CV
Kacie L. Wills, Ph.D.
kacie.wills@gmail.com
714.856.9621
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Assistant Professor of English
Allan Hancock College August 2022-present
Teaching and Curriculum:
- Teaching courses in composition, research, and critical thinking
- Developing cross-listed English and Ethnic Studies courses to meet the new state-wide requirements
- Culturally Responsive Curriculum Professional Development Series
- Title V Peer Mentor program
- Distance Education Professional Development and Peer Review Process
- Anti-Racist Pedagogy Professional Development Workshop Lead (February 2023)
- Academic Policy and Planning Committee, English Department Representative (2023-2025)
- OER Development (2024)
- "Decolonial Thinking," Diversity and Human Resources course, Illinois College (Fall 2022)
- "The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman and the Cook Voyages," Global Eighteenth Century course, Illinois College (Fall 2022)
- Guest lecture on the Decolonizing Romanticism, British literature course, Illinois College (Spring 2023)
K-SJ+ Fellow 2022-2024
Collaborating with the Keats-Shelley Journal editor and communications team to produce accessible and innovative content, based on the journal.
- The Caribbean and Romanticism, online exhibit curated for the Keats-Shelley Association of America, Spring 2023
- Interview with Andrew Stauffer on the West portrait of P.B. Shelley
- Interview with John Gardner on P.B. Shelley’s steamship
- Curation of content related to commonplacing public outreach initiative
Assistant Professor of English
Illinois College August 2019-July 2022
Teaching and Advising:
- Developed and taught courses in writing, British literature, Romanticism, the novel, literature of the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the digital humanities, postcolonial literature and biopolitics, and professionalization in English Studies.
- Redesigned the literature survey course structure to appeal to more diverse student populations.
- Designed study abroad course to New Zealand for May 2023, interrogating the legacy of colonialism.
- Supervised honors projects across the curriculum.
- Advised English majors and led workshops on professional development, career readiness, and graduate studies.
- Division 1 Chair (2021-2022), responsible for moderating and overseeing communications and decisions across the division.
- Division 1 Secretary, responsible for curriculum-related communications across the division (2020-2021).
- Curriculum Review Committee, responsible for reviewing, evaluating, and revising new courses to meet curricular needs for the college (2020-2022).
- Redesigned the curriculum for the study of British literature to be global, material, explicitly anti-racist, and focused on decolonizing literary studies.
- “Implementing Anti-Racist Pedagogy: Integrating Theory Across the Curriculum,” developed an Interdisciplinary curriculum support workshop and accompanying digital resources to encourage the integration of theory and anti-racist pedagogy across courses. (2021-2022).
- Title III Grant, developed transparent course and assignment structures to promote equity and inclusion in the curriculum.
- Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program Department of Education Grant, worked with an interdisciplinary team of faculty members on integrating Caribbean culture, language, and ecology into the curriculum.
EDUCATION
PH.D., English, University of California, Riverside (2018).
Dissertation: Fancy, Spectacle, and the Materiality of the Romantic Imagination in Pacific Exploration Culture. Examines non-canonical material culture surrounding the Cook voyages to the Pacific—Indigenous objects, visual representations of Indigeneity, women’s collections, and exploration journals and narratives—to enliven the definition of “Fancy” in the Romantic period.
Committee: Dr. Adriana Craciun, Dr. Fuson Wang, and Dr. George Haggerty
M.A., English, California State University, Long Beach (2013).
Thesis: “The Palate of my mind”: Eating, Drinking, and the Formation of a Negatively Capable Identity in the Poetry of John Keats.
B.F.A., Creative Writing, Chapman University (2009).
Magna cum Laude.
ADDITIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Linn-Benton Community College Fall, 2017-Spring, 2019
- Taught technical writing, composition, and argument writing courses both in person and online.
Moreno Valley College Spring, 2016-Spring, 2017
- Taught composition and critical thinking through literature courses.
- Taught courses in composition designed to support the implementation of multiple
methods of placing students in transfer-level English courses. - Writing Center Instructor and Tutor.
Golden West College Fall, 2013-Spring, 2016
- Taught composition and critical thinking courses, as well as introductory literature
courses. - Learning Center Instructor and Tutor
UC, Riverside Fall, 2014-Spring, 2017
- Taught composition, Business Writing and Communication, and survey courses in British literature.
CSU, Long Beach Fall, 2012
- Selected to participate in the Teaching Master’s of the Arts Candidate program.
- Taught as a Lecturer and participated in program-wide norming.
Lane Community College July, 2018-April, 2019
- Worked with a team to develop Lane Community College’s Early Outreach program to aid in student retention.
Linn-Benton Community College Fall, 2017-June, 2019
- Served on the Curriculum Review Committee as English Department Faculty Representative.
- Developed online curriculum for the English Department, including argumentative writing and composition courses.
- Developed courses in technical writing and professional and business communication.
UC, Riverside Fall, 2014-Spring, 2017
- Writing Across the Curriculum Instructor and Course Developer for Business Writing and Communication.
AP English Language Exam Reader June, 2017
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Poetry Recitation Judge November, 2023
Santa Barbara Arts Fund "Poetry Out Loud" competition
Mentor
A Family for Every Child, Eugene, Oregon August, 2018-June, 2019
- Mentored children in the foster system and at-risk youth in the community, helping them to pursue their educational and personal goals.
Behavioral Technician
Quality Autism Services February, 2011-August, 2014
- Worked with children with Autism on behavioral and learning strategies, establishing my passion for student equity and for the creation of inclusive learning environments.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Arlene Leis and Kacie Wills, ed's, Women and the Art and Science of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Europe, Routledge, 2020.
https://www.routledge.com/Women-and-the-Art-and-Science-of-Collecting-in-Eighteenth-Century-Europe/Leis-Wills/p/book/9780367856663
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“'It is easy making a lie; the contradicting of which the next day will make another paragraph': The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman and the Critique of the British Colonial Print Matrix," English Studies, vol. 102, issue 1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2020.1866310
Wills and Hayes, “Research Interrupted: A Reflection on Digitizing Sarah Sophia Banks’s Collections and Access to Ephemeral Materials,” Romanticism on the Net, issue 74-75 (Spring-Fall 2020). ronjournal.org/s/6420
Hayes and Wills, “Visualizing Sarah Sophia Banks’ African Coins,” Interdisciplinary Digital Engagement & Humanities, vol. 1, issue, 1 (2020). https://doi.org/10.21428/f1f23564.1d32a4b3
“Romanticism as Material Cultural Practice,” Romantic Circles Pedagogies, Special Issue: “Teaching (the) Romantic / Romantic Teaching.” (forthcoming)
Wills and Hayes, "Bringing the London Monster Online: Sarah Sophia Banks's Ephemera Collection," Romanticism and the Digital Humanities special issue of Studies in Romanticism. (under review)
Wills and Gillson. “Implementing Anti-Racist Pedagogy: A Workshop about Integrating Theory Across the Curriculum,” Teaching in Higher Education. (under review)
Book Chapters
“Visualising the Indigenous Pacific,” The Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts, ed. Maureen McCue and Sophie Thomas, Edinburgh University Press, 2022, pp. 77-94.
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edinburgh-companion-to-romanticism-and-the-arts.html
Hayes and Wills, “Sarah Sophia Banks’s Coin Collection: Female Networks of Exchange,” Women and the Art and Science of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century Europe, ed. Leis and Wills, Routledge, 2020, pp. 78-92.
Wills and Hagan, “Tolkien’s Romantic Gusto,”The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Walking Tree Publishers. (forthcoming 2023)
Digital Projects
Exploring the Collections of Sarah Sophia Banks, created with Erica Hayes, MLS, MIS, MFA, sarahsophiabanks.com
The Caribbean and Romanticism, online exhibit curated for the Keats-Shelley Association of America, Spring 2023,
https://www.k-saa.org/caribbeanandromanticism
Short Critical and Creative Work
“Contraries and the Stomach,” Keats Letters Project, Nov. 30, 2020. http://keatslettersproject.com/correspondence/remember-me-to-all-friends/
“Romantic Fancy in the Context of Pacific Exploration,” The Keats-Shelley Journal, vol. 68 (2019). muse.jhu.edu/article/771186.
Wills and Hayes, “Wherever the Unknown is sown with stars: Keats and the Creative Imagination,” co-author, Keats Letters Project, Oct. 8, 2018.
http://keatslettersproject.com/correspondence/wherever-the-unknown-is-sown-with-stars-keats-and-the-creative-imagination/
Book Reviews
“Worlding the south: Nineteenth-century literary culture and the southern settler colonies,” Journal of New Zealand Studies, NS34 (2022): 103-106 https://doi.org/10.26686/jnzs.iNS34.7681
“Samantha Matthews', Album Verses and Romantic Literary Culture,” Romantic Circles Reviews and Receptions, May 10, 2021. romantic-circles.org/reviews-blog/samantha-matthews-album-verses-and-romantic-literary-culture-poetry-manuscript-print
“Botanical Entanglements: Women, Natural Science, and the Arts in Eighteenth-Century England by
Anna K. Sagal,” Early Modern Women: an Interdisciplinary Journal. (forthcoming)
Academic Blogs
"The Monster and Sarah Sophia Banks's ephemera Collection: Sexual Violence and Print Media" The Keats-Shelley Association of America Uncovering the Archives Blog
www.k-saa.org/blog/sample-7n5ne-tmm6j-xr5ea-xxcm3-pt867-xchfr-xfs68?rq=wills
“What Are You Reading?” The Keats-Shelley Association of America Blog
https://k-saa.org/what-are-you-reading-kacie-wills/
“Sarah Sophia Banks’s Ballooning Scrapbook and the Science of Popular Spectacle,” The British Library Untold Lives Blog
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2018/06/sarah-sophia-bankss-ballooning-scrapbook-and-the-science-of-popular-spectacle.html
AWARDS AND HONORS
NASSR/Romantic Circles Pedagogy Contest Finalist: 2022. For an assignment on decolonizing the Romantic poetic canon.
Donald P. Filson Faculty Award for Vision for the Future of the College: 2022. For collaborative anti-racist pedagogy work.
Richard T. Fry Faculty Collaboration Grant: 2021/2022. “Implementing Anti-Racist Pedagogy: Integrating Theory Across the Curriculum”
Board of Trustees Faculty Research Grant: 2021/2022. "Ballooning Scrapbooks"
The Huntington Library Short-Term Dibner Fellowship in the History of Science: 2019-2020. Due to COVID, moved to 2020-2021.
Keats-Shelley Association of America Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr. Research Grant: 2019.
UCR Alumni Graduate Research Award: 2017.
Humanities Graduate Student Research Grant, Center for Ideas and Society: 2017.
Outstanding Teaching Assistant, University Writing Program, UC Riverside: 2015.
Department of English Graduate Essay Contest Award Winner, UC Riverside: 2015.
Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program Recipient, CSU Long Beach: 2014-2018.
Distinguished Graduate Student, CSU Long Beach: 2013.
Graduate Dean’s List Nominee, CSU Long Beach: 2013.
PRESENTATIONS
Wills and Romo. “Teaching Literature at Community Colleges Now: Ethnic Studies and the Literature Curriculum." MLA. Philadelphia, January, 2024.
Wills and Romo. “Inclusive Language, Action-Oriented Anti-Racism, and Academic Freedom." MLA. Philadelphia, January, 2024.
“Constructions of Identity and Intimacy through Print Illustration and the Commonplace Book,” The Keats House, London. June, 2023.
Wills and Hayes. “Sexual Assault, The London Monster, and the Media’s Narratives of Seduction." ASECS. St. Louis, March, 2023.
“(Re)mediating Sensational Experience: Ballooning ephemera, Scrapbooking, and the Digital Space." NASSR/BARS. Liverpool, August, 2022.
"Decolonial Poetry Assignment." NASSR/Romantic Circles Pedagogy Panel. NASSR/BARS. Liverpool, August, 2022.
“The Leigh Browne-Lockyer Collection: Inscribing and Remediating Gender in the Making of the Commonplace Book.” MLA. Washington, D.C., January, 2022.
Wills and Gillson. “’Implementing Anti-Racist Pedagogy: Integrating Theory Across the Curriculum’: Shaping Anti-Racist Scholarly and Pedagogical Practice through Developing Collaborative, Interdisciplinary, Cross-Institutional Resources." MLA. Washington, D.C., January, 2022.
“Visualizing the Indigenous Pacific.” BARS Digital Events Series: State of the Arts, Re-Framing the Visual in Romantic Period Studies. May, 2021. https://www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=3688
Wills and Hayes. “Re-mediation,” Panel Chair. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. St. Louis, March, 2020. Due to COVID moved to Zoom, April, 2021.
Wills and Hayes. “Bringing Historical Maps into GIS,” Workshop Chair. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. St. Louis, March, 2020. Due to COVID moved to Zoom, April, 2021.
“Balloon Ephemera, Discovery, and Progress in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man.” Nineteenth Century Studies Association. Zoom, March, 2021.
“Commemorative Coins and Networks of Exchange in Sarah Sophia Banks’s Numismatic Manuscripts.” British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. Zoom, January, 2021.
“Fiction and Fancy: Literary Responses to Cook’s Pacific Encounters.” British Association for Romantic Studies. Nottingham, July, 2019.
“Interfaces and Exploration: IIIF and the Scrapbook of Sarah Sophia Banks.” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Denver, March, 2019.
“Mapping Sarah Sophia Banks’s Numismatic Collection.” Digital Humanities Summer Institute. Victoria, BC., June, 2018.
“’An old maid on a journey’: The Collection of Sarah Sophia Banks.” Romantic Studies Association of Australasia. Wellington, NZ, February, 2017.
“Oh Me Omai: Aesthetic Value, Polish, and the Tattooed Surface.” North American Victorian Studies Association. Phoenix, November, 2016.
“’Figured more by fancy than by custom’: Omai’s Tattoos and the Performance of ‘Polish’.” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism. Berkeley, August, 2016.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Keats-Shelley Association of America
Early Caribbean Society
North American Society for the Study of Romanticism
Modern Language Association