Derek F. DiMatteo

  • Assistant Professor
    English Department
  • Associate Executive Director o
    English Department

Greetings! I love literature and education, and the English Department at Gannon has been a great place to pursue both passions. As an undergraduate, I gravitated to English (despite interests in international relations and Italian), and being an English major trained me how to think analytically in ways that allowed me to take a meandering career path from working as a web developer at two tech companies, to teaching high school in Japan, to being managing editor at an academic journal, to becoming a literature professor. Life isn't linear. A liberal arts education enabled me to try many interesting career paths and have a lot of great adventures. Fortune favors the bold, yes, but you have to be prepared to seize the opportunity when it arrives. The English Department at Gannon can help prepare you for whatever doors open in front of you.

I love books. It is impossible for me to walk past a library or a bookstore without feeling their inexorable gravitational pull. I have run out of bookshelf space in my house, but I keep buying more books. Where to put them? The struggle is real. 

Growing up, one of my life goals had been to live abroad. I finally achieved this when I moved to Japan in 2003 for a teaching job. I didn't know any Japanese when I moved there, but I loved the challenge of immersing myself in Japanese culture and learning the language. I thought I might stay for one or two years, but I stayed until 2012! Living in Japan was an amazing experience. If you are interested in visiting Japan, teaching EFL, or in living abroad in general, come talk to me! 

These days, my interests include playing board games (like Catan and Carcassonne), singing karaoke, gardening, cooking, and training in jiu-jiutsu (which reminds me of when I was a high school and college athlete on the wrestling team). 

I arrived at Gannon in 2020, moving to Erie from Bloomington, Indiana, where I had lived since 2012 while earning a MA and PhD in literature and cultural studies. Erie was new to me when I arrived, but I was no stranger to Western Pennsylvania – my mother's side of the family is from Pittsburgh and Beaver, which I visited often growing up. I grew up in the suburbs west of Boston, Massachusetts and spent most of my youth in New England.

Courses taught include:
  • Ecocriticism in US and Japanese Cultures (ENGL 384)
  • The Environmental Imagination (ENGL 275)
  • American Literature since 1945 (ENGL 334)
  • Education in US Popular Culture (ENGL 232)
  • Methods of Teaching English (ENGL 389)
  • Literature for Young Adults (ENGL 374)
  • Foundations of Academic Writing (ENGL 101), thematized as "The Environment and You"
  • Prose Literature (LENG 241), thematized as "The Uses and Value of Literature"
  • Critical Analysis and Composition (LENG 112)
  • College Composition (LENG 111)
  • Argumentative Writing: Current Debates in Higher Education
  • Professional Writing Skills
  • English Grammar Review

 

  • Indiana University, PhD in English with a concentration in Literature and a minor in American Studies (2019)
    Dissertation title: “Academic Dissent: US Higher Education Protest Literature, 1985–2015.”
  • Indiana University, MA in English Literature (2014).
  • Tufts University, MAT in English Education (2002).
    Teaching Licensure: Grades 7–12, Massachusetts Dept. of Education.
  • Wesleyan University, BA in English Literature (1997).
  • Assistant Professor, English Department, Gannon University, Erie, PA (2020~ )
  • Associate Executive Director, Northeast Modern Language Association (2024~ )
  • Visiting Lecturer, Department of English, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (2019–2020)
  • Managing Editor, Africa Today, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN (2019–2020)
  • Associate Instructor, Department of English, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (2013–2019)
  • Instructor, Division of the Humanities, Lakeland University Japan, Tokyo, Japan (2008–2012)
  • Modern Language Association (MLA)
  • Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
  • Society for the Study of Multiethnic Literatures of the US (MELUS)
  • National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
  • American Studies Association (ASA)
  • Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT)

My general field is American literature and culture of the 20th and 21st centuries (i.e. post-1945), with particular interests in American Cultural Studies, contemporary African American literature, protest literature, the transnational, the immigrant experience, satire, ecocriticism, and critical pedagogy. 

My current book project examines higher education protest literature and is tentatively titled Academic Dissent: US Higher Education Protest Literature, 1985-2015. It examines cultural works—ranging from novels to films to sculptures—that protest against the corporatization of US higher education institutions, focusing particularly on representations of academic capitalism. It is a mixed-methods American Studies project in which I analyze cultural works such as life writing by academics, John Singleton’s campus film Higher Learning, and campus novels such as Jane Smiley’s Moo. In particular, I focus on representations of academic capitalism in these narratives and show that they protest against higher education's increasingly private-good orientation, which undermines its democratic citizenship aims and common good mission.

While I lived and taught in Japan, my research focused on EFL pedagogy, authentic materials and activities development, and using literature in EFL.

  • CHESS Strategic Planning Committee (2022– )
  • Faculty Development Grant Committee (2021–2024)
  • University Academic Affairs Committee (2021–2024)
  • Organizer, CHESS Faculty Writing Groups (2021–  )
  • Teacher Education Advisory Committee (TEAC) (2020–  )
  • CHESS Speaker Series Organizing Committee (2021–2023)
Derek           F. DiMatteo

+1 8148717867
Office: PC 3231

Contact Derek DiMatteo