Aaron Ottinger, PhD

Literature & Mathematics

ABOUT

I remember when I first opened a copy of Euclid's Elements in 2012. At the time, it suddenly dawned on me that almost every English-speaking writer from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had to study this book. Ever since, my research has focused on 18th- and 19th-century British literature and mathematics. I examine how this relationship complicates rather than essentializes human being, and thereby requires a re-evaluation of the "realism of the subject." This project is ongoing.

A profile picture of Aaron Ottinger.

More recently, I have also been focusing on digital colonialism and what I call "the global ecodigital divide." This interdisciplinary study examines literary and other artistic representations of the historical and present-day connections between technology, systemic racism, and ecological destruction, from the transatlantic slave trade to mining cobalt in the DRC.

In the classroom, I teach literature, rhetoric and composition, the history of media, digital culture, and technical writing. I am trained to teach online and in person. I have also designed several service learning courses ("Social Justice and Digital Media"). All of my classes include hands-on activities. So if you take a class with me, you can definitely expect to make something (in addition to writing essays, of course!).

Outside the classroom, I chair the planning committee for Highline College's annual National Poetry Month series (2022–present). I also serve on the Two-Year College Association's PNW Regional Executive Committee (2024-present).

Complete CV

 

 

 

RESEARCH

FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS

  1. "Less Than Nothing: Teaching Literature and Mathematics with Coleridge’s "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," an article for "Teaching With Science Writing in the Humanities Classroom" (MLA) (submitted for review 1/10/24).

 

IN PROGRESS

  1. "Wordsworth's Anti-Euclid: Logic, Mathematics, and Realism in Lyrical Ballads," a journal article (submitted for review 9/22/23, revise and resubmit 1/4/24).
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  3. "Impossible Roots: Mary Shelley’s Demonic Mathematical Ontology in Frankenstein," a journal article for a conference proceedings issue of Romanticism on the Net (submitted for review 9/25/22, revise and resubmit 3/18/24).
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  5. "Astral Romanticism: Mathematics, Realism, and Subjectivities," a manuscript, drafting phase.

 

ARTICLES and BOOK CHAPTERS

  1. "The Global Ecodigital Divide: A Collaborative Mapping Exercise for Online Classrooms," Interdisciplinary Digital Engagement in Arts & Humanities, 21 Jul. 2021.
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  3. “The Mathematics of Associationism in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy,” a chapter for The Palgrave Handbook of Literature and Mathematics. Edited by Alice Jenkins and Rob Tubbs. Palgrave, 2021, 439-56.
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  5. “Ecocritical Perspectives and Media Adaptations in the Anthropocene: Teaching Wordsworth’s ‘Written in Germany,’” an essay for “Teaching Romanticism in the Anthropocene,” Romantic Circles: Romantic Pedagogy Commons. Edited by Chris Washington. 2020.
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  7. “Astral Guts: The Nemocentric Self in Byron and Brassier,” a chapter for Romanticism and Speculative Realism. Edited by Anne McCarthy and Chris Washington, Bloomsbury, 2019.
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  9. "The Role of Geometry in Wordsworth's 'Science of Feelings,'", dissertation, University of Washington, 2016.
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  11. “Geometry, the Body, and Affect in Wordsworth’s The Ruined Cottage.” Essays in Romanticism, vol. 21, no. 2, 2014, pp. 159-178.

 

REVIEWS

  1. Coleridge and the Geometric Idiom: Walking with Euclid, by Ann C. Colley and A Bastard Kind of Reasoning: William Blake and Geometry, by Andrew M. Cooper in The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 55, no. 3, 2024, pp. 366–377.
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  3. Shapes of Imagination: Calculating in Coleridge's Magical Realm, by George Stiny in H-Net Reviews, 2024.
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  5. Romanticism at the End of the World: Romantic Revelations: Visions of Post-Apocalyptic Life and Hope in the Anthropocene, by Chris Washington and Disastrous Subjectivities: Romanticism, Modernity, and the Real by David Collings in European Romantic Review, 2023, pp. 101-106.
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  7. The Order of Forms: Realism, Formalism, and Social Space, by Anna Kornbluh in Romantic Circles, 2020.
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  9. Literature After Euclid: The Geometric Imagination in the Long Scottish Enlightenment, by Matthew Wickman in Romantic Circles, 2017.
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  11. Romantic Intimacy, by Nancy Yousef in Romantic Circles, 2015.
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  13. Plastic Intellectual Breeze: The Contribution of Ralph Cudworth to S.T. Coleridge’s Early Poetics of the Symbol, by Cristina Flores in The Coleridge Bulletin, winter, 2009, pp. 92-94.

 

SELECT BLOG POSTS

Blogger, Medium.

  1. "Academic Unemployment," 4 Sep. 2019.
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  3. "From Academic CV to non-Academic Resume, Step 1: Get Help," 26 Jun. 2019.

 

Editor and Contributor, “Ada Lovelace, Romantic from the Future,” a three-part series for The K-SAA Blog.

  1. "Ada Lovelace, Romantic from the Future: Adapting Ada," 10 Dec. 2018.
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  3. "Ada Lovelace, Romantic from the Future: An Interview with Roger Whitson, Part II," 28 Nov. 2018
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  5. "Ada Lovelace, Romantic from the Future: An Interview with Roger Whitson, Part I," 27 Nov. 2018

 

Communications Fellow, Keats-Shelley Association of America.

  1. "Interview: Keats Symposium:Ann Rowland on Keats, America, and Author Love" 22 Jan. 2018.

 

Staff Blogger, NASSR Graduate Student Caucus Blog.

  1. "The Day After Payday: Graduate Students, Gleaning, and Apocalypse," 11 Oct. 2013.
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  3. "Digital Humanities: My Introduction 1.3" 13 Jun. 2013.
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  5. "Digital Humanities: My Introduction 1.2" 14 May, 2013.
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  7. "Digital Humanities: My Introduction 1.1" 19 Feb. 2013.
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  9. "Toward a Map of the International Conference on Romanticism 2012: 'Catastrophes'" 12 Nov. 2012.
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  11. "A Meditation on the One-Year Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street: Fear, Silence, and Participation" 18 Sept. 2012.
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  13. "Back to School: Time to Learn" 8 Sept. 2012.
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  15. "The Painful Pleasures of Romantic Feet," 2 Aug. 2012.
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  17. "The Sublimity of '2001: A Space Odyssey,'" 21 Apr. 2012.
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  19. "The Speculative Turn and Studies in Romanticism," 30 Mar. 2012.

 

 

 

TEACHING

SYLLABI

Digital Studies

  1. DICE 4040: Social Justice and Digital Media, Seattle University, online, synchronous, winter 2021.
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  3. DICE 4020: Global Digital Cultures, Seattle University, online, asynchronous, fall 2020.
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  5. DICE 4010: Digital Identities, Seattle University, online, asynchronous, fall 2020.
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  7. DICE 3020: History of Text Technologies, Seattle University, online, asynchronous, spring 2020.

 

Literary Studies

  1. English 200: "Prometheus Bound and Unbound: Science and Literature from Oral Culture to Digital Media", University of Washington, face-to-face, fall 2017.

 

Rhetoric & Composition

  1. English 101: Mathematizing Human Life: Writing and Rhetoric in an Algorithmic Culture, Highline College, face-to-face, spring 2019.
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  3. English 101: Rhetorical Approaches to Writing and Ecopoetry, Highline College, face-to-face, spring 2018.
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ADDITIONAL TEACHING MATERIALS

Coming soon!