Jason Jacobs, Ph.D.
Areas of Expertise
ENGLISH LITERARY STUDIES: Medieval European Literature, French Literature, Literary Theory, epic studies, psychoanalysis, Queer Theory, contemporary LGBT literature and cultureEducation
Ph.D. - Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz
M.A. – Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz
B.A – Literature, New College of Florida
About Jason Jacobs
Dr. Jason Jacobs is Associate Professor of Literature and Chair of English Literature and Cultural Studies, where he teaches courses in British and European Literature, literary criticism and theory, and Gender & Sexuality Studies.
Dr. Jacobs teaches courses in pre- and early-modern British and European Literature and contemporary literature and culture as well as ENG 220: Reading Like a Pro: Theory and Criticism. A founding member of the Gender & Sexuality Studies faculty, he has taught introductory and capstone GSS courses, and as a long-standing contributor to the University General Education curriculum teaches Senior Seminar courses such as Sexual Identities and What Does Paris Mean?
Research
Dr. Jacobs’s research interests include narrative poetry in Old French and Italian from the High and Late Middle Ages; epic studies; lyric poetry; premodern gender and sexuality; literary theory (especially psychoanalysis, historicism, and queer theory); and contemporary queer politics, representation, and theory.
Recent Publications
“Willingly and with Pleasure: Desiring Politics in the Couronnement de Louis.” Exemplaria 36.4 (2005).
“Marie’s Lesbian Infrastructure.” Le Cygne. Special Issue on Lauren Groff’s Matrix, ed. Jason Jacobs and A. E. Whitacre. (2024). Forthcoming.
“Gut Feelings: on the chansons de geste’s visceral aesthetic.” postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies 14.1 (2023).
Previous Roles
From 2015-2023, Dr. Jacobs served in the RWU academic administration, first as Associate Dean of General Education and then as Dean of Undergraduate Studies.