Janae Howe

Professional Bio

Professor Howe's teaching at Penn State focuses on rhetoric and composition, and she has a wide range of other academic interests as well, including ecocritical and postcolonial approaches to speculative fiction and castaway/survival narratives. Her interests beyond literature, in cultural and media studies more broadly, center on the phenomenon of public, collective nostalgia as manifested frequently in American sitcoms and, in a related way, through remakes or reboots of all sorts.

Prof. Howe previously taught at the University of Southern Mississippi and at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, TX. Before she began teaching, she worked for 15+ years in the nonprofit and social services sector, and in that field, she served in a variety of roles from case management to volunteer recruitment to grant writing and program management.

She is a native of New Orleans, LA, and she lives in State College with her wife, Tessa, who is a social worker.