Headshot of Catherine Bowlin

Catherine Bowlin

Assistant Teaching Professor of English

Department: English

Office and address: Alamance Building, Office 309A 2338 Campus Box Elon, NC 27244

Phone number: (336) 278-3497

Professional Expertise

first-year writing, alternative assessment, environmental literature and justice

Brief Biography

I teach ENG 1100, COR 1100, and ENG 1719, a literature course called Witnessing Weirdness. The theme of my COR 1100 course is sustainability; my students and I focus on climate justice activism and learn about habits of being to help us live more sustainably. This year, the focus of all my first-year courses is joy and wonder.

My research interests include alternative assessment pedagogy, place-based pedagogy, equitable learning practices, linguistic justice and diversity, environmental literature and justice, southern studies, and contemporary American literature. 

Links

News & Notes

    Education

    Ph.D. in English Literature, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro      

    M.A. in English Literature, Georgia College and State University

    B.A. in English Literature, Georgia College and State University

    Employment History

    Guilford College, Visiting Assistant Professor, 2023-2024

    University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Teaching Assistant (instructor of record), 2019-2023

    Central Georgia Technical College, English Instructor, 2016-2019

    Courses Taught

    At Elon:

    • ENG 1100 Writing: Argument and Inquiry
    • COR 1100: The Global Experience (Environmental Justice & Sustainability)
    • ENG 1719: Witnessing Weirdness

    At other institutions:

    • First-Year Composition 1 and 2
    • Mapping Environmental Literature
    • Environmental Literature
    • Poetry of Place
    • Violence and Place in Narratives
    • Ecocomposition
    • Literature and Composition
    • American Literature
    • Learning Support English

    Current Projects

    I'm currently working on an edited collection of essays, tentatively titled “Forgotten Spaces: Environmental Justice and the U.S. South,” which I am co-editing with Dr. Katie Simon (Georgia College and State University). Also in the works is an article about utilizing justice-oriented pedagogies in environmental literature and justice courses, and an ecofeminist analysis of Alice Walker's first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland. 

    Grants Awarded

    “Southern Women’s Environmental Writing: Article and Essay Collection,” North Carolina Humanities, Summer Fellowship. Principal Investigator: Catherine Bowlin. Awarded June and July 2024. 

    Publications

    “Spatial Geographies of Race and Gender: Alice Walker’s The Third Life of Grange Copeland.” Mississippi Quarterly: Emerging Scholars, Emerging Scholarship (special issue), accepted proposal, article under review.

    “Environmental and Pedagogical Justice: Teaching Southern Environmental Literature.” Teaching the New English: Teaching American Literature (Palgrave Macmillan), accepted proposal, article under review. 

    “‘Marching Across the Water’: A Material Ecofeminist Reading of ‘A View of the Woods’.” Women’s Studies, vol. 51 (4), May 2022, 470-485.

    Co-editor and writer, entries in The Envious Lobster: A Collection of American Children’s Nature Writing 1824-1927, by Dr. Karen L. Kilcup, http://uncglibraries.com/enviouslobster.

    Presentations

    Selected Presentations:

    “A Linguistically Just Approach to Assessment: Students as Collaborative Partners.” Teaching and Learning Conference at Elon University. Virtual. August 2025.

    “Environmental and Pedagogical Justice: Teaching Southern Environmental Literature.” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE) Biennial Conference. College Park, MD. July 2025.

    “Linguistic Justice, Self-Placement, and Local Writing Constructs: Aligning Programmatic Practices, Institutional Mission, and Classroom Pedagogy.” With Dr. Parag Budhecha. Conference on College Composition and Communication. Baltimore, Maryland. April 2025.

    “Moving from Crisis to Capacity-Building: Alternative Assessment and Restorative Response.” Roundtable with Heather Brook Adams, Risa Applegarth, Josh Benjamin, Kate Burt, Janie Raghunandan, and Pooja Shah. Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference. Spelman College. Atlanta, GA. October 2023.

    “Forgotten Souths: Slow and Spectacular Violence in Salvage the Bones.” ASLE and the Association for Environmental Studies Joint Conference. Portland, OR. July 2023.

    “Accessing the Archive: American Children’s Environmental Writing for Everyone,” with Dr. Karen Kilcup. The Mobile Archive Project. University of Siegen. Virtual. November 2021. 

    “‘The Trees Were Bathed in Blood’: Gender, Family Trees, and Material Ecocriticism in ‘A View of the Woods.’” Flannery O’Connor and Families Symposium. American Literature Association. Savannah, GA. June 2021. 

    “Southern Land, Black Embodied Labor, and Conjuring in ‘The Goophered Grapevine.’” Southern Studies Conference Annual Conference. Auburn University at Montgomery. Montgomery, AL. January 2020. 

    Professional Development

    “Alternative Assessment Strategies,” panelist and organizer, Faculty Learning Community, Guilford College, April 2024. 

    “Graduate Alumni Panel,” invited panelist, Graduate Placement Committee, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) English Department, virtual, August 2023.

    “Ungrading Your Classroom,” panelist and organizer, Symposium on Alternative Assessment, UNCG English Department, April 2023.

    “Place-Based Experiential Education for Online Learning,” invited speaker, UNCG Humanities Network and Consortium Cafe, March 2023.

    “Place-Based Writing Projects,” invited panelist, Pedagogy Day, UNCG College Writing Program (CWP), January 2023.