Paul C. Jones

Paul C. Jones is Professor of English and Director of Undergraduate Studies & Advising Coordinator in the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio University. He is based in Ellis Hall and teaches a wide range of courses in American literature from the colonial period to the present, with a particular emphasis on 19th-century literature, Gothic fiction, and Poe studies.

His research focuses on American literature, especially the works of Edgar Allan Poe, abolitionist literature, gender and sexuality, and the Gothic tradition. He has published extensively on Poe’s engagement with queerness, temporality, and violence, as well as on 19th-century women writers like E. D. E. N. Southworth and Grace Greenwood.

His recent scholarship demonstrates a sustained engagement with themes of sympathy, abolition, and non-normative identity in antebellum American literature. His publications span major academic presses and journals, including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Studies in American Fiction, Poe Studies, and Legacy. He has also edited critical editions and contributed to authoritative handbooks.

• Samuel and Susan Crowl Professorship in English Literature (2015-2020)
• Nancy Dasher Prize for Literary Scholarship (2008)
• Kate and Hall Peterson Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society (2008)

He has advised numerous undergraduate students and taught graduate seminars on American Gothic, Romanticism, and realism. His teaching includes both foundational courses like American Literature surveys and specialized topics such as Law and Literature and Poe’s engagement with race and slavery. He is actively involved in scholarly service, having served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Poe Studies Association from 2006 to 2011.

His research is supported by fellowships and academic recognition, and he continues to contribute to the recovery and critical reassessment of marginalized voices in American literary history. He is affiliated with research initiatives focusing on 19th-century periodicals, sentimental literature, and the cultural politics of punishment.