Katherine Echols

Learn more about Katherine Echols

Get To Know Katherine Echols

What in your life drew you to your current field of study?

My background is journalism, so I am interested in the power media has to shape our lives. In particular, my interest is radio between the 1930s and 1950s because of its influence on American culture. We forget what an impact this then relatively new technology had on society, from reinforcing gender stereotypes to teaching patriotism and tolerance. My study of radio relates well to my interest in the adaptation of literature to this medium.

What do you hope your students gain from studying or working with you?

My hope is that students taking any of my courses will come away with a desire to continue learning.

What are you passionate about in your personal life?

Family tops the list of "passions." My family is very important to me. I try to spend whatever free time I have with my grandchildren. Next would be books. I am an avid reader and book collector.

Education

Ph.D. British and American Literature, University of Houston, 2015
M.A. English, Sam Houston State University, 2007
B.A. Journalism amd English, Abilene Christian University, 1997

Courses Taught

BCOM 210: Technical Business Writing
ENGL 104: Composition and Rhetoric
ENGL 203: Introduction to Literature
ENGL 374: Women Writers
ENGL 330: Adaptations of Arthurian Literature
ENGL 485: Adaptations of Robin Hood
ENGL 485: Studies in Jane Austen
Survey of American Literature
American Literature—Native American Oratory-Civil War
American Literature II 1914-Present

Publications

2018: “The Monsters Transformation on Radio,” Special Issue on Monster Studies, University of Toronto Quarterly (UTQ) 88.1

2017: American Radio Adaptations of the Robin Hood and King Arthur Legends, McFarland Publishing

2014: “Old Angels, Wasted and Spent: Representations of the Wanton Widow in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Pop Culture and ‘The Boke of Mayd Emlyn,’” New from the Raven: Essays from Sam Houston State University on Medieval and Renaissance Thought, Cambridge Scholars Publishing

2013: “Radio Adaptations of Robin Hood’s Legend during the Golden Age of Radio,” Journal of Radio and Audio Media, Illinois State University [Link]

2013: “Mary Butts, British Modernist and Early Ecofeminist, Writes the “Cult of Nature,” Watermark, California State University, Long Beach [Link]

2013: “The “Discrete Occupational Identity” of Chaucer’s Knyght,” Dialogues in Language and Literature, University of Houston, Houston, TX [Link]

2012: “Home from the Front: the World War I Soldier as a Forgotten Class in the Work of Ernest Hemingway and Gene Stratton-Porter,” Dialogues in Language and Literature, University of Houston, Houston, TX [Link]

2011: “Gish Jen’s World and Town, a Female Bildungsroman Novel of Postmodern Humanism,” Panel—The American Tapestry: Dialogues in Language and Literature, University of Houston, Houston, TX [Link]

Presentations

2016: “Superman Meets the Klan, an American Radio Adaptation of Arthurian Legend: The Adventures of Superman and the “Knights of the White Carnation,” International Conference of Medieval and Renaissance Thought, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX (April).

2013: “Old Angels, Wasted and Spent: Representations of the Wanton Widow in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century Popular Culture ‘The Boke of Mayd Emlyn’ and the Broadside Ballad.” International Conference of Medieval and Renaissance Thought, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX (April 4-6).

2012: “A Question of Salvation: The Prodigal Daughter (1750), an Eighteenth-Century Broadside Ballad Adaptation of the Seventeenth-Century Ballad The Wanton Wife of Bath (1624).” Texas Medieval Conference, Texas Medieval Association, University of Houston, Houston, TX (Oct. 12-13).

2012: “The Revolt of John Bull’s Daughter: Frances Burney’s Brief Reflections Relative to the Emigrant French Clergy" (1793). 18th- and 19th-century British Women Writers Conference, Boulder, Colorado (June 7-10).

2012: “Adaptations of the Robin Hood Legend in the Golden Age of Radio, 1920-1950.” 2012 Popular Culture Annual Conference, Boston, Massachusetts (April 11-14).

Awards & Recognition

2013: Wyman H. Herendeen Award for Student Publication, Dept. of English, U of Houston (Fall). Submission title: “Radio Adaptations of Robin Hood’s Legend during the Golden Age of Radio.”

2008: LSCS-North Harris Adjunct Faculty Teacher Excellence Award (Spring)