Dr. Patricia Ard

Associate Professor of Literature

Educational Background: B.A. Douglass College , Rutgers University , English major; J.D., Seton Hall School of Law; Ph.D., English, Rutgers University

Arrived at Ramapo College : 1997

Areas of Specialization: Composition pedagogy; Nineteenth Century American and British culture; visual culture; women writers; popular culture

Courses regularly taught: College English; Readings in the Humanities; Survey of British Literature; Children's Literature; Introduction to Literature; American Photography and American Visual Culture.

Scholarship: The Jews of New Jersey: A Pictorial History, Rutgers University Press, 2002 (coauthor Michael Rockland); edited and wrote a long introduction to Mary Peabody Mann's 1889 novel Juanita: A Romance of Real Life in Cuba Fifty Years Ago, University of Virginia Press, 2000. I've also published on nineteenth century American literature and New Jersey related issues. I also make presentations fairly regularly at scholarly conferences nationwide.

Points of interest: Besides literature, I teach composition and American studies courses. I am interested generally in American literature and culture, especially that of the nineteenth century, the 1940s and 1950s, and present day. Since I also teach British literature, I enjoy making cross cultural comparisons between Britain and the United States . Visual culture is a particular interest of mine—I employ visual culture regularly in my publications and in my teaching. And since I once practiced law, I use my legal background when I teach writing and to analyze American legal culture.