About Me

Hubbell’s area of specialization is nineteenth century British literature, particularly British Romanticism. Special interests include environmental literature, the literature of climate change, narrative structure of novels and film, nineteenth century novels, narrative and empire, romance and gender performance, the history and theory of sonnets, and rhetoric and composition. He regularly teaches in the Honors Program, and is involved in the university’s sustainability programs. He takes students to Greece to participate in the International Byron Student Conference. For fun, he races in Sprint and Olympic triathlons, kayaks the local streams, and hikes.

Current research investigates the intersection of literature and the environment, particularly the way nineteenth century British writers reflected their environmental observations in poetry and prose, and how that body of literature shapes environmental discourse, Anglo-American perceptions of nature and culture, and the political valence of environmental rhetoric. Hubbell’s book manuscript, Byron’s Nature: Toward a Cultural Ecology of Urbanature, examines Lord Byron’s representation of the city as an evolved product of its natural setting, and democracy as the natural outgrowth of culture imitating the free flow of energy within a sustainable ecological system.

Hubbell’s previous publications include scholarship on William Wordsworth’s philanthropic system, a history of picnicking in the Romantic period, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s creative appropriation of narrative structure, theme, and symbol from Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” for his memoir, South, Wordsworth’s influence on Percy Shelley’s Laon and Cythna, John Milton’s repurposing of the masque form in Comus, and John Keats’ manuscripts. He has also published numerous book reviews. He is currently Treasurer of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association, for which service he received the 2013 President’s Award.

Courses Taught