Dr. Paul Fortunato
Biography
Paul Fortunato, a scholar of British literature and drama, began teaching at UHD in 2005. He served as co-Director of the Center for Public Deliberation from 2010 to 2012. He has been a fellow of the Houston Institute, an independent non-profit that seeks to help students think deeply about the best way to live. He teaches courses on British and World Literature, and in his courses he tries to cultivate the art of conversation among students.
Degrees Earned
Doctorate degree: English, University of Illinois, 2004.
BA, Columbia University, 1991.
Courses Taught
ENG 1301: Composition I
ENG 2302: World Lit: 17th C. & Beyond
Experience Qualifications
Summary of Qualifications:
Dr. Fortunato earned a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2004). That qualifies me to teach the courses I am teaching in the spring of 2015. He has taught Composition almost continually since 1998, when I was a graduate student at UIC. He has taken several graduate courses on East Asian Literature and Culture, Post-Colonial Studies, and European Literature which qualify him to teach World Literature.
More Information
Research Interests:
Phenomenology as a tool for aesthetic and ethical theory, British Victorian literature (particularly the work of Oscar Wilde) and consumer culture, Modernist aesthetics and history of aesthetic theory, disability studies, composition studies, student symposia.
PUBLICATIONS
Book
Modernist Aesthetics and Consumer Culture in the Writings of Oscar Wilde. New York: Routledge, 2007
Scholarly Articles
"Philosophy with a Needle and Thread: Wilde's Modernist Aesthetics-cum-Commodification." (College Literature, Summer 2007)
"Rosamund Marriott Watson's 'The Seductiveness of Dress': A Phenomenology of the Woman-of-Fashion" (current project, for an edited collection entitled Feminist Theory and Fashion in Modernity)
"Art and Fashion in Oscar Wilde's 'Cracked Looking-Glass'" (current project, for an edited collection about Oscar Wilde's critical essays)