Cheryl Edelson, Ph.D.

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Cheryl Edelson is the Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Design and Professor of English at Chaminade University of Honolulu. In addition to her administrative work, she teaches undergraduate courses in literature, film, and expository writing. She served as president of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association in 2014. Since 2007, she has served as co-organizer of the Oceanic Popular Culture Association Conference. The Oceanic Popular Culture Association is a regional chapter of the National Popular Culture Association. Cheryl is the co-editor of Pacific Coast Philology, the journal of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association. She also serves on the Executive Board of the Hawai’i Council for the Humanities. Her research and teaching interests include Film and Television Studies, The Gothic, Indigenous Literatures, American Literatures, and Popular Culture. Cheryl co-edited and wrote the introduction to the collection, The Interior Landscapes of Breaking Bad (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Her writing has also appeared in Pacific Coast Philology, The Methods of Breaking Bad: Essays on Character, Narrative, and Ethics, and Vampire Films Around the World. When she is not working, Cheryl enjoys spending time with her family, walking her dogs, paddle boarding, and horseback riding.

Courses

Introduction to Expository Writing, Expository Writing, Types of Literature, Short Story and Novel, Backgrounds in American Literature, Backgrounds in British Literature, Advanced Expository Writing, Film and Literature, American Literature: 1940-Present, Literary Theory and Criticism, Senior Capstone Seminar, Senior Thesis Research, Introduction to Motion Pictures

Academic Degrees

Ph.D. English, University of California, Riverside
M.A. English, University of California, Irvine
Single Subject Teaching Credentials in English and Anthropology, University of Redlands
B. S. Anthropology, University of California, Riverside

Awards and Honors

• Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Distinguished Service Award, 2023
• Faculty Fellowship Grant, Undergraduate Research Mentor, 2016 -2018
• Chaminade University of Honolulu Summer Research Grant (Course Development), 2014
• Father John Bolin Excellence in Scholarship Award, Chaminade University of Honolulu, 2013
• President’s Award for Contributions to Popular Culture Studies
• National Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, 2010
• PCA/ACA Conference Seed-Money Grant (for Oceanic Popular Culture Association Conference), 2006

Selected Publications

• “Museological Horror in Ganja and Hess and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus,” Vampire Films Around the World: Essays on the Cinematic Undead of Sixteen Cultures, Ed. James Aubrey. Jefferson, McFarland Press. October 2020.
• “Introduction: ‘There’s no replacement for displacement.’” The Interior Landscapes of Breaking Bad. Erin Bell, Cheryl Edelson, Will Gray, and Matt Paproth eds. Lexington Press. 2019.
• Guest Editor’s Note, Pacific Coast Philology, Familiar Spirits. Spec. Issue of Pacific Coast Philology 50.2. (2015). December 2015.
• “ ‘A Coterie of Spiritualists and Free Thinkers: Spectral Riverside,’” Pacific Coast Philology, Familiar Spirits. Spec. Issue of Pacific Coast Philology 50.2. (2015). December 2015.
• “Talkin’ Bout Some ‘Heisenberg: Experimenting with the Mad Scientist.” The Methods of Breaking Bad: Essays on Narrative, Character, and Ethics. Jacob Blevins and Dafydd Wood, eds. McFarland Press, December 2104. 183-200.
• “Reclaiming Plots: Albert Wendt’s ‘Prospecting’ and Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl’s Ola Na Iwi as Postcolonial Gothic.” Neo-Victorian Gothic: Horror, Violence, and Degeneration in the Re-imagined Nineteenth Century, (Vol. 3 Neo-Victorian Studies Series) Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012. 75-95.

Service to the Profession

• Editor, Pacific Coast Philology, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2020-Present
• President, Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, 2014
• Reviewer, International Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Endowment Grant, (Peter Rollins Travel Grant for Early Career Faculty), 2014-2022
• Executive Steering Committee Member and Site Coordinator, Children’s Literature Hawai’i, 2014-Present
• Editorial Board, Pacific Coast Philology, Penn State University Press, 2012-Present
• Director and Organizer, Oceanic Popular Culture Association Conference, Chaminade University, 2007-Present
• WASC External Program Review Committee, English Department, Brigham Young University at Hawai’i, Laie, HI, November, 2013
• Executive Committee Member, National Popular Culture/American Culture Association, 2008-2012