Portrait image of Jeff Roessner
Jeffrey Roessner

Dean, The School of the Humanities; Professor

Contact Information

OFFICE: Preston 220
PHONE: 814-824-2136

Dr. Roessner is a professor of English and dean of the School of Humanities at ΢Ȧ. He teaches classes in contemporary literature, popular music and literature, cultural studies, and creative writing.

His research focuses on popular music, contemporary literature, and interdisciplinary studies, with a special interest in creativity theory. He is co-editor of Write in Tune: Contemporary Music in Fiction (Bloomsbury), and his publications include multiple essays on The Beatles, along with articles on The Velvet Underground, rock mockumentaries, the post-confessional lyricism of R.E.M., protest music in the wake of 9/11, and satellite radio and the re-conception of musical genres. His literary scholarship includes studies of post-postmodernism in the works of Roddy Doyle and historiographic writing by Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson, and Alison Bechdel, among others. A longtime musician, he has also published a book on songwriting, Creative Guitar: Writing Rock Songs with Originality (Mel Bay).

΢Ȧ Dr. Roessner
    • Ph.D., English, University of Notre Dame, 1998
    • MFA, Creative Writing, University of Notre Dame, 1998
    • M.A., English, University of Notre Dame, 1993
    • B.A., English, ΢Ȧ University, 1989
    • Twentieth and twenty-first century British literature
    • Literature and music
    • Popular music
    • Creative writing
    • Contemporary world literature
    • Film studies
    • Research and writing
    • The British New Wave
    • Contemporary Literature and Music
    • Modern English and Irish Literature
    • Senior English Project
    • Reading the Beatles
    • Bob Dylan
    • Postmodern Literature
    • Creative Writing Poetry
    • Research and Writing
    • Music and literature
    • Popular music
    • Twentieth and twenty-first century literature
    • Postmodernism and after
    • Cultural studies
    • Genre studies

    Edited Collection

    • Write in Tune: Contemporary Music in Fiction. Ed. Erich Hertz and Jeffrey Roessner. Bloomsbury (2014).

    Essays

    • “Madcap Laughs: The Evolution of John Lennon’s Humor.” The Beatles and Humour: Mockers, Funny Papers, and Other Play. Ed. Katie Kapurch, Heyman Matthias, and Richard Mills. Bloomsbury (2023).
    • “Saved by Rock and Roll: The Velvet Underground In and Out of History.” What Goes On: The Velvet Underground and After. Ed. Sean Albiez and David Pattie. Bloomsbury (2022).
    • “The Three Ages of Fan: Identity, Irony, and Post-postmodernism in Roddy Doyle’s Popular Music Narratives.” Popular Music and the Poetics of Self in Fiction. Ed. Norbert Bachleitner and Juliane Werner. Brill (2022).
    • “Down at the Devil’s Crossroads: Romanticizing Robert Johnson.” AMP: American Musical Perspectives 1.1 (2020).
    • “The Rise of Celebrity Culture and Fanship with the Beatles in the 1960s.” The Beatles in Context. Ed. Ken Womack. Cambridge UP (2020).
    • “Revolution 2.0: Beatles Fan Scholarship in the Digital Age.” New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles: Things We Said Today. Ed. Ken Womack and Katie Kapurch. Palgrave (2016).
    • “Radio in Transit: Satellite, Cars, and Commodified Nostalgia.” Listening Spaces: 21st Century Perspectives on Music, Technology, and Culture. Ed. Richard Purcell and Richard Randall. Palgrave (2016).
    • “From Mach Shau to Mock Show: The Beatles, Shea Stadium and Rock Spectacle.” The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment. Ed. Robert Edgar, Kristy Fairclough-Isaacs, Ben Halligan and Nicola Spelman. Bloomsbury (2015).
    • “Old Father, New Artificer: Teaching Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home as Postmodern Literature.” Co-authored with student Eithne Amos. Class, Please Open Your Comics: Essays on Teaching with Graphic Narratives. Ed. Matthew Miller. McFarland (2015).

    Conference Presentations

    • “Everything and the Kitchen Sink: British Social Realist Drama and Paul McCartney’s Lyric Imagination.” Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900. Louisville, KY; February 23-25, 2023.
    • “The Three Ages of Fan: Identity, Irony, and Metamodernism in Roddy Doyle’s Popular Music Narratives.” Popular Music and the Self in Contemporary Fiction. University of Vienna; May 30-31, 2019. (Invited Presentation)
    • “‘Genius is Pain’”: John Lennon’s Confessional Turn on The White Album.” The Beatles’ The White Album: An International Symposium. Monmouth University; Monmouth, NJ: November 8–11, 2018.
    • “Some Notes on the Guitar Styles of The White Album.” The Beatles’ The White Album: An International Symposium. Monmouth University; Monmouth, NJ: November 8–11, 2018.
    • “Collage à Trois: Sgt. Pepper and The Beatles’ Artistic Persona.” Summit of Creativity: A Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. University of Michigan; Ann Arbor, MI: June 1-4, 2017.
    • “Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments and After: Postmodern Style in History.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference; Durham, NC: November 13-15, 2015.