Jess House
- Graduate Teaching Assistant
Contact Info
Personal Links
Biography —
Jess House is a PhD student in Literature at the University of Kansas. Her focus is on the nineteenth century novel and adaptation studies. As a fangirl turned academic, Jess is particularly interested in how modern adapters both reinforce and speak back to the canon. Jess holds a master's degree in English along with a Graduate Certificate in Teaching College-level Literature and Film from the University of Colorado Denver and a bachelor's degree in English from Vanguard University of Southern California. Her most recent project-in-progress is a collaborative work with her colleagues, Emma Webster and Devoney Looser—an annotated, student-facing transcription of "Ithuriel," an anonymous 1798 manuscript with emendations by Jane Porter, considered to be an early example of women's science fiction.
Education —
Graduate Certificate in Teaching College-level Film and Literature
Specialization
The nineteenth century British and American novel, adaptation studies, film and film adaptations, literary adaptations, Jane Austen and her contemporaries, children’s literature, Young Adult literature, feminist theory.
Teaching —
ENGL 362 – Foundations of Technical Writing
ENGL 301 – Topics in British Literature to 1800: Literature of King Arthur Adaptations
ENGL 101 – Composition
ENGL 102 – Composition
Selected Presentations —
“Séance It Ain’t So!: Nineteenth-Century Women Who Communed with the Dead & Men Who Called it a Hoax,” Haunting Humanities presented by the Hall Center, October 2024, University of Kansas.
“The Darcy Wars” Jane Austen Society of North America Southwest, May 2025, Pasadena.
“Negotiating the Rocky Terrain of Adaptations: Defining the Terms of the Darcy Wars,” Breakout Session, Jane Austen Society of North America Annual General Meeting, November 2023, Denver.
"From Beauty to Beast: Robin McKinley’s Fairy Tale Evolution as a Reflection of Popular Fairy Tale Adaptation," Popular Culture Association National Conference, April 2023, San Antonio.
“Adapting Between the Lines: How Film Versions of Pride and Prejudice Approach Austen’s Dialogue Dilemma,” Southwest Popular/American Culture Association, February 2023, Albuquerque.
Awards & Honors —
William Albrecht Memorial Scholarship - For a significant research project based upon a research proposal (2025). “A Student-Facing Critical Edition of 'Ithuriel,' a Proto-Feminist Short Story from 1798 by Anonymous with Emendations by Novelist Jane Porter” co-authored with Emma Webster.
Kenneth Rockwell Award - For excellence in the study of literature by a University of Kansas student.
1st place (2024): “A Marriage of Ideals: Escaping Administration in Sarah Jeannette Duncan's Set in Authority.”