Dr. Jesse Gerlach Ulmer

Specialization

American film and literature

Education

• Ph.D., English Literature & Criticism, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2017

• M.A., English Literature, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2007

• B.A., English Literature, Minnesota State University Moorhead, 2003

Biography

Jesse is an Associate Professor of English in the Liberal Arts & Sciences Program at VCUarts Qatar where he teaches courses in American film, composition, and literature. For nine years, he also directed the university's Honors Program.
Jesse is the author of The Coen Brothers and American Roots Music, as well as the co-editor of The Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf.

In 2011, he was the co-recipient of a Qatar National Research Fund Undergraduate Research Experience Program Grant, and he has received several faculty awards, including the Distinguished Achievement for Teaching in 2012, and the Distinguished Achievement for Service in 2020.

Research Interests

American indie film; the films of the Coen Brothers; film music; American roots music; the American western in fiction and film; masculinity studies; literature of the American Midwest; honors education; history of US branch campuses; composition studies.

Publications

The Coen Brothers and American Roots Music. McFarland, 2023.

“Same Same, But Different:” Trans-nationalizing Honors in a U.S. Branch Campus.” Internationalizing Honors, edited by Mary Kay Mulvaney and Kim Klein, National Collegiate Honors Council Monograph Series, 2020.

"Shane and the Language of Men.” Arcadia: International Journal of Literary Culture. vol. 53, no. 1, 2018, pp. 72-88.

“’Just like a Fly in a Pan of Molasses’: Farming the Midwest in Hamlin Garland’s Main-Travelled Roads.” Midwest Quarterly. vol. 58, no. 3, 2017, pp. 318-32.

The Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf, edited by Patty Paine, Jesse Ulmer, and Michael Hersrud, Berkshire Academic Press, 2012.

“Orality to Image: Traditional Qatari Narratives and Visual Media.” The International Journal of the Book, vol. 8, no. 3, 2010, pp. 71-76.

“Cultivating the Librarian Within: Effectively Integrating Library Instruction into Freshman Composition.” The International Journal of Learning, vol. 16, no. 7, 2009, pp. 415-23.

“The Knowledge Society: Text & Orality in Qatar.” The International Journal of the Book, vol. 6, no. 1, 2009, pp. 109-13.

“Undiscovered Country.” Review of Undiscovered Country by Lin Enger. Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts. vol. 8, no. 1,  2009.

“Love in an Expanding Universe.” Review of Love in an Expanding Universe, by Ron Rindo. Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts. vol. 5, no. 2, 2006.

Presentations

“Teaching American Popular Culture in Qatar.” Popular Culture Association National Conference, 8 April, 2023, Marriot Rivercenter, San Antonio, TX, USA.

“‘Same Same, But Different:’ Trans-nationalizing Honors in a U.S. Branch Campus.” National Collegiate Honors Council Conference, 8 Nov., 2019, Sheraton New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA. 

“The Music of Noah Hawley’s Fargo.” 2018 Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, 2 Feb. 2018, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Albuquerque, NM, USA.

“’Let us make beautiful music together:’ the music of The Ladykillers.” Music and the Moving Image Conference, 27 May 2017, New York University, New York, NY, USA.

“Hell, they ain’t even ol’ timey!:” O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Politics of Old-Timiness.” Society for Cinema & Media Studies Conference, 26 March 2015, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

“No Country for Some Men.” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, 19 April 2014, Chicago, IL, USA.

“Shane and The Language of Men.” Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, 21 Feb. 2014, Albuquerque, NM, USA.

“Synapse—Designer as Link.” American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Design Educators Conference, Geographics: Design, Design Education, and the Transnational Terrain, 15 Dec. 2012, University of Honolulu Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.

“Orality to Image: Traditional Qatari Narratives and Visual Media.” International Golden Jubilee Conference on Literature, Literacy and Language, Sept. 2011, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa.

“’Just like a fly in a pan of molasses’: Farming the Midwest in Hamlin Garland’s Main-Travelled Roads.” American Literature Association Conference, May 2011, Boston, MA, USA.

“Art, Culture, and Society: Qatari Folktales and Visual Storytelling.” International Conference on the Arts in Society, May 2011, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin, Germany.

“Literacy, Orality & Secondary Orality: Rethinking Freshman Composition at an American University in 21st Century Qatar.”  Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 2010, Louisville, KY, USA.

“Cultivating the Librarian Within: Effectively Integrating Library Instruction into Freshman Composition.” International Conference on Learning, July 2009, University of Barcelona, Spain.

“The Knowledge Society: Text & Orality in Qatar.” International Conference on the Book, Oct. 2008, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., USA.

Funded Research Projects and Grants

“Orality to Image: Traditional Qatari Narratives and Visual Media.” Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) Undergraduate Research Experience Program, 2011-2012.

QNRF Outstanding Undergraduate Research Project Award, 2012.