Open gallery

Alicia L. Kerfoot, Ph.D
(She/Her/Hers)
- Associate Professor
-
(585) 395-5837
akerfoot@brockport.edu
Office: Liberal Arts 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
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