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Bess Myers

In May of 2019 Comparative Literature doctoral student Bess Myers defended her dissertation, “Speaking after Silence: Presidential Rhetoric in the Wake of Catastrophe.” Directed by Professor James Crosswhite, Myer’s study analyzes a selection of speeches delivered by Barack Obama during his presidency. Myers, who also earned an M. A. in Classics while working on her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, focuses on Obama’s use of key tropes drawn from Greek eulogies in his attempts to stir the U.S. public to action.

Dr. Myers, who for two years was director of the writing program at the University of Memphis, has recently assumed the position of lecturer in English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is author of the following articles:

  • “Women Who Translate: What Happens to Our Deeply Gendered Understanding of Translation When the Translator is a Woman?” Eidolon. 2019.
  • “’One, Two, Three:’ Narrative Circles in Plato’s Timaeus.” Arethusa 51.1. 2018.
  • “President Barack Obama: Remarks by the President at a Memorial Service for the Victims of the Shooting in Tucson, Arizona.” Voices of Democracy 13. 2018.