Julie Cassidy
Associate Professor
English
EMAIL: jcassidy@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-751Q
Office Hours:
Phone: +1 (212) 776-7296
Julie A. S. Cassidy is an assistant professor at BMCC. She earned a Ph.D. in English with a specialty in children’s and young adult literature and culture from the University of Florida. (Go Gators!) Prior to living in Florida, Cassidy roamed the wheat fields and prairies of Kansas, ate at Taco Tico regularly, earned a B.S. in secondary education, and helped her grandmother bake chocolate chip cookies. Her publications include essays on nostalgia, popular culture, Little Golden Books, and gaming pedagogy.
Currently, she is the Composition Coordinator for the English Department, and she is building a Children and Youth Studies Program at BMCC.
Expertise
Young Adult Literature and Culture, Literary Theory, Fairy Tales, Composition, Children’s Literature and Culture, American Popular Culture
Degrees
- M.A. University of Florida, English,
- Ph.D. University of Florida, English — Children’s and YA Literature,
- B.S. Kansas State University, Secondary Education — English and journalism,
Courses Taught
- English Composition is the standard freshman writing course. The course introduces students to academic writing. By its conclusion, students will be ready for English 201 and for the writing they will be asked to do in advanced courses across the curriculum. Students completing ENG 101 will have mastered the fundamentals of college-level reading and writing, including developing a thesis-driven response to the writing of others and following the basic conventions of citation and documentation. They will have practiced what Mike Rose calls the "habits of mind" necessary for success in college and in the larger world: summarizing, classifying, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Students will be introduced to basic research methods and MLA documentation and complete a research project. Students are required to take a departmental final exam that requires the composition of a 500 word, thesis-driven essay in conversation with two designated texts.
Prerequisite: Pass the CAT-R and CAT-W or Accuplacer tests
Course Syllabus - Introduction to Literary Studies is an inquiry into what it means to study literature, involving close reading, critical and creative analysis of a wide variety of prose fiction, drama, and poetry, and informed by an introduction to some of theoretical issues currently invigorating literary studies. In addition to works of literature, students will read critical and theoretical works. This course combines a study of literature with continued training in clear and effective expression. It is designed for prospective Writing and Literature majors and other interested students.
Prerequisite: ENG 101 or 121
Corequisite: ENG 201
Course Syllabus - The objective of this course is to sharpen students' creative writing skills in the genres of the short story, poetry and drama, depending on students' interests and ability.
Pre-Requisite: ENG121 or ENG201
Course Syllabus - This course acquaints students with the wide range and varied forms of the short story as it developed in America, Europe, and other continents. Readings will include works by male and female authors of different periods and nationalities, and some attention may be paid to the historical development of the short story as a genre, as well as the cultural contexts in which the assigned stories were written.
Pre-Requisite: ENG101 and ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - This course studies and analyzes outstanding classical, contemporary and multicultural literature for children and adolescents, arranged by genre. Students are given an overview of the evolution of the literature from its cultural roots in myth and legend to its present role as a reflector of modern society.
Pre-Requisite: ENG 101 and ENG201 or ENG121
Course Syllabus - This is a lower-level remedial writing course in which students are introduced to the fundamentals of writing, including punctuation, spelling, grammar, word choice, sentence structure, and paragraphing. Students are given frequent in-class writing exercises that focus on narration and description as modes of developing ideas. Conferences with instructors are frequent. This course is for students who score below 43 on the CATW, and it prepares them for English 095.
Course Syllabus - This is an upper-level intensive developmental writing course for students scoring between 43 and 55 on the CATW. Students are instructed in basic components of effective writing, including word selection, punctuation, spelling, grammar, sentence structure and paragraph development. Students are given frequent in-class writing exercises that focus on argumentation, narrative, and description as modes of developing ideas. Individual conferences with instructors are frequent.
Course Syllabus
Research and Projects
Publications
- Fairy Tale Women in 1990s Film, Cabinet des Fees: a Fairy Tale Journal
- Transporting Nostalgia: Little Golden Books as Souvenirs of Childhood, Children’s Literature
- “Beat the House: Finding and Evaluating Sources” in _Let The Games Begin! Engaging Students with Interactive Instruction_, Neal Schuman Publishing
- “Popular” in _Keywords for Children’s Literature_, NYU Press
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
- PSC-CUNY Research Award (41)
