Valerie Surrett
Associate Professor
Assisant Director of Honors, Gainesville Campus
Office locationNesbitt Academic Building, 4156,
Gainesville
Overview
Valerie Surrett teaches a variety of English classes at UNG and specializes in US literature, film, and television that features incarcerated people and prison settings. Her teaching and research are informed by her work with the Appalachian Prison Book Project and her experiences volunteering and teaching in prisons. Her current book project, Locked Up, investigates Americans’ longstanding cultural impulses to write, read, and watch stories about life behind bars, reading the prison as an iconic American literary and cinematic landscape.
Education
- Ph.D., English, West Virginia University, 2017
- MA, English, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, 2010
- BA, English Literature, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, 2008
- AA, English Education, Cape Fear Community College, 2006
Courses Taught
- English 1101—English Composition I
- English 1102—English Composition II
- English 2111—World Literature I
- English 2112—World Literature II
- English 2115—Gender and Literature
- English 2131—American Literature I
- English 2132—American Literature II
- English 2143—African American Literature
- English 2150—Literature and Film
- English 2160—Multicultural American Literature
- English 2900—Intro to Literary Studies
- English 3680—Contemporary American Literature
- English 4635—Special Topics in African American Literature
Research/Special Interests
- US prison literatures
- Representations of prisons in US fiction, film, and television
- Critical carceral studies
- Critical race studies
- Bio/necropolitics
- Utopian studies and critical dystopias
Work Experience
- Lecturer, West Virginia University English Department, 2017-2019
- Graduate Teaching Assistant and Instructor of Record, West Virginia University English Department, 2011-1017
- Part-time Faculty, University of North Carolina, Wilmington English Department, 2011
- Graduate Teaching Assistant and Instructor of Record, University of North Carolina, Wilmington English Department, 2010
- Various jobs that may seem irrelevant to my current career path but were formative nonetheless: record shop sales associate, assistant manager of a Little Caesars, Victoria’s Secret sales associate, T-Mobile sales associate, apartment complex leasing agent, and bartender
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
- with Katy Ryan and Rayna Momen, “Women of Wisdom between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” Teaching Literature and Writing in Prisons. Eds. Patrick Alexander and Sheila Smith McCoy. Modern Language Association, 2023. 231-244.
- “‘There’s nothing for you back there’: Reflective Nostalgia in Stranger Things.” Imagining the 1980s: Representations of the Reagan Decade in Popular Culture. Ed. Randy Laist. McFarland & Company, Inc., 2023. 11-22.
- “Designed to Comply: Cyborg Potentialities in Lois Lowry’s The Giver.” Critical Perspectives on Artificial Humans in Children’s Literature. Ed. Sabine Planka. Würzburg, Germany: Königshausen & Neumann, 2016. 217-232.
- “‘Always better, less rude, to talk about things that were the same’: The Necessity of Otherness to a Functioning Public Sphere.” Journal of Contemporary Thought No. 36 (2012): 139-57.
Additional Publications
- “The High Costs of Free Prison Tablet Programs.” Books Through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement. Eds. Moira Marquis and Mac Marquis. UGA Trade Press. 2024.
- “Willie Kay Road,” Deep South Magazine. 9 Feb. 2023. https://deepsouthmag.com/2023/02/09/willie-kay-road/
- with Katy Ryan. “The Other 95%.” Appalachian Prison Book Project. 21 Dec. 2019. https://appalachianprisonbookproject.org/2019/12/21/the-other-95/
- with Katy Ryan. “How Much Does it Cost to Read a Free Book on a Free Tablet?” Appalachian Prison Book Project. 20 Nov. 2019. https://appalachianprisonbookproject.org/2019/11/20/how-much-does-it-cost-to-read-a-free-book-on-a-free-tablet/
Invited Talks and Interviews
- “Right to Read: Banned Books & Charging Access by the Minute to Literature.” Podcast Guest. The Justice Beat Talk Show. Hosted by L. Elaine Sutton Mbionwu. Season 5, episode 8,10 Apr. 2022
UNG Awards & Grants
- 2023-2024, Presidential Semester Award
- 2023, Teaching Excellence Award, Tenure-Track
- 2022 with Ralph Hale, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) into Action Grant
- 2020 with Ralph Hale, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) into Action Grant