 2010.
  • Director, The Writing Center, Notre Dame of Maryland University, Fall 2003-Spring 2008, Fall 2023-present.