Thomas Bryant

Professional Bio

Thomas Bryant is a graduate worker in the English and Visual Studies programs. He writes primarily on 19th Century American literature, queer theory, ecocriticism, and critical animal studies. His work examines the commodification of sociality during the second industrial revolution with an attention to queer and posthuman modes of relation that obstructed that historical turn.

Recent writings include a project presented at ASLE and MLA on the presentation of violence performed by Australian animals in the American perception of ecological imperialism (this project is supported by the Mark Twain Circle), a paper for C19 on anti-identitarian techniques of queer immigrant writing in the long nineteenth century, and his forthcoming article in American Literature on the anti-industrial, queer politics of chicken keeping and interspecies sociality in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Owen Wister.

At Penn State, he teaches English 15: Introduction to Writing and Rhetoric and English 105: American culture and folklife. He serves as the project manager for the Global Asias Initiative. Thomas is also a playwright, his plays having been performed at St. Olaf College, the University of Kentucky, Knox College, and Lake Creek High School in Montgomery, Texas.