Jonathan Ivry
Associate Professor, Associate Professor (Sv), Ad Hoc Program Specialist

Education

B.A., English, Cornell University, 1989
Ph.D. English and Humanities, Stanford University, 2000

Current position

Professor and Chair, Department of Literature, Writing, and Film, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Research interests

American Modernism and Post-Modernism, Poetry and Poetics, Religion and Literature

Courses Taught

• English 101: Introduction to College Reading and Writing
• English 102: Introduction to College Reading, Writing, and Research
• English 252: The Bible as Literature
• English 271: Critical Writing in the Field of English
• English 348: American Literature, 1890-1945
• English 481: Seminar in Literature post-1800
• Core 390: World of Ideas

Select Publications

• “Loyalty to myself at the very least”: Historical, Religious, and Narrative Commitments in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead.”  Religion and Literature. 55.2 (Autumn 2023)
• “’A Sort of Buoy’: Stevens, Plato, and Benjamin Jowett.” The Wallace Stevens Journal. 47.2 (Fall 2023)
• “‘ [A]ll / things began in Order to / end in Ordainer’: The Theological Poetics of Louis Zukofsky from ‘A’ to X.”  Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 51.2 (Summer 2009), 203-222.
• “The Memoirist as Collector: Lyn Hejinian’s My Life and Walter Benjamin’s A Berlin Chronicle.”  ANQ 20.2 (Spring 2007), 47-53.

Select Conference Presentations

• "The Limits of Logic and the Boundaries of Belief: Rene Girard and Benjamin Labatut." Colloquium on Violence and Religion Annual Conference. Rome, Italy. June 10, 2025.
• "Playing Indian: D.H. Lawrence and Native Americans." Modern Language Association Annual Conference. New Orleans. January 10, 2025.
• "D.H. Lawrence in Mexico: An Anthropology of Religion." Colloquium on Violence and Religion Annual Conference. Mexico City. June 26, 2024
• “Stevens, Benjamin Jowett, and ‘concupiscent curds.’”  American Literature Association Annual Conference. Boston. May 26, 2023
• “D. H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature at One Hundred.” American Literature Association Annual Conference. Chicago. May 26, 2022.
• “Illiberal Democracies and the ‘Rage for Order.’” Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference.  Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  August 10, 2017.
• “Founding Violence and Historical Legacy in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird.”  Midwest Modern Language Association Annual Conference. St. Louis, Missouri.  November 11, 2016.
• “’Almost an Ungulate’: Thinking and Feeling in the Poetry of Kay Ryan.” Contemporary Poetry: Thinking & Feeling.  Plymouth University.  Plymouth, UK.  May 22, 2016.
• “The ‘Blessings of Doubt’ and the ‘Burden of Faith’: Devotional Agnosticism and Religious Authenticity in Joshua Ferris’s To Rise Again at a Decent Hour.” God and the American Writer: American Literature Association Symposium.  San Antonio, Texas.  February 27, 2015.