Meet the Dean

Education: 

• Ph.D. (English), University of California, Riverside, 1997.
• M.A. (English), La Sierra University, Riverside, 1987.
• B.A. (Communication), Southern Adventist University, 1981.

Principal Research Interests

Sam McBride's primary area of research is "the Inklings," C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and their writings. His first book, "Women Among the Inklings" (co-authored with Candice Fredrick, 2001), was a gender analysis of these authors' lives and books. More recently, Tolkien's Cosmology (2020) examines the work of divine beings in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. McBride's current research project is a book addressing women in the life of C. S. Lewis.

Additionally, McBride has published research in postmodern performance art, particularly the work of Laurie Anderson. This research emphasizes works in disciplines such as music, theater, art, and dance that blur the boundaries between those fields and literature.

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Research Area: 

• Twentieth-Century Literature
• Literature and the Arts
• Literature and Religion
• Postmodern Theory
• Unnatural Narrative

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AWARDS

• Distinguished Teaching Award, La Sierra University, June 2011
• Certificate of Excellence, DeVry University, October 2002
• Merit Award, DeVry University, October 2001
• Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence, DeVry University, February 1999 

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Representative Publications

BOOK:

1. Women Among the Inklings: Feminism, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams (co-authored with Candice Fredrick). Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001. 
2. Tolkien's Cosmology: Divine Beings and Middle-earth. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2020.

PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES:

1. "Stewards of Arda: Creation and Sustenance in J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium." Ecotheology in the Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Divine and Nature. Ed. Melissa Brotton. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016. 139-155
2. "'in th'Immensity of Nature and the Metaphysical in the Landscape of Richard Lewis's 'A Journey from Patapsco to Annapolis," with Lora Geriguis and Melissa Brotton. Early American Literature 51.1, 41-69
3. “Psyche’s Ugly Sister: The Woman Warrior in C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces.” Sirens: Collected Papers 2009–2011. Hallie Tibbetts, ed. Sedalia, CO: Narrate Conferences, 2012. 106-116. 
4. “The Company They Didn’t Keep: C. S. Lewis’s Collaboration with Women.” Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature. 29.1/2 (Fall/Winter 2010): 69-86. 
5. “Battling the Woman Warrior: Women and Combat in C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien” (co-authored with Candice Fredrick). Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature 25.3/4 (2007): 29-42. 
6. “Coming of Age in Narnia.” Revisiting Narnia: Fantasy, Myth and Religion in C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles. Ed. Shanna Caughey. Dallas: BenBella, 2005. 59-72. 
7. “Reconceiving God: Luce Irigaray’s ‘Divine Women.’” Divine Aporia: Postmodern Conversations about God. Ed. John C. Hawley. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 2000. 208-222.
8. “Un-Splitting the Subject/Object: Laurie Anderson's Phenomenology of Perception.” Phenomenological Approaches to Popular Culture. Ed. Michael T. Carroll and Eddie Tafoya. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green St U Popular P, 2000. 79-96. 
9. “Un-Reason and the Ex-Centric Text: Methods of Madness in Kathy Acker's Great Expectations.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 40.4 (Summer 1999): 342-354. Rpt in: Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 191. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 342-354. 
10. “Justifying the Ways of Milton to Man: C. S. Lewis's A Preface to ‘Paradise Lost.’” The Lamp-Post (Autumn 1996): 4-16. 
11. “Frames for the Pictures: Boundaries in/as (the Work of) Laurie Anderson,” Postscript 1.2 (Winter 1994): 93-114. 

REFERENCE WORKS:

1. “Susan Howe.” A Companion to 20th Century American Poetry. Ed. Burt Kimmilman. New York: Facts on File, 2005. 
2. “J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature. Ed. Mary R. Reichardt. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004.
3. “Flannery O’Connor.” Catholic Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. Ed. Mary R. Reichardt. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001. 

ONLINE SCHOLARLY JOURNAL:

1. “Sing the Body Electronic: American Invention and Contemporary Performance.” Sycamore 1.3 (Dec. 1997). Online. Internet. No longer available online. 

PUBLISHED BIBLIOGRAPHIES:

1. “Documenting a Performance Artist: A Laurie Anderson Bibliography.” Bulletin of Bibliography Part 1 - 53.3 (September 1996): 187-207. Part 2 - 53.4 (December 1996): 391-412. 
2. “C. S. Lewis’s A Preface to ‘Paradise Lost’, The Milton Controversy, and Lewis Scholarship.” The Bulletin of Bibliography 52.4 (December 1995): 317-331.

BRIEF PUBLICATIONS:

1. “Female Metaphors in the Bible.” (with Lora Geriguis, Melissa Brotton, Maury Jackson, and Kendra Haloviak-Valentine). Spectrum 40.2 (Spring 2012): 13-27.
2. “The Fall and Twentieth-Century Culture.” (with Lora Geriguis and Melissa Brotton). Spectrum 39.2 (Spring 2011): 44-46. 
3. “Copyright Law and Electronic Media” (Letter to the Editor). The Chronicle of Higher Education 13 Nov. 1998: B11.