Joseph Wood

Joseph P. Wood is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), part of the College of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on World and Comparative Literature, Literary Pedagogy in post-Soviet contexts, Global Education, and Creative Writing. He currently holds a 2024-2025 Fulbright Scholar grant for the Republic of Georgia and a 2023 grant from the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus for his book project Uncommon Condition.

Wood collaborates with Akaki Tsereteli State University (Georgia) to co-develop a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course on global epic literature. At UAB, he teaches comparative literature (especially Eurasian texts), English Composition, and Creative Writing. His creative work includes four books and five chapbooks of poetry, such as YOU. (Etruscan Press, 2015) and Broken Cage (Brooklyn Arts, 2014), which was a finalist for the 2013 National Poetry Series. His poetry has appeared in journals like Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, and Gulf Coast.

Wood’s academic distinctions include grants supporting his scholarship on education and literature in conflict zones (e.g., the pandemic and Russian aggression in Georgia). His pedagogical work bridges transnational literary studies with innovative teaching methods.