Biography
Anita M. Vickers, associate professor of English, is the Letters, Arts, and Sciences program coordinator at Penn State Schuylkill. As program coordinator, she is responsible for scheduling all humanities courses at Penn State Schuylkill, which includes English (writing courses and literature), history, foreign languages, comparative literature, philosophy, studio art, art history, music, African American Studies, American Studies, women studies (when appropriate), theatre, communication, and arts and architecture. She is the contact representative for the two-year Letters, Arts, and Sciences program.
Dr. Vickers’ research specialties include late eighteenth and nineteenth century American literature, American women writers, women’s history, and popular culture. Her book, The New Nation, surveys American culture during the early nationalist period (1783—1820). This was probably the most dynamic period in American history and its cultural outgrowth indicates that the young republic was one that reflected the values and interests of the people: spirited, adaptable, and extensive. Her series of articles on the 18th century Philadelphian novelist and editor Charles Brockden Brown analyze how, in writing his novels, Brown raised questions on the problems confronting the early republic and developed and formulated his own philosophy and political agenda. She has also published studies on the works of women writers and popular culture.
Presently, Dr. Vickers is working on a series of articles which further investigate Civil War nursing narratives, covering the semi-autobiographical work of Louisa May Alcott, and the diaries/journals and letters of 19th nursing activists as Elvira Powers, Hannah Ropes, Harriet Eaton, and Sophronia E. Bucklin. These women often challenged the male-dominated United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) and resisted the misogynistic army doctors and officers who disapproved of female nurses.
At Penn State Schuylkill, she teaches classes in women writers, classical mythology, American women’s history, the short story, business writing, and composition.
An active member of the campus community, she has served as president of faculty governance at the campus and college levels and as a University Faculty Senator representing the Schuylkill campus. She has also served on numerous committees at all three levels.
Dr. Vickers’ community interests include animal welfare issues, participation in sponsored walks to raise money to alleviate world hunger, and choral singing.
She shares her home with four fabulous felines and two rescue dogs.
Grants and Awards
- Research and Creative Accomplishment Award, Penn State University, Schuylkill Campus, 2002—2003.
- Research and Graduate Studies Office Development Grant. Penn State University, 1995.
- Faculty Service Award, Penn State University, Schuylkill Campus, 2000—2001.
- Teaching Award, Penn State University, Schuylkill Campus, 1997.
- Project Empower II (Instructional grant). Penn State University, 1997.
- Improvement of Instruction Grant. College of Liberal Arts, Penn State University, 1995.
- Improvement of Instruction Grant. College of Liberal Arts, Penn State University, 1994
Research Interests
Civil War nursing narratives
Louisa May Alcott
19th Century American women writers
American women's history
Publications
The New Nation: American Popular Culture through History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. 296 pp.
“Druids and Brehons: Fidelma and the Druidic Tradition” in The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: Essays on the Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne. Eds. Edward J. Rielly and David Robert Wooten. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, 2012. 88-97.
“A Modern Mephistopheles (1877),” “A Modern Mephistopheles and ‘A Whisper in the Dark,’” “Revenge (theme),” “‘Taming a Tartar’ (1867),” “ ‘A Whisper in the Dark’ (1863)” in The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia. Eds. Gregory Eiselein and Anne K. Phillips. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. 210-211, 211, 285-86, 321, 345.
“The Munsters,” “Anne Rice,” and “Vampire Fiction,” in The Guide to United States Popular Culture. Eds. Ray B. Browne and Pat Browne. Bowling Green, OH: Popular Press, 2001. 551-552, 682, 868-869.
“Stephanie Barron: (Re) inventing Jane Austen as Detective.” The Detective as Historian: History and Art in Historical Crime Fiction. Vol. I. Eds. Ray B. Browne, and Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr. Bowling Green, OH: Popular Press, 2000. 213-221.
“Joel Barlow” in Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century. Ed. Eric Haralson. Chicago and London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998. 21-24.
“The Role of Religion in the Cadfael Series” in Cordially Yours, Brother Cadfael. Ed. Anne K. Kaler. Bowling Green, OH: Popular Press, 1998. 11-25.
“Anancy’s Score” (Andrew Salkey), “Captain Blackman” (John A. Williams), “1959” (Thulani Davis), “Roots” (Alex Haley), “Seraph on the Suwanee” (Zora Neale Hurston) in Masterplots II: African American Literature. Ed. Frank N. Magill. 3 vols. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 1994. 24-29, 238-242, 893-898, 1218-1223, 1257-1262.
“Ellis Peters” and “Josephine Tey” in Great Women Mystery Writers. Ed. Kathleen Gregory Klein. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. 279-283, 332-335.
“Patriarchal and Political Authority in Wieland.” AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association (90) 1998: 1-19.
“Social Corruption and the Subversion of the American Success Story in Arthur Mervyn.” PROSPECTS: An Annual Journal of American Cultural Studies 23 (1998): 129-145.
“’Pray Madam, are you a Federalist?’ Women’s Rights and the Republican Utopia in Alcuin.” American Studies 39.3 (1998): 89-104.
“The Reaffirmation of African-American Dignity through the Oral Tradition in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” CLA Journal 37 (1994): 303-315.
Review of “We’ll Always Have the Movies: American Cinema during World War II” by Robert L. McLaughlin and Sally E. Parry” (U of Kentucky P, 2006) in The Historian 70.2 (2008): 338-339.
Review of “Buster Keaton’s ‘Sherlock Jr.’ edited by Andrew Horton” (Cambridge UP, 1997) in The European Legacy 5 (2000): 763-764.
Review of “Disease, Desire and the Body in Victorian Women’s Popular Novels by Pamela K. Gilbert” (Cambridge UP, 1997) in The European Legacy 5 (2000): 764-765.
Review of “Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase by Marion Meade” (HarperCollins, 1995). H-PCAACA, H-Net Reviews, 15 Jul. 1996. URL: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=10198846691161.
Review of “Joyce Carol Oates: Novels of the Middle Years by Joanne V. Creighton” (G. K. Hall, 1992) in Modern Fiction Studies 38 (1992): 950-951.
Education
Ph.D. - Purdue University
M.A. - Purdue University
B.A. - Purdue University