Elisabeth Windle

Elisabeth Windle

Senior Lecturer in English
Pronouns: she/her
PhD & MA, Washington University in St. Louis
BA, Austin College
research interests:
  • Twentieth-century American literature
  • Gay and lesbian literature, history, and visual culture
  • Queer & Feminist Theories
  • Pedagogy and Student Diversity

contact info:

mailing address:

  • Washington University
    CB 1122
    One Brookings Drive
    St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

Beth Windle teaches in the Department of English & American Literature and the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

With almost two decades of experience in the classroom, Beth has taught a broad range of courses at Washington University and elsewhere. Currently, she regularly teaches First-Year and Sophomore Seminars, Introduction to Literary Theory, Argumentation, and Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She teaches a number of topics courses as well, most frequently on queer U.S. literature and on the true crime genre. Previously, she taught in the College Writing Program.

In her research, she reads novels, films, and television to show how contemporary queer culture deploys nostalgia as a tool for world-making in the present. That work has been published in MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. and Camera Obscura. Currently, she is at work on an article about best practices for teaching intersectionality in the College Writing classroom. She holds a PhD in English and American Literature with a certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Courses        

  • 30 Years of Queer (Writing Intensive)
  • Queer Before Gay: LGBT Writing Before Stonewall (Writing Intensive)
  • Introduction to Literary Theory
  • Sophomore Seminar: Stranger than Fiction: True Crime from In Cold Blood to I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
  • Freshman Seminar: The Literature of PostAdolescence
  • Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  • Argumentation (Writing Intensive)

Awards & Honors

  • Humanities Faculty Appreciation Winner, 2021-2022 (awarded by the Arts & Sciences Council of the Student Union; nominated and voted by students)
  • College Writing Instructor of the Year, 2019-2020 (awarded by the Wash U First Year Center; nominated by students)
  • Katharine Newman Best Essay Award 2016, MELUS Society
  • Graduate Fellowship, Center for the Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis, Fall 2015
  • Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence Honorable Mention, Washington University in St. Louis, April 2015
  • Educator of Influence, Denton (TX) High School, May 2009

Teaching Grants

  • Wash U Leads Education and Research Incubation Grant, Washington Univeristy in St. Louis, Fall 2024-Spring 2025
  • Literacies for Life and Career Teaching Innovation Grant, College of Arts & Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, Fall 2024-Spring 2025

Selected University Service & Projects

  • Instructor, Bearprints for Success, Fall 2024-present
  • Student Conduct Board Member, Spring 2021-Spring 2023
  • Member, College Writing Program Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Summer 2020-Spring 2022
  • Faculty Associate (adviser role), South 40 Residential Community, Summer 2019-Spring 2022
  • Common Reading Program Facilitator, First Year Program, Summer 2020
  • Guest Editor, special “Reading the Visual” issue of Remake, Wash U’s journal of first-year writing, November 2021

Publications

  • “Capote’s Swans: Effeminacy, Friendship, and Style in Douglas McGrath’s Infamous (2006).” Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies 96 (Winter 2017)
  • “‘It Never Really Was the Same’: Brother to Brother’s Black and White and Queer Nostalgia.” MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 41.4 (Winter 2016); Winner of the 2016 Katharine Newman Best Essay Award.