Dr. Christopher Douglas joined the English Department of JSU in Fall 2019. His major area of expertise is 18th-century British literature, although he does have minors in Victorian literature and 19th-century American literature.  When asked about his main focus of concentration, Douglas said, “I’ve billed myself as an 18th- and 19th-century transatlantic scholar.  My dissertation was on it-narratives, stories narrated by nonhumans, which was a  recognizable genre of adult fiction starting in the mid-18th century and transitioned into children’s literature by the 19th century.  So, if there’s a kitten, pincushion, lapdog, coin, horse, or waistcoat that needs to tell its life story, I’m there.  I actually know multiple cat, dog, coin, and horse it-narratives.” 

Douglas recently published an article about it-narratives in the peer-reviewed Journal of Narrative Theory. His “’Sideways-Written Words’: Appropriation of the Eighteenth-Century British It-Narrative in Natsume Seki’s I Am a Cat” appeared in the Summer 2020 issue of the journal. He has also published on manga in the co-edited collection I’m Just a Comic Book Boy from McFarland Press, where his “Bōsōzoku Motorcycle Gangs, the Bubble Economy and Psychic Children: Reaffirming Giri Through Ōtomo Katsuhiro’s Akira (1988)” appears.

Last semester, Douglas taught a 500-level class on the 18th-century novel and had the class read Tristram Shandy,which is a nine-volume novel. According to Douglas, “The novel is discursive (The plot line, such as it is, circles back on itself regularly.), it’s polyvocal (It has many voices.), and digressive (The author goes off on tangents.).  It’s hard to read.  But for what it does with the format of the novel, it’s really interesting.  Most students came away saying ‘I understand why we read this, but I didn’t like it.’  And that’s fine. “ 

Douglas was attracted to JSU due to parts of the on-campus interview process. He mentioned that “there were a number of things that made JSU attractive to me as a job applicant. The faculty in the English Department were immediately friendly and welcoming, as were the staff at the library and the  administration. I had gone in for a few job interviews, but I had never had the chance to sit down with the Provost at any institution before I came to JSU, and just that added touch made me feel more valued.  The campus is in a lovely part of Alabama, and I grew up in a small, rural community in Illinois — there were about 3,700 people in the town I grew up in — so the town size and the community were like what I’d grown up with.  JSU is also a teaching-focused institution, and I’ve always envisioned myself as a teacher first, scholar second, not the other way around, so having the opportunity to teach while doing some research is ideal for me.  The way I saw the university pull together in the aftermath of the tornado was also heartening.  I came in at the tail end of that process, but I could see how dedicated everyone was to rebuilding, and that was inspiring.”

As for hobbies, Douglas has a dog named Honey, whom he takes for lots of walks. He also posts a “Honey of Day” photo on social media (see below). Also, he said,“Normally I’d say that one of my hobbies is powerlifting, but since the pandemic began I haven’t really had any regular gym access.  I’m a deft baker.  I sing in church choir.  I play too many video games.  I’ve also done my share of tabletop RPGs.  I once had a student tell me that I had Big Paladin Energy and I’d like to hope that that’s true.”