Steve Pearson, Ph.D.

Dr. Pearson slowly moved into literature after starting in Musical Theatre at the University of Miami (FL) and then transferring to the Great Books Program at St. John’s College in Santa Fe (NM) for a B.A. in Liberal Arts and with the intention of becoming a theologian. There, he found that he prefers comedy to philosophy, and so he went to the University of Georgia to write an M.A. thesis on Aristophanes and Molière. Having been thrust into teaching World Literature at UGA, he decided he needed to learn the Great Books of Asia and returned to Santa Fe for an M.A. in Eastern Classics. Along the way he became interested in minority U.S. literature and in the Christian devotional tradition—both of which he studied in his doctoral work at UGA. As a full-time faculty member, he now teaches both world and ethnic U.S. literature courses, as well as courses on world scriptures. But even though he often teaches the entire world literature sequence in one semester, he still cannot figure out how to productively use Twitter.

• Ph.D., Comparative Literature, University of Georgia, 2008
• M.A., Eastern Classics, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, 2002
• M.A., Comparative Literature, University of Georgia, 2001
• B.A., Liberal Arts, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, 1996

“Fray Angélico Chávez.” In Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Vol. 5 Ed. Bernard McGinn, Eric Ziolkowski, et al. (Berlin: de Gruyter 2012).

“Conflicts between Christianity and Korean Shamanism in Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman.” In Mother Tongue Theologies: Poets, Novelists, and Non-Western Christianity. Ed. Darren J. N. Middleton (Eugene: Wipf & Stock 2009) 157-171.

“Diasporic Monasticism and Inclusive Hospitality in Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk.” Benedictines 61.2 (2008): 28-37.

“The Monkey King in the American Canon: Patricia Chao and Gerald Vizenor’s Use of an Iconic Chinese Character.” Comparative Literature Studies 43.3 (2006): 355-374.

MELUS (The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States)