Sharin F. Schroeder

Associate Professor of English
Taipei Tech (National Taipei University of Technology)
No. 1, Section 3, Zhongxiao E. Road,
Taipei 10608, TAIWAN, R.O.C.

EDUCATION

PhD, English                                                                        April 2011
University of Minnesota

Dissertation: “Non-consensus Realities: Fantasy and the Child in Victorian Religious Debates”

Director: Brian Goldberg
Committee members: Michael Hancher, Rebecca Krug, and Jack Zipes

PUBLICATIONS

JOURNAL ARTICLES

“Margaret Oliphant and George MacDonald as Scottish Writers for a British Audience.” The Journal of Scottish Thought, vol. 12, 2020, pp. 21–45. https://doi.org/10.57132/jst.4.

“Lasting Ephemera: Margaret Oliphant and Andrew Lang on Lives and Letters.” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol 50, no. 2, summer 2017, pp. 336–65. https://doi.org/10.1353/vpr.2017.0025

“The Iliad and the Articles: Francis William Newman’s Reply to Matthew Arnold.” Nineteenth-Century Prose, vol. 39, nos. 1/2, 2012, pp. 323–52. Gale Literature Resource Center. Accessed 22 Nov. 2025.

BOOK CHAPTERS

“J.R.R. Tolkien, Walter Scott and Scott-ish Romanticism.” The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Edited by Will Sherwood and Julian Eilmann. Walking Tree Publishers, 2024, pp. 57–96.

“Genre Problems: Andrew Lang and J.R.R. Tolkien on (Fairy) Stories and (Literary) Belief.” Informing the Inklings: George MacDonald and the Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy.Ed. Michael Partridge and Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson. Hampden, CT: Winged Lion Press, 2018, pp. 149–79.

“Tolkien and the Modern: Reading the Canon Through The Lord of the Rings.” Approaches to Teaching Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Other Texts. Ed. Leslie A. Donovan. Approaches to Teaching World Literature. New York: MLA, 2015, pp. 126–36.

“She-who-must-not-be-ignored: Gender and Genre in The Lord of the Rings and the Victorian Boys’ Book.” Perilous and Fair: Women in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work and Life, edited by Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie Donovan. Altadena, CA: Mythopoeic Press, 2015, pp. 70–96. Reprinted in J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Stuart Lee. Routledge, 2017. 4 vols.

“‘It’s Alive!’: Tolkien’s Monster on the Screen.” Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy, edited by Janice M. Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011, pp. 116–38.

“Invented, Borrowed, and Mixed Myths in ‘the kind of books we want to read.’” The Ring Goes Ever On: Proceedings of the Tolkien 2005 Conference, edited by Sarah Wells. Coventry, England: Tolkien Society, 2008, pp. 22–32.

ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES (Peer Reviewed)

Nesbit: Magic Cities or “Prison[s] for Children.” The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies, edited Jeremy Tambling. Springer, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_348-3.

“At the Back of the North Wind, George MacDonald.” The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies, edited Jeremy Tambling. Springer, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_131-1.

“[George] MacDonald: Aberdeen, London, Manchester, Bulika.” The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies, edited Jeremy Tambling. Springer, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_76-2.

GRANTS AND AWARDS

National Science and Technology Council Grant (Taiwan). “Late Nineteenth-Century Glocal Identities in Fiction from the Glasgow Weekly Mail.” 2024–2025.

Ministry of Science and Technology Grant (Taiwan). George MacDonald and Glasgow Newspapers.” 2020–2022 (extended to July 2023 due to COVID travel delays in 2020–21).

Ministry of Science and Technology Grant (Taiwan). “Writing the Borders: Defining Scotland and Fairyland in the Late Nineteenth Century.” 2019–20.

Taipei Tech College of Humanities Grant. “Scottish Victorian Networks: Fantasy Writing and Literary Criticism by Margaret Oliphant, George MacDonald, and Andrew Lang.” 2018.

Ministry of Science and Technology Grant (Taiwan). “Andrew Lang’s Forgotten Journalism: Longman’s and The Morning Post.” 2015–16.

Ministry of Science and Technology Grant (Taiwan). “J.R.R. Tolkien on the Origin of Stories: The Pardoner’s Tale Lectures, Andrew Lang, and Nineteenth-Century Folklore.” 2014–15.

University of St Andrews Special Collections Visiting Scholar for two weeks of research using the Andrew Lang Collection (in-UK travel and housing). July 2014.

National Science Council Grant (Taiwan). “Tolkien and the Nineteenth-Century: Miracle, Fantasy, and Folklore.” 2012–13.

Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (competitive), The University of Minnesota Graduate School, 2009–10.

Department-Level Teaching Award, Taipei Tech, 2017.

WEBSITES

The Andrew Lang Site: A site devoted to consolidating full-text primary sources (especially periodical sources) written by the nineteenth-century Scottish writer Andrew Lang, supplemented by a secondary source bibliography and annotations and commentary on Lang’s work.

Book History in Taiwan: An English-language site with resources for book history scholars.

Teaching Website: Supplementary material for my courses at Taipei Tech.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“Editor and Reader Voices in the Glasgow Weekly Herald and the Glasgow Weekly Mail.”  Voices and Visions: RSVP 2025 Annual Conference. Loyola University, Chicago, 11 July 2025.

“George MacDonald’s Glasgow Fiction.” Borderlands: George MacDonald Between Worlds. George MacDonald Bicentenary Conference, University of St Andrews, 9 Nov. 2024.

“James Smith (1824–1887) and George MacDonald (1824–1905) in the Glasgow Weekly Mail.“ Place in the Victorian Press. RSVP 2024 International Conference, University of Stirling, 14 June 2024.

“The 1924 Allen & Unwin Centenary Editions and George MacDonald’s Reception History.” George MacDonald and the Prophetic Imagination: A Bicentenary Conference, 1824–2024. Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, 30 May 2024 (my presentation via Zoom).

“J.R.R. Tolkien, Walter Scott, and Cultural Memory.” Memory: The Captive and the Fugitive. Taipei Tech, Taipei. 21 Oct. 2022.

“George MacDonald’s Serialized Fiction in Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Manchester.” Panel 3A: Seriality,  Margin/Limit/Periphery/Edge: RSVP 2022 International Online Conference. 16 Sep. 2022.

“He and She: Borrowed Stories and London Inventions.” The Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association. Virtual Conference. 17 June (Pacific Time) 2022.

“Gains and Losses: Digital Research on Victorian Scots.” “Technically Yours”: Technicity, Mediality, and the Stakes of Experience. National Taiwan University, Taipei. 20 Oct. 2019.

“‘They do not believe enough in their own stories’: Primary and Secondary Belief in “On Fairy-Stories” and in Fantasies by Nineteenth-century Scots.” Literary Fantasy and Its Discontents. Taipei Tech, Taipei. 24 Nov. 2018.

“Andrew Lang and Blackwood’s in the 1890s.” Blackwood’s Bicentenary. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. 25 July 2017.

“Margaret Oliphant and George MacDonald as Scottish Writers for a British Audience.” George MacDonald’s Scotland. University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland. 20 July 2017.

“Andrew Lang’s “At the Sign of the Ship” as Historical Record.” Consuming (the) Victorians: 2016 Annual Conference of the British Association for Victorian Studies. Cardiff University, Wales. 31 Aug. 2016.

“Original ‘Litterature’ in an Age of Trains, Telegraphs, and Telepathy: Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie and Bruno and Andrew Lang’s The Disentanglers. Forgotten Books and Cultural Memory. An International Conference by the Department of English, NTUT. NTUT, Taipei. 28 May, 2016.

“J.R.R. Tolkien, ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ Lectures, and Nineteenth-Century Folklore Scholarship.” Fiftieth International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. 14 May 2015.

“’Do not laugh!’: Andrew Lang, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Fairy Tale as a Serious Comedy.” Comedy: From the Arts to Cultural Industry. An International Conference by the Department of English, NTUT. NTUT, Taipei. 28 Nov. 2014.

“Andrew Lang and the Origin of Stories: Folklore Studies and Intellectual Property.” Spaces and Places: The Annual Conference of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. University of Delaware. 13 September 2014.

“Genre Problems: Andrew Lang and J.R.R. Tolkien on (Fairy) Stories and (Literary) Belief.” Informing the Inklings: George MacDonald and the Victorian Roots of Fantasy. George MacDonald Society. Magdalen College, Oxford. 13 Aug. 2014.

“She and He: Travel Fiction, Borrowing, and Literary Plagiarism.” Victorian Transport: The Annual Conference of the Australasian Victorian Studies Association. Hong Kong University, Hong Kong. 10 July 2014.

“Lang, Letters, and Literary History.” Tradition and the New: The Annual Conference of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. University of Salford, Salford, England. 12 July 2013.

“J.R.R. Tolkien’s Reaction to Andrew Lang: Miracles, Fairy Books, and Folklore.”Celebrating The Hobbit: A Conference on the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana. 2 Mar. 2013.

“Grieving in Public: Margaret Oliphant’s Autobiography.” The Aesthetics of Suffering: An International Conference by the Department of English, NTUT. NTUT, Taipei. 24 Nov. 2012.

“‘[T]here needs no ghost come from the grave to tell us this’: The Search for Spiritual Authority in Margaret Oliphant’s Life of Edward Irving.” Curiosities: The Nineteenth Annual British Women Writers Conference. Ohio State University, Columbus. 31 Mar. 2011.

“‘It is enough to make the dead rise out of their graves!’: Tolkien, Oliphant, and Gendered Conventions of the Supernatural.” Forty-Fifth International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. 16 May 2010.

“‘Of No Interest to the Public’: Caroline Norton’s Rewritings of Herself.” Rewriting Women Panel. Fiftieth Annual Midwest Modern Language Association Convention. Marriott Minneapolis City Center Hotel. Minneapolis. 14 Nov. 2008.

“Authorial Insecurity: Tolkien’s Modern Medievalized Style.” Forty-Second International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. 11 May 2007.

“The Shadows of the Past: Invented and Borrowed Myths in ‘the kind of books we want to read.’” Tolkien 2005. Aston University, Birmingham, England. 12 Aug. 2005.

INVITED PRESENTATIONS

“Periodical Research and Literary History: National, International, and Glocal Identities.” 宏觀視野下的近現代中英文報紙探索與研究』研討會。[Seminar on Modern Chinese and English Newspaper Research from a Macro Perspective.] Seminar Organized by TMBC/Proquest, National Chengchi University, Taipei. 30 May 2024.

Co-Presenter and Discussion Leader (with Dr. Chiu Kang-yen [ECHSS, NYMU]) for the topic “The Invention of Scotland and Victorian Historiography.” The EARN Reading Seminar at National Chengchi University, Taipei. 12 May 2017.

“Literary Plagiarism in the 1880s: Case Studies of Andrew Lang, Rider Haggard, and Lewis Carroll.” 19th-century British Literature and Culture Studies Study Group (MOST Project). Taipei Tech, Taipei. 17 Mar. 2017.

“Lives and Letters: The Life-Writing Rivalries of Margaret Oliphant and Andrew Lang.” 19th-century British Literature and Culture Studies Study Group (MOST Project). NTU University, Taipei. 21 Oct. 2016. 

SELECTED COURSES TAUGHT

Graduate Courses:

  • Romanticism. Taipei Tech.
  • Victorian Literature. Taipei Tech.
  • Genre and Culture: Fantasy. Taipei Tech.
  • Popular Culture. Taipei Tech.
  • Teaching British Literature. Taipei Tech.
  • Teaching American Literature. Taipei Tech.
  • Teaching Children’s Literature. Taipei Tech.

Undergraduate Courses:

  • British and American Literature (Historical Survey). Taipei Tech.
  • British and American Fiction. Taipei Tech.
  • Literature and Film. Taipei Tech.
  • Modern Western Literature. Taipei Tech.
  • Popular Culture. Taipei Tech.
  • Research Methods. Taipei Tech.
  • Presentation Skills. Taipei Tech.
  • Intermediate Writing (Sophomore Composition). Taipei Tech.
  • General English (An advanced EFL course for non-majors). Taipei Tech.
  • Advanced Professional English: Design (nonmajors). Taipei Tech.
  • Survey of British Literatures and Cultures I and II. University of Minnesota.
  • Survey of American Literatures and Cultures I and II. University of Minnesota.
  • Tolkien: Medieval or Modern? University of Minnesota.

SERVICE

Conference Co-organizer, with Pingta Ku. Literary Fantasy and Its Discontents. Taipei Tech. November 23–24, 2018.

Conference Organizer. Forgotten Books and Cultural Memory. Taipei Tech. May 27–28, 2016.

MA Theses Directed

  • “Gender and Gossip in the Long Eighteenth Century: Spoken and Written Gossip in Evelina, Jane Austen’s Novels, and the Bridgerton TV Series.” Wiraya Say-ong. Defended June 2025.
  • “Journey of Souls: A Comparative Analysis of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué‘s “Undine,” Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” and Disney’s The Little Mermaid.” Yi-Ting Chiang (江沂庭). Defended January 2025.  
  • “Curiouser and Curiouser: Using Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Increase Motivation, Cultural Knowledge, and Language Skills in a Taiwanese EFL Classroom.” Charlotte Ho (何佳純 Ho Chia-Chun). Defended July 2024.
  • “Female Gothic and Margaret Oliphant’s Stories of the Seen and Unseen.” Michelle Jhang (張瀞方 Jhang Ching-Fang). Defended July 2022.
  • “Harry Potter and Fan Fiction.” Coco Lin (林詩縈 Lin Shih-Ying). Defended January 2019.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

  • Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP)
  • Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP)
  • George MacDonald Society

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Victorian literature and religion
  • Victorian periodicals
  • Author and publishing networks
  • (Auto)biography
  • The Fantastic
  • Book History
  • Urban Literary Studies
  • The Glasgow Weekly Herald and The Glasgow Weekly Mail
  • Margaret Oliphant
  • Andrew Lang
  • J.R.R. Tolkien
  • George MacDonald