Jay Clayton

Jay Clayton received his B.A. from Yale University and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Before coming to Vanderbilt, he taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he received the Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award. At Vanderbilt, he teaches courses in contemporary American literature; genetics in literature, film, and media; Victorian fiction; hypermedia and online gaming; and literary theory. He is the former chair of the Department of English at Vanderbilt.

His current research involves the ethical and social issues raised by genetics as they appear in literature and films. He has lectured on genetics and literature at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH, the English Institute, the MLA, the Narrative Society, Society for Literature and Science, and medical schools around the country.

Degrees

• B.A., Yale University
• Ph.D., University of Virginia

Research Area

• Arts and public policy
• Victorian literature
• Genetics and literature
• Digital technology and online narratives
• Contemporary fiction

Current Courses

• Honors 182 – Interdisciplinary seminar on science and science fiction (co-taught with Professor Robert Scherrer, Chair, Department of Physics) – Fall 2012

Professional Honors

• Suzanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship for Charles Dickens in Cyberspace (2005)
• John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1999-2000)
• President, Society for the Study of Narrative Literature (1995)
• Choice’s “An Outstanding Academic Book” for The Pleasures of Babel
• Afirmative Action Award, Vanderbilt University (1995)
• Robert A. Partlow Award, The Dickens Society, for Romantic Vision and the Novel (1989)
• Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Wisconsin (1986)
• ACLS Fellowship (1981-82)

Publications

• BOOKS
• Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture (Oxford University Press, 2003)
• The Pleasures of Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory (Oxford University Press, 1993)
• Romantic Vision and the Novel (Cambridge University Press, 1987)
• EDITED VOLUMES
• Time and the Literary. Ed. with Karen Newman and Marianne Hirsch. (Routledge, 2002)
• Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History. Ed. with Eric Rothstein. (University of Wisonsin Press, 1991)
• SELECTED ARTICLES
• “Literature and Science Policy: A New Project for the Humanities,” PMLA
• “Victorian Chimeras, or, What Literature Can Contribute to Genetics Policy Today,” New Literary History
• “Frankenstein‘s Futurity: Clones, Replicants, and Robots” in The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley
• “Convergence of the Two Cultures: A Geek’s Guide to Contemporary Literature,� American Literature”
• “The Voice in the Machine: Hazlitt, Hardy, James” in Language Machines: Technologies of Literary and Cultural Production
• “Genome Time” in Time and the Literary
• “Concealed Circuits: Frankenstein’s Monster, the Medusa, and the Cyborg,” Raritan
• “Narrative and Theories of Desire,” Critical Inquiry
• “The Narrative Turn in Recent Minority Fiction,” American Literary History