Directory

Seth T. Reno is Professor of English and Distinguished Teaching Professor, specializing in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature, ecocriticism, affect theory, climate fiction, and the environmental humanities. He regularly teaches classes in these areas, as well as literature surveys and writing courses. Dr. Reno hails from Ohio, where he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Before joining AUM in 2013, he taught at Wittenberg University, Ohio State, and Columbus State Community College. He is author of Early Anthropocene Literature in Britain, 1750–1884 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and Amorous Aesthetics: Intellectual Love in Romantic Poetry and Poetics, 1788–1853 (Liverpool University Press, 2019); editor of The Anthropocene: Approaches and Contexts for Literature and the Humanities (Routledge, 2021) and Romanticism and Affect Studies (Romantic Circles Praxis Series, 2018); co-editor (with Allison Hamilton) of William Delisle Hay’s The Doom of the Great City (COVE, 2022); and co-editor (with Lisa Ottum) of Wordsworth and the Green Romantics: Affect and Ecology in the Nineteenth Century (University of New Hampshire Press, 2016). He has also published dozens journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews.

Dr. Reno is currently working on two book projects. The first is an anthology of lesser-known industrial writ, titled Popular British Industrial Writings: A Critical Anthology. It contains hundreds of relatively unknown (and often unpublished) poems, essays, and other forms of writing that chronicle the British Industrial Revolution.

The second project is a monograph, titled Alabama Banjo: A New History of America’s Instrument. As the title suggests, this book highlights the importance of the banjo and banjo music to the history and culture of Alabama—and, by extension, to the history and culture of America itself. Dr. Reno does this by tracing the history of the banjo—its songs, depictions in art and media, and notable musicians—from the nineteenth century to the present. From minstrel songs about “Alabama Joe” to Civil War-era banjo tunes traded between soldiers to poems about banjos to contemporary banjo players continuing the old-time music tradition, Alabama Banjo offers a new history of the banjo specific to the state of Alabama.

In addition to literature, Dr. Reno has a passion for music, food, and travel. He plays banjo, guitar, trumpet, and percussion; he has self-released two albums of original music; and he has a banjo YouTube channel. He also loves cooking and has taught courses on food and culture. Dr. Reno has also undertaken many domestic and international research trips, as well as study abroad courses, and he once came in fourth place at a burger-eating competition (he has since given up his professional food-eating aspirations).