Paula
Eckard, Ph.D.
Director, American Studies Program
Education
• Ph.D. English, University of South Carolina
• M.A., M.H.D.L., University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
• B.A., B.S.N., University of North Carolina at
Charlotte
Areas of Interest
• American literature and culture
• Southern literature and culture
• Maternal studies
• Nurses as social activists
Dr. Eckard directs the American
Studies Program at UNC Charlotte. More information
about the program can be found at www.americanstudies.uncc.edu
Selected Publications and Presentations
• Maternal Body and Voice in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Lee Smith. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2002.
• "Mockingbird Gone Mute" (Review of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles Shields, NY: Henry Holt, 2006) Charlotte Observer : 6 August 2006: 5E.
• "Ellen Foster: Survival in the New South." Five Owls 17.3 (2004): 61-63.
• "What Lies Beneath: Myth, Memory, and Obsession" (Review essay of Prodigals by Mark Powell and Moon Women by Pamela Duncan). North Carolina Literary Review 12(2003): 137-140.
• "Are Politics and Nursing Strange Bedfellows?" Nursing Spectrum 4.11 (2003): 36-38. (with Sharon Pearce)
• "Winning Legislative Battles for Billing Authority." Advance for Nurse Practitioners 11.8 (2003): 53-54. (with Joanne Schoen Stevens)
• "Decoding Black and White: Race, Gender, and Language in Crossing Blood ." College Language Association Journal 41.2 (1997): 174-184.
• "The Conjure Woman." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. NY: Oxford UP, 1997. 167-68.
• "Moody, Anne." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. NY: Oxford UP, 1997. 506-7.
• "Terrell, Mary Church." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. NY: Oxford UP, 1997. 718-19.
• "Good Hearts : Immersed in Time." The South Carolina Review 28.2 (1996): 78-85.
• "The Prismatic Past in Oral History and Mama Day ." MELUS: Journal for Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 20.3 (1995): 121-135.
• "The Interplay of Music, Language, and Narrative in Toni Morrison's Jazz ." College Language Association Journal 38.1 (1994): 11-19.
• "Maternal Mythologies and Southern Literature: An Essay to Honor Julian Mason." Postscript 10 (1993): 25-34. (Essay on Beloved by Toni Morrison)
v"Grief, Work, and Narrative in Southern Fiction." Society for the Study of Southern Literature Meeting, University of Alabama-Birmingham
• "Memory, Landscape, and the Mother's Body in Spence + Lila." Southern Women Writers Conference, Berry College, Mt. Berry, GA
• "Mediating the Matriarchal/Patriarchal Dichotomy in Lee Smith's Saving Grace." American Academy of Religion Southeastern Regional Conference, Knoxville, TN
• "Feather Crowns : Commodifying Southern Motherhood." Society for the Study of Southern Literature Meeting, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
• "Crossing Blood : Some Southern Dynamics of Race, Gender, and Language." Virginia Humanities Conference, Christopher Newport College, Newport News, VA Current Projects
Book:
- Lost Children in Southern Literature and Culture - Examines the motif of the lost child, the marginalization of the maternal, the impact on children, and the sense of "lostness" that pervades the work of many Southern writers.
Articles:
- "Female Sexuality and Spirituality in Alice Walker's By the Light of My Father's Smile and Lee Smith's Saving Grace"
- "The Entombed Maternal in Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills"
Courses taught
American Studies Courses
- The 1840s
- The 1930s
- Love in America
- Growing up Southern
- Southern Folklore and Literature
- Appalachian Literature and Culture
English Courses
- Writing in the Academic Community
- North Carolina Writers
- Masterpieces of Modern Fiction
- Major American Writers
- Introduction to Poetry
- Approaches to Literature
- American Literature 1870-1920
- American Literature 1920 to the Present
- Nineteenth Century American Novel
- Literature of the American South
Selected Professional Service
Book manuscript reader for Ohio State University Press, University of Missouri Press, and University of South Carolina Press.
Editorial service for North Carolina Literary Review , Studies in the Novel, Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature , and MELUS: The Journal for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. Selected Community Service
Member, Board of Directors, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Charlotte Chapter.
As JDRF Government Relations Chair, lobbied members of Congress for NIH funding for diabetes research, stem cell research, and other diabetes issues.
A primary lobbyist for NC Senate Bill 911, "Care for School Children with Diabetes Act," which passed unanimously in both houses of the North Carolina legislature and was signed into state law in 2002. Senate Bill 911 / S.L. 2002-103
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