Aaron Moe

Moe

About Aaron

Aaron Moe completed his Ph.D. in May of 2013 at Washington State University. He is currently the Charles Blackburn Postdoctoral Fellow at WSU, teaching a 2-3 load. He completed his MA in Literature and Writing at Union Institute and University and his BA in English, Honors at Trinity Western University.
His teaching and research interests include the following areas:

  • American Literature 1865–Present
  • Poetry & Poetics | Zoopoetics | Ecopoetics
  • Ecocriticism | Environment & Literature
  • Animal Rhetorics | Animal Studies
  • Rhetoric & Writing

His monograph, Zoopoetics: Animals and the Making of Poetry, is forthcoming with Lexington Books, an academic press focused on Animal Studies and Ecocritical Theory. It identifies the many instances where innovative breakthroughs in poetic form emerge from an attentiveness to another species’bodily poiesis. He then explores the implications of this observation: the energy of animal gestures often infuse the material energy of a poetic gesture on the page. Furthermore, Zoopoeticscarves out space to extend the poetic tradition to include nonhuman animals. Other animals, too, discover innovative breakthroughs in their bodily poiesis through an attentiveness to other ways of making. It is hoped that zoopoetics provides new ways of seeing animals within the poetic tradition and beyond.

In December of 2012, Aaron helped launched the open access, online journalMerwin Studies: Poetry | Poetics | Ecology. The online interface encourages authors to create innovative forms of scholarship that continue the circulation of this poet/planter’s work. The inaugural issue appeared in September of 2013.

In the fall semester of 2013, Aaron is teaching two sections of Writing and Research, Honors (English 298). The course explores the radical revaluation of animals within society. Early on, students uncover the complexities surrounding animal agency, animal rhetoric, animal culture, human-animal interactions, the human-animal bond, and the role of animals in childhood development. As the course unfolds, students gravitate toward questions that need further exploration. Throughout the process, students engage key issues, trace their implications, and contribute insights into the ongoing conversations about animals. What is an animal?—where are the roots of one’s answers?—what implications emerge from one’s answers? Major requirements include a presentation, a research essay with an argumentative arc that spans multiple sections, and an ongoing management of the research process through Zotero.

For abstracts of—and links to—Aaron’s publications, see his website. 

Book

Zoopoetics: Animals and the Making of Poetry. Lanham: Lexington Books, Forthcoming 2013.

 

Journal Articles

 “Toward Zoopoetics: Rethinking Whitman’s ‘original energy’.” Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. (Forthcoming 2013). Web.

 “Zoopoetics: A Look at Cummings, Merwin, & the Expanding Field of Ecocriticism.”Humanimalia: A Journal of Human/Animal Interface Studies 3.2 (2012): Web.
  
“An Ontological Crisis: Rethinking E. E. Cummings’ Fairy Tales.” Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society 20 (2012): 50–65. Print and Web. 

 “Cummings’ Urban Ecology: An Exploration of EIMI, No Thanks, & the Cultivation of the Ecological Self.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 18.4 (2011): 737–762.  Web and Print.

 “Two Converging Motifs: E. E. Cummings’ l!ook.” Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society 18 (2011): 118–133. Print.

 “Autopoiesis & Cummings’ Cat.” Rupkatha Journal: On Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 3.1 (2011): 110–20. Web.   

“Chaos & the ‘New’ Nature Poem: A Look at E. E. Cummings’ Poetry.” CT Review 32.1 (2010): 11–24. Print and Web.

 “Poetry & Expanding the Ecological Self: A Contextualization of Cummings’ Typographies within the Modernist Ecological Vision.” Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society 16 (2007): 134–155. Print.

 

Creative Nonfiction Essay

 “Trees, Ecophilia, & Ecophobia: A Look at Arboriculture along the Front Range Cities of Colorado.” The Journal of Ecocriticism: A New Journal of Nature, Society, and Literature 3.2 (2011): 72–82. Web.

 

Reviews and Short Pieces

“A Review of Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street’s The Ecopoetry Anthology.”The Journal of Ecocriticism: A New Journal of Nature, Society, and Literature(Forthcoming 2013). Web.

“‘Wreading’ Merwin: A Review of Until Everything is Continuous Again: American Poets on the Recent Work of W. S. Merwin. Blog Post on Merwin Studies: Poetry | Poetics | Ecology. Eds. Aaron M. Moe and Rebecca L. Stull. 15 March 2013. Web.  

“A Review of Etienne Terblanche’s E. E. Cummings: Poetry and Ecology.”Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 20.1 (2013). Web and Print. 

“Kincaid and Linnaeus Fistfight in Heaven.”  Part of Online Teaching Guide of Deming and Savoy’s The Colors of Nature.  Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.  (Forthcoming).   

“A Review of Iain Landles’ The Case for Cummings: A Reaction to the Critical Misreading of E. E. Cummings.” Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society 17 (2010): 149–151. Print.

 

 

 

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