Jean Fernandez

Jean Fernandez is a Professor of English at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), specializing in Victorian literature, Empire studies, and literary theory. She earned her PhD from the University of Iowa as a Seashore Dissertation Fellow and Freda Dixon Malone Scholar.

• Affiliation: Department of English, College of Arts and Humanities, UMBC

Research Interests: Her work examines intersections of geography, gender, and imperialism in Victorian fiction, focusing on authors like R.L. Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, and Rudyard Kipling. She explores how institutional geography shaped literary depictions of empire and analyzes class dynamics through servant literacy in 19th-century narratives.

Publications:

• Geography and the Literary Imagination in Victorian Fictions of Empire (2020) investigates the Royal Geographical Society's influence on imperial fiction.
• Victorian Servants, Class, and the Politics of Literacy (2009) analyzes servant voices in fiction and autobiographies.

Awards:

• Seashore Dissertation Fellow
• Freda Dixon Malone Scholar

Teaching & Service: Located in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building (PAHB 423), she contributes to scholarship on Victorian literature and gender studies, with essays appearing in journals like LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory and The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing.