Dr. Richard Ruppel
Professor of English & Peace & Justice Studies
Chapman University

 
ruppel@chapman.edu
(714) 997- 6754
Updated Spring 2024

Education

1988Ph.D. English - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Major: 20th C. British and American Literature
Minor: 19th C. British Literature

1978M.A. English - Duke University

1976A.B. University of Michigan. Honors English and History, With Distinction

Books

·       A Political Genealogy of Joseph Conrad.  Lanham, MD:  Lexington Press, 2015.    

·       Homosexuality in the Life and Work of Joseph Conrad:  Love Between the Lines.  New York, London:  Routledge Press, 2008. 

·       Imperial Desire: Dissident Sexualities and Colonial Literature. ed. with Philip Holden.  Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

·       Joseph Conrad. Harold Bloom, series ed.  Consulting Editor.  Broomall, PA:  Chelsea House, 2003. 

Guest Editor

·       Conradiana.  "Conrad under California Skies:  Selected Proceedings."  With co-editors Paul Armstrong and Andrea White. Volume 43, Numbers 2-3, Fall/Winter 2011. 

Conference Director

·       Conrad under California Skies.”  An international conference devoted to the life and work of Joseph Conrad.  January 7-10, 2010.  Chapman University. 

Refereed Articles

·       History, Cognition and Nostromo:  Conrad’s Explorations of Torture, Trauma, and the Human Rage for Order.”  Modern Fiction Studies, 68.4 (Winter, 2022): 749-770.   

·       “‘Pathos and Fun:  Conrad and Harper’s Magazine.”  Conradiana.  41.2 (Fall, 2009):  176-200.  
 

Invited Articles

·        “Introduction” to the first translation into Chinese of Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes, by Zhao Ting.  Shanghai:  Shanghai Yiwen Press, 2014. 上海: 上海译文出版社  

·       “Colonial Literature.”  Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Fiction Vol. 1. ed. Brian Shaffer.  Blackwell, 2010. 

·       “Why Conrad (Still) Matters.”  Wilkinson Review:  The Chapman University, Wilkinson College Magazine.  1.2 (Fall/Winter, 2008):  7-11. 

Reviews

·       Yael Levin, Joseph Conrad: Slow Modernism. Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, 19.2, June 2021: 383-386.

·       Kim Salmons and Tania Zulli, eds.  Migration, Modernity and Transnationalism in the Work of Joseph Conrad.  Conradiana.  Volume 51, Number 3, Winter 2019: 181-188. 

·       Katherine Isobel Baxter and Robert Hampson, eds. Conrad and Language.  ELT Journal. 60.4 (June 2017): 61-66.

·       Brian Artese, Testimony on Trial:  Conrad, James, and the Contest for Modernism. Joseph Conrad Today.  40.1 (Spring 2015): 9-11. 

·       John G. Peters, Joseph Conrad’s Critical Reception. Studies in the Novel.  46.2 (Summer, 2014):  269-271. 

·       Richard Niland, Conrad and History.  Conradiana, 43.1 (Spring 2011): 113-17.   

·       Nicholas Harrison.  Postcolonial Criticism:  History, Theory and the Work of Fiction. South Atlantic Review. 70.3 (Summer 2005):  154-58. 

·       John G. Peters.  Conrad & ImpressionismSouth Atlantic Review 69.3/4 (Fall 2004):  159-62.

·       Anne Herrmann.   Queering the Moderns:  Poses/Portraits/Performances.  Studies in the Novel.   35.3 (Fall 2003):  433-36.

·       Andrew Michael Roberts. Conrad and Masculinity.  (Click here to see the review.)  The Conradian 27.2 (Autumn, 2002). 

·       Andrea White. Joseph Conrad and the Adventure Tradition: Constructing and Deconstructing the Imperial Subject. Conradiana. 27.2 (1995): 149-52.

·       Marianna Torgovnick. Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives. Conradiana 25.2 (1993): 150-53.

·       Patrick Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914. Conradiana 23.3 (1991): 249-52.

Executive Board Member 

·       Conradiana

External Reader

·       W. M. Keck Foundation

·       Harvard University Press

·       Bloomsbury Press

·       Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Dissertation reader)

·       The Ohio State University Press

·       Broadview Press

·       Routledge Press

·       Longman Publishers

·       English, a publication of Oxford University Press

·       Conradiana

·       Twentieth Century Literature

Conference Papers

·       “Conrad & the Russians.”  Modern Language Association Conference, January 9-12, 2025.  New Orleans, LA. 

·       “Benevolent Bobbies, Agents of Social Control, and State-Sponsored Terrorists:  Conrad’s Policemen in The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes.Modern Language Association Conference, January 5-8, 2023.  San Francisco, CA. 

·       “’The changes take place inside’:  Marlow in Wonderland.” The 49th Annual International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society (UK) September 15-17, 2022.  Università G. d’Annunzio, Chieti, Italy.  (In-person canceled, Via Zoom.) 

·       “Two Tales Told by an Idiot: William Faulkner’s Distorted Refashioning of Joseph Conrad’s Holy Fool.”  Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities.  University Mainz, Germany.  June 20-23, 2019. 

·       “History, Intertext, and Mental Illness in Mrs. Dalloway.”   29th Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf, June 6-9, 2019.  Mount St. Joseph University.  Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

·       “Switching Gears:  The Challenges, Frustrations, Anxieties, and Rewards of Turning to Cognition.” Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities.  Kent University, UK.  July 1-4, 2018. 

·       “A Cognitive Approach to The Secret Agent.”  Transnational Conrad: Between Texts & Theory.  Limoges, France. September 21-22, 2017

 

·       “A Key to Dracula: Bram Stoker’s ‘respectable lunatic.’ Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities.  5th International Conference.  Stony Brook University.  June 5-7, 2017. 

 

·       Nostromo and the Hard Problem: Conrad’s Explorations of Autonomy and Consciousness.” Cognitive Futures in the Humanities 2016. University of Helsinki, June 13-15, 2016.

·       “Traumatic Memory in The Secret Agent.” Cognitive Futures 2015 — Forging Futures from the Past: History and Cognition. Oxford University, April 13-15, 2015.

·       “Conrad, Memory, and Neuroscience.” Modern Language Association Conference, January 9-12, 2014.  Chicago, Illinois. 

 

·       “Karl Marx and Joseph Conrad:  Uneasy Affinities.”  The Joseph Conrad Society (UK) 39th Annual International Conference.  July 10-13, 2013.  Università di Roma Tre, Rome.

·       “Conrad’s (mostly) Impersonal Art:  Politics in Nostromo.”  The Joseph Conrad Society (UK) 38th Annual International Conference.  July 4-7, 2012.  Bath, UK. 

·       “More on the Art of Lying:  Politics in A Personal Record.”  Modern Language Association Conference.  January 5-8, 2012.  Seattle, Washington. 

·       “Conrad’s Radically Contingent Politics.”  The Joseph Conrad Society (UK) 36th Annual International Conference. Joint Conference with La Société Conradienne Française.  Versailles (St-Quentin) and Paris.  September 14-17, 2010.
 

·       “Hélène Cixous and Conrad’s Imaginative Bisexuality.”  Seminar paper.  Modernist Studies Association Conference.  November 1-4, 2007.  Long Beach, CA. 
 

·       “Sympathy for the Devil: Conrad’s Anarchists and his Critique of Class.” Modern Language Association Conference.  December 27-30, 2006.  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
 

·       “Good Fellowship or Homoeroticism?  Joseph Conrad’s Letters.”  Modernist Studies Association Conference.  November 4-6, 2005.  Chicago, Illinois.
 

·       “More Love Between the Lines:  Intimacy in Conrad's Letters.”  Joseph Conrad in Amsterdam.  Thirty-First Annual International Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society (UK).  July 7-9, 2005.  Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  
  

·       “Homosexuality in Under Western Eyes:  Reading through History and Culture.”  Joseph Conrad & Europe.  September 22-25, 2004.  Opole and Krakow, Poland.
 

·       “Territories of the Heart:  Mapping Homoeroticism in Lord Jim.” Conrad and Territoriality.  August 16-18, 2002.  The University of British Columbia. Vancouver, Canada. 
 

·       “The Economy of Desire in Heart of Darkness.” International Conference of Joseph Conrad Scholars.  August 9-12, 2000.  Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.

·       “‘An Outpost of Progress,’ Popular Colonialist Fiction, and Conrad’s Magic Naturalism.”  The 25th Anniversary Conference of the Joseph Conrad Society (U.K.), with the Henry James Society (USA) and the Ford Madox Ford Society.  July 8-12, 1999.  Canterbury, England.

·       “Historicizing the Homoeroticism in ‘The Secret Sharer.’” Modern Language Association. December 27-30, 1997. Toronto, Canada.

·       “Joseph Conrad and the Homoerotic Milieu at the Turn of the Century.” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, December 4-7, 1997.

·       “Designing Web Pages for Courses in the Humanities.” Student-centered Teaching Meets Technology: Converging for a New Millennium. Faculty Development Conference. Bloomington MN, Nov. 20-21, 1997.

·       “Beyond ‘The Secret Sharer’: Joseph Conrad and the Ghost of Oscar Wilde.” 2nd International Joseph Conrad Conference. Lublin, Poland. September 1-4, 1996.

·       “Secret Sharing: Historicizing Conrad’s Homoeroticism.” “Conrad's Century: The Past and Future Splendour."” Kent State University. Kent, Ohio. April 6-9, 1995.

·       “‘They always leave us’: Lord Jim and Colonialist Discourse.” 20th Annual International Conference on Conrad. London. July 7-9, 1994.

·       “Prime Time’s Hidden Agenda: The Presentation of Asians on American Network Television, 1994.” With David Piehl.  Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference. Chicago, April, 1994

·       “British Colonialist Tropes in American Films.” Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference. New Orleans, April, 1993.

·       “The Presentation of Asians on American Television, 1993.” Asian Americans Conference. With David Piehl.  University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. March, 1993.

·       “‘The Lagoon’ and the Popular Exotic Tradition.” 1st International Conrad Conference--Baranow Sandomierski, Poland. September 8-10, 1991.

·       Lord Jim’s Marlow and the French Lieutenant: Mapping Conrad's Ethnocentrism.” Joseph Conrad Society in Marseilles, France. September, 1990.

·       Heart of Darkness, C. J. Cutcliff Hyne, and the Great Tradition.” The Carolinas Symposium on British Studies, North Carolina State University, Raleigh. October, 1987.

Dissertation

        “Kipling, Conrad, and the Popular Exotic Short Fiction of the 1890's.” 1988.

Teaching Experience

Honors

·       Inaugural One-Year Scholarly & Creativity Activities Release.  For “Cognitive Humanities and the Novel: Six Case Studies.”  2017-18. Chapman University.

·       Wilkinson College Faculty Award for Service, Spring, 2011—Chapman University. 

·       Alec Chiu Award for Faculty Research, Spring, 2006—Viterbo University. 

·       Earl Hartsell Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1983-84—UNC Chapel Hill.

Academic Service (selected)

Professional Organizations


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