Jennifer L. Martinsen

Assistant Professor of English

Office: McClurg 112

Office Phone: 803-321-5374

Email:

jennifer.martinsen@newberry.edu

Degrees:

Ph.D. English, University of South Carolina

M.A., University of North Carolina ​

B.A., University of Wisconsin 

Bio:

Dr. Jennifer Martinsen specializes in 19th and 20th Century British Literature, and she joined the Newberry College faculty in 2012. She received her PhD from the University of South Carolina, her MA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and her BA from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Her article on humor, humility, and national identity in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was published in a special issue on humor and culture in Proteus: A Journal of Ideas.

 

Dr. Martinsen has attended a variety of regional and national conferences where she has presented her work on Jane Austen, Late-Victorian Comic Illustrations, James Bond, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In her classes, Dr. Martinsen enjoys introducing students to a variety of traditional pieces of literature as well as more contemporary pop culture texts. Students have responded well to this approach as is evident in her successful course on the Harry Potter phenomenon, in her survey classes where students enthusiastically read Dracula and then watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and in her freshman introduction to literature courses where students relish the opportunity to first read a selection of Sherlock Holmes stories and then watch an episode from the BBC’s Sherlock. Dr. Martinsen looks forward to designing new classes about Women’s Literature, James Bond, Monsters and Monstrosity in 19th Century British Literature, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to name just a few.

 

In her spare time, Dr. Martinsen enjoys traveling, attending concerts, and of course, reading.