Jessica Williams

Position/Role
Chair, English
Assistant Professor
Department
English
School
School of Arts and Sciences
Building
New Academic Building
Room
3017
Phone
(516) 876-3120
E-mail
Email
Courses Taught
  • EL3600: US Lit I
  • EL3610: US Lit II
  • EL3620: US Gothic Literature
  • EL4015: Multi-Ethnic US Literature
  • EL4030: Women and Narrative
  • EL4800: Major Authors (Sylvia Plath; Mary Oliver and the US Transcendentalists) 
Degrees
  • D.A. in English, St. John's University
  • M.A. in English, Stony Brook University
Research Interests

Multi-ethnic US literature, body studies with a focus on subversive bodies, subcultural studies, the histories of the US freak show and circus, US gothic and horror literature and film

Publications

  • Book:

    • Media, Performative Identity, and the New American Freakshow. Palgrave MacMillan.

  • Book Chapters:

    • “Punk, Metal, and Monsters: Monstrosity as Refusal.” Palgrave Handbook of Monsters and Monstrous Bodies, edited by Melissa Anyiwo and Amanda Jo Hobson, Palgrave. Forthcoming, 2027.
    • “Moralizing Enfreakment: The Intersection of Disability and Virtue in American Horror Story: Freak Show.” Enfreakment: The Poetics and Politics of Freak Show Legacies in US Culture, edited by Ella Ernst et al., Heidelberg: Winter Verlag, 2026, pp. 187–210. ISBN: 978-3-8253-9767-8.
    • “Brothers from Another M(O)ther: Franklin, the Sawyer Brothers, and Monstrosity in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).” The Legacy of Leatherface: Essays on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Series, edited by Shane Thomas Hesketh, McFarland, 2026, pp. 51–63. ISBN: 978-1-4766-9620-1.
    • “Horror Movies, Horror Bodies: Blurring the Freak Body in Cinema.” The Big Top on the Big Screen: Explorations of the Circus in Film, edited by Teresa Cutler-Broyles, McFarland, 2018, pp. 60–74. ISBN: 978-1-4766-7118-5.
    • “I would like to think that Refusal is worth making’: The Future of New Punk in SLC Punk.” A Creative Passion: Anarchism and Culture, edited by Jeffrey Shantz, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010, pp. 141–156. ISBN: 978-1-4438-2334-0.

  • Peer Reviewed Journal Articles:

    • “Teaching Models of Disability Through Katherine Dunn's Geek Love.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 19.4, Nov 2025.
    • “Voices: Embodied Incorporeality in Lucille Clifton’s Poetry.” Response Journal, 10.2, Nov 2025.
    • “The Funky Monk and the Myth of the Solitary Author: John Frusciante and the Meaning of Authorship.” Postscriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies, 3.1, January 2018, pp. 1–19.
    • “The Appropriation of an Epic: Lucille Clifton’s Feminist Retelling of Milton.” Feminist Spaces, 3.1, Winter 2017, pp. 79–95.
    • “The Racial Freak: In and Out of Harlem.” Storytelling: A Critical Journal of Popular Narrative, 12:1, Summer 2012, pp. 5–14.

  • Select Presentations & Invited Talks:

    • “Decoding Enfreakment: The Intersection of Disability and Morality in Visual Media Portrayals of the Freak Show.” Enfreakment Conference. Institute for American Studies, Leipzig University. 2025, Leipzig Germany.
    • “Enfreakment in Transition: From The Elephant Man to The Substance.” Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA) Conference. 2026, Baltimore, MD.
    • “‘Gabba Gabba, Hey!’: Monstrosity as Refusal in Punk.” Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA) Conference. 2025, Philadelphia, PA.
    • “Voices: Incorporeality in Lucille Clifton’s Poetry.” Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA) Conference. 2024, Atlantic City, NJ. *Winner of Ralph Donald Award 
    • “‘No Shame, No Pride’: Queering Punk with Laura Jane Grace and Fat Mike.” Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association (MAPACA) Virtual Summer Conference, 2024.
    • “With my hook for a hand, I’ll split you from your groin to your gullet”: Occupying the Dual Spaces of Monster and Victim in Candyman (1992)" Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) National Conference, 2022, Virtual.
    • Book Talk on Media, Performative Identity, and the New American Freak Show (2017). “Ask the Experts” Series at Coney Island USA. October 20, 2018. 
Office Hours

Tuesdays 9:30-11:30am, Wednesdays 11:30am-1:30pm, and by appointment

Personal Website
Book