Molly C. O'Donnell, Ph.D.

With over 20 years of experience as an editor and writer, I have a demonstrated history of successful work in higher education, the nonprofit sector, and private industry. Client projects have included everything from white papers to dissertations and personal statements for applications to higher education. I also have a proven track record in journalism, media, communications, and academic and business writing, as well as experience at all levels of editing, production, and publications management with a satisfied client base around the country. With a PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of Nevada, I have worked as a lecturer at four diverse institutions of higher education: Notre Dame of Maryland University, UNLV, Nevada State College, and my current employer James Madison University.

Teaching a variety of subject matter, such as English, American, and world literature, business writing, composition, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies, I have a breadth and depth of knowledge in many fields that I currently apply in teaching "super-sections," with 165+ students. So you can see I am also not a shy person and happy to offer consultation at any time. I work tirelessly with my clients to ensure that we are achieving their goals for their projects and successful outcomes all around.

Teaching a variety of subject matter, such as English, American, and world literature, business writing, composition, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies, I have a breadth and depth of knowledge in many fields that I currently apply in teaching "super-sections," with 165+ students. So you can see I am also not a shy person and happy to offer consultation at any time. I work tirelessly with my clients to ensure that we are achieving their goals for their projects and successful outcomes all around.

Past Freelance
Journalism Contributions

The Sunday
AIGA
Las Vegas Weekly
Desert Companion
Las Vegas Life
Vice
National Public Radio
ArtsVegas
Baltimore Magazine
Baltimore Style
International Living Magazine
Baltimore City Paper
Alter-Net
Baltimore Examiner
National Metromix
The Urbanite
Metaphilm
Radar
Baltimore Sun
Orlando Sentinel
Maryland Family Magazine
Seven Seas Magazine

Editorial and Professional

Advanced Placement Reader College Board
Educational Testing Service, 2020–2024
Book Proposal Reviewer, Broadview Press, 2020
Assistant Editor: The Mary Russell Mitford Digital Archive, 2014 – 2017
Victoriographies, 2010 – 2015
Popular Culture Review, 2012 – 2013
Wordriver Literary Review, 2012
The Pater Newsletter, 2010 – 2011
Senior Production Editor/Managing Editor, Institute for Operations Research & the Management Sciences, 2000 – 2009

About My Process

Academic Awards

The Joan Leach Memorial Graduate Essay Prize, Elizabeth Gaskell Society, 2016
__________________________________________________President’s Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship ($25,000), University of Nevada, 2014–2015
________________________________________________Patricia Sastaunik Scholarship, University of Nevada, 2012–2013

________________________________________________Academic Achievement Award, Notre Dame of Maryland University, 2005
________________________________________________Provost’s Scholarship, Towson University, 1996–2000________________________________________________James W. Rouse Scholar, 1996

Academic Publications

Women and Gender Studies: Contemporary Trends and Perspectives. Essay collection editor and contributor. London: Proud Pen Limited, forthcoming 2024.

The Microgenre: A Quick Look at Small Culture. Essay collection coedited with Anne H. Stevens. New York: Bloomsbury, 2020. Reviewed in Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 25.2 (2023), Journal of Communication Technology 4.3 (2021), Diagram 21.2 (May 2021).

“Speaking Amazonian: Textual Idleness and Communities of Practice in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford.” The Gaskell Journal 30 (2016).

“Mirrors, Masks, and Masculinity: The Homosocial Legacy from Dickens to Machen.” Victoriographies. 6.3 (November 2016): 256–275.

Select biographies. The Norton Introduction to Literature, 11th ed. 2013.

Academic Reviews

The Bigamy Plot: Sensation and Convention in the Victorian Novel. The Hardy Review 18.2 (2016).

A Room of His Own: A Literary-Cultural Study of Victorian Clubland. Victoriographies 3.2 (2013): 219–21.

Imagining Minds: The Neuro-Aesthetics of Austen, Eliot, and Hardy. Victoriographies 3.1 (2013): 86–88.

Victorian Hybridities: Cultural Anxiety and Formal Innovation. Victoriographies 2.1 (2012): 70–71.

Writing Portfolio