Currently Teaching:
- 3A-01 - Writers' Workshop
Biography:
A scholar of the deep and long eighteenth-century, Bethany Qualls works on the intersection of gossip and new media forms such as visual prints, periodicals, novels. Her research interests also include sexuality and sex work history, prostitute narratives, feminist theory, modernism, comics, book history, and material culture. She is a general academic editor for Broadview Press's British and American Anthologies of Literature, organizer of many conference panels, member of the Online Digital Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies collective, and committed practitioner of transhistorical archival recovery and public scholarship. For more about her past and current projects, see bethanyqualls.com.
Education
PhD, English Literature, UC Davis, 2022
- Dissertation: "Public Talk, Printed Pages: Gender, Gossip, and the Formation of Eighteenth-Century British Print Culture"
MA, English Literature, San Francisco State University, 2013
- Thesis: "What Price Virtue? Coding Women's Value in the Eighteenth-Century Novel"
BA, English & French and Francophone Studies, Earlham College, 2005
Teaching @ UC Davis
Lecturer
18th-Century British Literature: Selling Sex, Work, and Texts: Winter 2024
Introduction to Literature: Fall 2023 (2 sections), Winter 2024
Careers and Decision Making in English: Fall 2023
English Department Teaching Assistant Consultant, Spring 2021
English Department Remote Instruction Support Lead, Spring 2020
Associate Instructor
Writers’ Workshop (Introduction to Literature co-course): Fall 2021
Introduction to Literature: Fall 2018, Winter 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2020 (online)
First Year Composition (as hybrid online course): Fall 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018
First Year Composition: Fall 2016, Winter 2017, Spring 2017
Teaching Assistant
Literature, Gender, and Sexuality: Spring 2016
19th-Century British Literature: Winter 2015
Jane Austen & Popular Culture: Fall 2015
Teaching elsewhere
Teaching Assistant at San Francisco State University for 18th- and 19th-Century Literature in English: Spring 2012, Spring 2013
English as a Second Language instructor for adult learners and teens in San Francisco, CA; Belgrade, Serbia; Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Orthez, France: 2005–2013
Selected Publications
“Gossip’s Ephemeral Longevity: Power, Circulation, and New Media.” NECSUS #Rumor special issue (Spring 2022). https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18836.
“‘I have such a Piece of News for you’: Serving Gossip at Haywood’s The Tea-Table,” in A Spy on Haywood: addresses to a multifarious writer, ed. Aleksondra Hultquist and Chris Mounsey (Routledge, 2021).
“Introduction,” co-written with Sarah R. Creel and Anna K. Sagal, for Fantomina, by Eliza Haywood (Renard Press, 2021).
Contributing writer, Broadview Online: Jane Austen in Context, Broadview Press Companion Website, 2019. https://sites.broadviewpress.com/austenincontext/
Public Scholarship
“Selling Sex, Work, and Literature: Then and Now.” Syllabus, 29 Aug. 2023. https://syllabusproject.org/selling-sex-work-and-literature-then-and-now/.
Timeline for “A Toolkit for Learning Type History.” Letterform Archive, 24 Aug. 2023. https://letterformarchive.org/news/a-toolkit-for-learning-type-history/.
with Erika Rappaport, guests on episode 8, “Tea Tables and Empire.” The Global Tea Initiative’s Cha Chat Podcast, Nov. 2021.
Works in Progress
Book project: “Flying Reports, Fame, and Fortune: Gossip beyond Celebrity in Eighteenth-Century Print Culture”
“Tittle-Tattle, News, or Babble: Gossip’s Many Circulations and Historically Bad Reputation.” In Gendering News in the Early Modern World, edited by Hannah Jeans, Amanda Herbert, and Alex Barber.
Book Reviews
Invited review of The Lady’s Magazine (1770-1832) and the Making of Literary History, by Jennie Batchelor. Eighteenth-Century Fiction 35, no. 4 (Oct. 2023). https://doi.org/10.3138/ecf.35.4.547
Invited review of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, by John Cleland, edited by Richard Terry and Helen Williams. ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts 1640-1830 10, no. 2 (Fall 2020). http://doi.org/10.5038/2157-7129.10.2.1241
Review of Interacting with Print: Elements of Reading in the Era of Print Saturation, by The Multigraph Collective. Eighteenth-Century Fiction 32, no. 1 (Fall 2019): 218–21. https://doi.org/10.3138/ecf.32.1.218
Invited Talks
“Sally Salisbury from Sex Work to Coffin Robbery: A Case Study in Eighteenth-Century Fame.” Open Digital Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies (ODSECS). Nov. 2023
“Recovering the Forgotten Women of Metal Type Design.” Salon Series, Letterform Archive, San Francisco, CA. March 2023
Roundtable participant for “The Future of the Humanities” presidential session. American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). St. Louis, MO. March 2023
“The Art and Mystery of Gossip; or, How Busybodies, Tittle-Tattle, and Bohea Created 18th-Century Print Culture.” Virtual Coffee Hour, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. April 2022
"Eighteenth-Century Periodicals, Gossip, and Social Media: or, How to best profit from the stories of strangers.” Brandeis University. September 2021
“Get to know Zotero, Your Citation and Time Saver.” Graduate student workshop series. Texas Woman’s University Department of English. April 2021.
“Who Spilled the Tea? Gossip, Tea Tables, and Eighteenth-Century Print Culture.” San Francisco State University English Department. March 2020.
“‘We see Thick Scandal circulate with right Bohea’: Bringing Gossip, Fame, and Tattling Jades to the Table.” Yale University, Sterling Library. August 2018.
Recent Conference Presentations
“Cataloging the Restoration Jilt: Sexual Commodification, London Guidebooks, & Didactic Erotica.” Aphra Behn and Her Restoration International Conference, Aphra Behn (Europe) Society. University of Kent, UK. July 2024
“Teaching the Jilt; or, Possible Futures of Eighteenth-Century Sex Worker Literature in Twenty-First-Century Classrooms.” Western Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (WSECS). San Francisco, CA. Feb. 2024
“‘Gimme more’: What Defoe’s Roxana and Britney Spears Can Tell Us about Celebrity, Commodification, and Autonomy.” Defoe Society and Early Caribbean Society Atlantic Routes & Roots Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico. July 2023
“Modernism Goes Eighteenth-Century: Literary Hoaxes, Travel Narratives, and The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion, 1764–1765 (1925).” American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). St. Louis, MO. March 2023
“Tittle-Tattle, News, or Babble? Gossip’s Many Branches, Circulations, and Bad Reputation in Early Modern England.” Gendering News in the Early Modern World. Durham University, UK. Aug. 2022
“Reimagining the Creation of B-List Celebrity: Sally Salisbury’s Eighteenth-Century Transmedia Adaptations.” ASECS. Baltimore, MD. April 2022
“Print, Social Media, and Gossip’s Longevity: From The Tea-Table to #SpillTheTea.” ASECS. Online. April 2021
“Serving Gossip and Fame at Haywood’s The Tea-Table.” Eliza Haywood: 300 Years of Love in Excess Conference. Indianapolis, IN. April 2019
“Secret Histories, Secret Signals, and Subalterity in the Haitian Revolution.” ASECS. Denver, CO. March 2019
“Talking Statues, Treasonous Bishops, and Grave Robbery: Creating the Celebrated Sally Salisbury’s Print Afterlives.” ASECS. Orlando, FL. March 2018
“How Sally Gets Around: Gossip, Information, and Serial Print Culture in Victorian England.” Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference. San Francisco, CA. March 2018
Awards and Honors
2022 Invited Participant, Intention Foundry, American Council of Learned Societies
2021 Mellon Public Scholar, UC Davis Humanities Institute. See more about the project Recovering the Forgotten Women of Metal Type Design here
2019–20 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, University of California, Davis
2018–19 Catherine Macaulay Prize, Women’s Caucus, American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies
2018–19 Lewis Walpole Library Visiting Research Fellowship, Yale University
2014 Provost’s Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, University of California, Davis
2013 Graduate Student Award for Distinguished Achievement, San Francisco State University