Lynda Szabo View All Faculty
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Disciplines/Field of Instruction

  • American Literature
  • Women′s Literature
  • Christianity and Literature

Degrees Received

  • M.A., Ph.D. in English, December 1998, Duquesne University
  • Instructional I Certification, 1986, Geneva College
  • B.A. in English, 1985, Geneva College

Courses Taught

  • American Literature Survey Courses
  • Humanities Survey Courses
  • Introduction to Literary Study and Research
  • Women’s Literature Courses
  • Seminar on Emily Dickinson
  • Seminar on Flannery O’Connor
  • Geneva College Semester in Rome (Humanities in the Italian Context)
  • College Composition
  • Honors Composition

Presentations/Publications

  • Approaching the Trinity: Co-Creation in the Work of Flannery O’Connor.” Mideast Conference on Christianity and Literature. Patrick Henry College. Leesburg, VA. October 2014.
  • Reviews of Experience and Faith: The Late-Romantic Imagination of Emily Dickinson by Richard E. Brantley and Nimble Believing: Dickinson and the Unknown by James McIntosh. Christianity and Literature 56 (2007) 354-357.
  • "Dishwashing, Laundry, and Enlightenment: The Spirituality of Women′s Work in Maxine Hong Kingston′s Hawai′i One Summer and Kathleen Norris′s The Quotidian Mysteries." Pennsylvania College English Association. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. April 2005.
  • "Amidst These Indirections: Levertov′s Poetry of Faith and Doubt." Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature. Indiana Wesleyan University. Marion, IN. March 2004.
  • "Experiencing the Soul of Africa: Pedagogies." The 2000 Association for Integrative Studies Conference. Portland State University. Portland, OR. October 2000.
  • " ‘It takes more than one voice to tell a story′: Language, Spirituality, and Community in Diane Glancy′s Pushing the Bear." American Women Writers of Color Conference. Salisbury State University. Ocean City, MD. October 1999.
  • "History Re-Made: Gertrude Stein′s The Making of Americans." Twentieth-Century Literature Conference. University of Louisville. Louisville, KY. February 1999.
  • "Women Faculty, Feminism, and Teaching at a Christian College." Women in Higher Education Conference. Charleston, SC. January 1999.
  • "Long Steam Women: The Urge to Tell in Nellie Wong and Lucille Clifton." American Women Writers of Color Conference. Salisbury State University. Ocean City, MD. October 1996.
  • " ‘The Muses are little female fellows′: Adrienne Rich, Lyn Hejinian, and Hannah Weiner." National Poetry Foundation: American Poetry of the 1950s. University of Maine. Orono, Maine. June 1996.
  • " ‘this / is a fiction, pay attention]′: The Poetics of William Carlos Williams′s Paterson." MLA. Chicago, Illinois. December 1995.
  • Co-wrote and co-presented with Dr. Esther Meek a paper entitled “Beauty in Exile in Higher Education” at the 2017 Eastern Regional CCL conference at Grove City College on March 30.

Current Research

  • My current interests in literature have continued to build on the foundation established in my dissertation regarding experimental texts and forms of identity. Currently, my growing interest and expertise in Christianity and Literature has resulted in studying and theorizing a connection between the experimental and the spiritual. Recent work has centered on issues of faith, beauty, and literary form in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Anne Sexton, and Denise Levertov and in the fiction of Flannery O′Connor. I am writing a series of papers on these writers and, eventually, intend to write or edit a book on faith and form in American women′s writing.

Awards & Distinctions Received

  • Excellence in Teaching Award. Geneva College. Beaver Falls, PA. 1999-2000.
  • Awarded Monies from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. November 1998.

Affiliations, e.g., membership in professional organizations, etc.

  • National Museum for Women in the Arts
  • Modern Language Association
  • Christianity and Literature
  • American University Professors

Miscellaneous, e.g., hobbies, sports, personal info, etc.

  • Traveling
  • Gardening
  • Attending Pittsburgh Symphony and Opera Performances

Academic Distinctives

Dr. Szabo presented, "Approaching the Trinity: Co-Creation in the Work of Flannery O’Connor” at the Mideast Conference on Christianity and Literature at Patrick Henry College in Leesburg, VA in 2014.

Dr. Szabo won Geneva College's Excellence in Teaching Award for the 1999-2000 Academic Year.

In addition to other memberships and affiliations, Dr. Szabo is a member of the Modern Language Association.