Open gallery

Alicia L. Kerfoot, Ph.D

(She/Her/Hers)

Associate Professor: (585) 395-5837
akerfoot@brockport.edu
Office: Fannie Barrier Williams Bldg 214
Website
Office Hours:
Wednesdays, 12:15-4:15 PM or by appointment.

Bio

I write about British literature and culture from about 1660-1830; my specific interests are in footwear, embroidery, and fashionable accessories in works by Jane Austen, Frances Burney, and Samuel Richardson (and many more). I am currently working on a book about women’s footwear in eighteenth-century British literature from John Gay to Jane Austen (tentatively titled, The Movable Shoe).

Education

PhD, English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University (2010)

MA, English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph (2005)

BA, Honours English Literature and Applied Studies Co-operative Program, University of Waterloo (2003)

Areas of Specialty

Material objects and representations of fashion, costumes and clothing in British literature, 1660-1830; representations of nunneries, monastic ruins, and the domestic sphere in British literature, 1660-1830; the Gothic novel; women’s writing; early modern periodicals.

Courses Taught

Honors 112: Introduction to Honors

English 112: College Composition

English 230: British Literature I

English 234: Jane Austen and Popular Culture

English 375: The British Novel I

English 303: Introduction to Literary Analysis

English 313: British Romantic Poetry

English 326: Fashioning the Early English Essay Periodical

English 326: The Eighteenth Century on Stage

English 352: Early British Magazine Culture

English 354: British Literature in the 1790s

English 376: The British Novel II

English 430: The Long Eighteenth Century

English 431: English Romantic Writers

English 472: Objects, Others, and Things in Eighteenth-Century British Literature (Capstone Course)

English/Communication 485/585: Professional Writing (Graduate and Undergraduate Course)

English 610: Nuns and Nunneries in Eighteenth-Century British Literature (Graduate Course)

English 610: The Religion of Things in Eighteenth-Century British Literature (Graduate Course)

Research Interests

Restoration and eighteenth-century British literature and culture

Romantic literature and culture

The Gothic novel (especially the Female Gothic novel)

Nuns and nunneries in British literature (1660-1830)

Material culture, costume, clothing, and fashion (1660-1830)

Footwear, movement, and the body in literature (1660-1830)

Jane Austen, Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe

Provost’s Post-Tenure Fellowship, SUNY Brockport (2019-2021)

Roland Fontaine Award for Faculty-Student Engagement, SUNY Brockport (2016-2017)

Nominated for the Academic Advisement Award, SUNY Brockport (2016-2017)

Pre-Tenure Grants Development Award, SUNY Brockport (2017-2018)

Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Leave Program (August-January 2015-16)

Pre-Tenure Grants Development Award, SUNY Brockport (2013-2014)

Chawton House Visiting Fellowship, Chawton House Library (June 2012)

Honourable Mention, Hemlow Prize in Burney Studies, The Burney Society (2010)

Research Travel Grant, Edna Elizabeth Ross Reeves Scholarship, McMaster University (2008)

SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, Government of Canada (2007-2009)

“Life and Work: Frances Burney and the Needle Arts” in Frances Burney and the Arts. Ed. Francesca Saggini. Palgrave Macmillan (2022).

“Stitching the It-Narrative in The History and Adventures of a Lady’s Slippers and Shoes” in Material Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain: A Nation of Makers. Eds. Serena Dyer and Chloe Wigston Smith. Material Culture of Art and Design Series, Ed. Michael Yonan. Bloomsbury Academic (2020).

“Virtuous Footwear: Pamela’s Shoe Heel and Cinderilla’s ‘Little Glass Slipper.’” Eighteenth-Century Fiction, “Material Fictions” Special Issue 31.2 (2018-2019).

“Catherine Morland’s ‘Plain Black Shoes’: Practical Fashions and Buried Convents in Northanger Abbey.” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture. Online, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2018.1454746 (24 April, 2018).

“Literary Representations of Dress and Fashion.” A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Enlightenment. Ed. Peter McNeil. Bloomsbury Academic (2017).

“Blue Shoes, ‘Nankin’ Boots, and Lilac Shoe Roses: Material Intertextuality in Sanditon and Camilla” CSECS/NEASECS Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (October 2022).

“Stitching with Burney: Needlework, Material Culture Studies, and The Court Journals and Letters.” The Burney Society (North America) Virtual Zoom Conference (July, 2021).

Panelist, “Fashion and Mobility: Engaging the Eighteenth-Century Archive” at the Canadian Fashion Symposium, Ryerson University (September, 2019).

Panelist, “Material Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain: A Nation of Makers” (Roundtable), International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland (July, 2019).

“The Embodied Embroidery of Cecilia’s ‘Spoilt’ Screen.” Northeast American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference, Rochester, New York (October 2018).

“Frances Burney’s Embroidered Mourning Piece: The Wanderer and the Materiality of Grief.” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference, Orlando, Florida (March 2018).

“A Pattern for the ‘sewing sisterhood’: Embodied Needlework in Frances Burney’s The Wanderer.” Romantic Life: North American Society for the Study of Romanticism 25th Annual Conference. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (August, 2017).

“The Fabric of Footwear: Needlework, Reproduction, and the Stitched Layers of Narrative in The History and Adventures of a Lady’s Slippers and Shoes.” Fashioning Dress: Sewing and Skill, 1500-1850. Conference and Historical Sewing Skills Workshop. University of Warwick, UK (May, 2017).

INVITED TALKS

“Broken Laces and Thick Boots: Fictions of Footwear in Emma and Persuasion” JASNA Central and Western New York, Jane Austen Birthday Luncheon, Rochester NY (December 2016).

“The Era of the ‘Ultra’: Early Twentieth-Century Women’s Footwear in the Knapp Museum Collection.” Emily L. Knapp Museum and Library of Local History End of Season Event, Brockport NY (October 2015).

Academic Positions

Assistant Professor, Department of English, SUNY Brockport: State University of New York (2012-Present)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Prince Edward Island (2011-2012)
Lecturer, Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University (2009-2011)
Lecturer, Department of English, University of Waterloo (2010-2011)

Professional Service

Director of Graduate Studies, English Department (2021-Present)

SEGUE (Graduate Student Symposium) Coordinator (2018-2019)

Chair, Search for Associate Director of Career Services (2018)

Graduate Committee Member (2012-2014; 2017-2019)

Curriculum Committee Member (2016-2017)

Recruitment, Retention, and Outreach Committee Co-Chair and Chair (2014-2016)

Blaine DeLancey Essay Award Committee Member (2013-2016)

Undergraduate Advisor

Director of an Honors Thesis (2019-2020)

Director of an MA Advanced Project (2015)

Reader on MA Advanced Projects (2016, 2018, 2022)

External Service and Professional Affiliations

Board Member, The Burney Society (2018-Present)

Board Member, Emily Knapp Museum and Library of Local History, Village of Brockport (2016-2022)

Peer Reviewer, Broadview Press (2017, 2022)

Academic Reviewer, Supernatural Literature, Cengage Gale (2016)

Peer Reviewer, History of Retailing and Consumption (2016)

Peer Reviewer, Eighteenth-Century Fiction (2015-16)

Peer Reviewer, Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture (2014)

Reviewer and Vetter, “Charlotte Lennox,” Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism series, Gale Cengage, Inc. (2011, 2021)

Hemlow Prize Judge, The Burney Society (2012-2016)

Member, The Jane Austen Society of North America

Member, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

Member, Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

Member, Modern Language Association