Current Reseaerch and Areas of Expertise
Fields of research interest include:
- Late-nineteenth century American literature
- Literary realism
- Religion and aesthetics
- Jewish studies
- Literature of the Holocaust
She is currently completing a book project entitled "Sacred Fictions: Jewish Immigration and the Temporalities of American Literary Realism."
Courses Offered at Redlands
- American Literature: Industry and Enterprise
- American Literature, 1620-1860: Republicans and Revolutionaries
- American Literature: Making It New
- Representing the Holocaust
- Immigrant Literature
- American Jewish Literature
- Critical Reading
- Literature of the Americas
- Satire
- Mark Twain and the Gilded Age
- Immigration and Alienation: Literary New York
Previous Teaching Experience
- Assistant Professor of English, University of Redlands, 2005-present
- Visiting Lecturer in English, University of California, Los Angeles, 2004-05
- Visiting Lecturer in English, University of Southern California, 2004
- Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow in English, University of California, Irvine, 2003-04
Awards and Honors
- Faculty Research Grant, University of Redlands, 2009
- Faculty Research Grant, University of Redlands, 2007
- Postdoctoral Faculty Fellowship, University of California, Irvine, 2003-04
- Alfred E. Longueil Dissertation Fellowship, UCLA, 2002-03
- Chancellor’s Dissertation Fellowship, UCLA, 2001-02
- Philip and Ada Siff Educational Foundation Graduate Fellowship, UCLA, 2002-02, (declined)
- College of Letters and Science Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate Student of the Year Award, UCLA, 2001
- College of Letters and Science General Education Cluster Program Teaching Fellowship, UCLA, 2000-01
- English Teaching Excellence Award, UCLA, 2000
Publications
Book review of American Naturalism and the Jews, by Donald Pizer (Urbana and Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2008), American Jewish History 94.4 (Winter 2009).
“The Shop of Curiosities: Henry James, ‘the Jew,’ and the Production of Value.” English Literary History 75.4 (Winter 2008): 963-992.
Entry on Henry James’s “The Pupil,” Critical Companion to Henry James: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Eds. Kendall Johnson and Eric Haralson. Clearmark Books, Facts on File, forthcoming 2009.
Entry on “Anti-Semitism,” Critical Companion to Henry James: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Eds. Kendall Johnson and Eric Haralson. Clearmark Books, Facts on File, forthcoming 2009.
Entry on “The Dreyfus Affair,” Critical Companion to Henry James: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Eds. Kendall Johnson and Eric Haralson. Clearmark Books, Facts on File, forthcoming 2009.
“‘The Erotics of Auschwitz’: Coming of Age in The Painted Bird and Sophie’s Choice.” In Witnessing the Disaster: Essays on Representation and the Holocaust, ed. Michael Bernard-Donals and Richard Glejzer (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003).
Panels and Presentations
2010 Aesthetics After the Holocaust Presenter: “Figuring the Muselmann: The Object Matter of Holocaust Representation,” UCLA, February 7-8.
2009 Modern Language Association Panel Author and Organizer: “Religious Aesthetics in Nineteenth Century American Literature: A Comparative Approach”
2009 Modern Language Association Presenter: “A Figure Out of Time: The Noble Hebrew and Christian Typology in American Literature,” Philadelphia, PA, December 27-30.
2008 International Conference of the Henry James Society Chair: “Race and Nation” Presenter: “Lost in Translation: Strands of Jewishness in ‘The Pupil,’” Newport, RI, July 9-16.
2008 American Comparative Literature Association Seminar Co-Chair: “Difficult Journeys: Texts That Challenge”
Presenter: “Why Teach Holocaust Texts?” Long Beach, CA, April 26.
2007 Historical Formalism, or Aesthetics in American Literary History Chair: “Beauty, Peace, War,” Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, May 18-19.
Panelists: Eric Sundquist, Wai-Chee Dimock
2006 Modern Language Association Presenter: “’The New Star of Realism’: Immigrant Nostalgia and Messianic Time in Abraham Cahan’s The Imported Bridegroom,” Philadelphia, PA, December 27.
2005 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Chair: “Jewish Studies II: Jewish Representation in American Fiction,” San Diego, CA, March 23.
Presenter: “Immigrant Nostalgia and the Dialectic of Value in Abraham Cahan’s The Imported Bridegroom,” San Diego, CA, March 23.
2003 Modern Language Association Presenter: “Nostalgia and the Dialectic of Worldliness in Abraham Cahan’s The Imported Bridegroom,” San Diego, CA, December 29.
2002 International Conference of the Henry James Society Presenter: “Mr. Newman Goes to Paris: The Production of Value in James’s The American,” The American University of Paris, Paris, France, July 5-9.
2000 American Literature Association Presenter: “Greenbacks and Greenhorns: James, the Jew, and Counterfeit Citizenship,” Long Beach, CA, May 27.
Professional Affiliations
- Southern California Americanist Group (SCAG)
- Modern Language Association (MLA)
- Henry James Society
- American Studies Association (ASA) Sharon Oster is the Faculty Advisor, for the University of Redlands Hillel.
Sharon Oster is the Faculty Advisor, for the University of Redlands Hillel.