Christian Beck

Department of English

Senior Lecturer

Christian.Beck@ucf.edu

Campus Location

Trevor Colbourn Hall 254H

Biography

Christian Beck received his Ph.D. in English Literature and Cultural Theory from Binghamton University (SUNY). Christian teaches courses on British Literature, Literature of Place and Space, and Literature and Law.

Education

Ph.D. in English Literature and Cutlural Theory from Binghamton University (SUNY) (2010)

Research Interests

Spatial theory
Medieval and Contemporary Literature
Vigilante literature
Literature and Law
Native American Literature
Sociological approaches to literature
Deleuze studies

Recent Research Activities

Christian is currently working on his second monograph, The Figure of the Vigilante: Law and the Cultural Production of Social Justice.

Publications

Books

Saying the Unsayable: Essays and Meditations on the Ineffability of Aesthetic Experiences. With John Venecek. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2026.
Mobility, Spatiality, and Resistance in Literary and Political Discourse. Edited by Christian Beck. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Spatial Resistance: Literary and Digital Challenges to Neoliberalism. NY: Lexington Books, 2019.

Articles/Essays

‘Robin Hood and Resistance: The Spatial Ethics of “Felaushyp” in A Lyttel Gest of Robyn Hode’. Neohelicon 51.1 (2024): 293-313. DOI: 10.1007/s11059-024-00738-9
Forthcoming "The Art of Uprooting: Arboreal Structures in Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere"
'Humanities in the Open: The Challenges of Creating an Open Literature Anthology’. (Lead author with Lily J. Dubach, Sarah A. Norris, and John Venecek.) In Open Pedagogy Approaches: Faculty, Library, and Student Collaborations. Edited by Kimberly Davies Hoffman and Alexis Clifton. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, 2020. https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/openpedagogyapproaches/chapter/humanities-in-the-open/
“Web of Resistance: Deleuzian Digital Space and Hacktivism.” Deleuze: Spaces of Change and Challenge in Journal for Cultural Research 20.
“Deleuze and the Event(s)” (with François-Xavier Gleyzon) in Christian Beck & François-Xavier Gleyzon (Eds.) in Deleuze: Spaces of Change and Challenge Spec. issue of Journal for Cultural Research 20 (2016): 329-333. Print. DOI: 10.1080/14797585.2016.1264770
“Shaping Our (Medieval) Future Through Nomadic Insurgency: A Radical Reading of Ywain and Gawain.” Medievalia 36/37: A Special Issue on Medieval Futures

Book Sections/Chapters

“Resisting a Wilting Future: To Blossom.” In Mobility, Spatiality, and Resistance in Literary and Political Discourse. Edited by Christian Beck. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021
“Introduction: Movement, Space, and Power in the Creative Act.” In Mobility, Spatiality, and Resistance in Literary and Political Discourse. Edited by Christian Beck. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
“The Nomadic Classroom: Using Praxis and Place to Negotiate Literary Space” in Teaching Space, Place, and Literature. Ed. Robert Tally, Jr. New York: Routledge, 2018. 23-30.

Course #	Course	Title	Mode	Days/Times	Syllabus
82992	ENL2012	English Literature Ⅰ	Web-Based (W)	7:00 PM - 7:00 PM	Unavailable
This course offers a broad survey of authors, texts, and genres from the medieval period through the late eighteenth century, covering approximately 1000 years of English literature. As a survey, this class presents particular challenges, as we seek to cover a breadth of material without sacrificing depth of understanding. A wide base of knowledge, effective communication skills, and critical thinking are integral to success in virtually every discipline, both in college and beyond, and practicing these vitally important skills lays the groundwork for success in your future as you read and ponder the works of the earliest and greatest writers in the English language. To this end, it is essential that you read the assigned texts carefully.
82237	LIT2110	World Literature Ⅰ	Web-Based (W)	7:00 PM - 7:00 PM	Unavailable
Renegades, rebels, rogues, tricksters, and the like will be the focus of this survey of early world literature. We will examine the evolution of this complicated character at various times, spaces, and places, from the Greeks to the Mayans to Shakespeare. We will investigate how these figures work within and against the prevailing ideas of their day, and what their tricks, cons, and/or challenges mean in their varied cultural contexts. Sometimes, our discussion will focus on individual characters, sometimes it may focus on authors, and sometimes the trickster element will be more implicit than explicit.
83677	LIT3206	Place and Space in Literature	Online Video Content (V)	M,W 12:30 PM - 1:20 PM	Unavailable
This course is designed to identify and analyze various uses of space and place in both literature and society. Places and spaces, as we will see, are complex matrices of ideologies, interpellation, geography, architecture, and social planning. A single space can be the intersection of various, if not conflicting, ideas; a space that is both constructed by human subjects and constructs human subjects. Think, for example, of a classroom and how it is constructed, as well as how, in turn, the classroom constructs/determines your behavior/expectations. For the first part of the course, we will be reading and discussing theories of place and space from a variety of perspectives, after which we will turn to literature. There are three main goals to this course: 1) To identify and critically analyze the way space is utilized in literature; 2) To identify and critically analyze the way places and spaces are constructed in our society; 3) To think critically about the places and spaces of education (all levels) and how a different structure might produce improved results within critical thinking/education. At certain points, I might ask that you venture away from you keyboard and engage with places/spaces around you to better understand key concepts of spatial analysis.

Course #	Course	Title	Mode	Days/Times	Syllabus
12846	ENG3014	Theories and Tech of Lit Study	Mixed Mode (M)	M,W 12:30 PM - 1:20 PM	Unavailable
Theories of Literature will introduce you to ways of accessing texts that will open them up to more varied and challenging readings. Although the critical and theoretical approaches we will study are often complex and daunting, by the end of the semester you will be able to recognize and apply the approaches to a variety of literary and cultural texts. The theoretical background and writing skills you acquire should increase your understanding of literature, authorship, and literary analysis. Questioning the assumptions behind our ways of reading and meaning making is an activity we engage in often, and as a result, we will have dynamic class discussions that leave nothing uncontested. We will work hard not to stereotype or marginalize critical or theoretical approaches that seem "strange" or "old-fashioned" to us.
12922	ENL2012	English Literature Ⅰ	Web-Based (W)	7:00 PM - 7:00 PM	Unavailable
PRE-1865. This course offers a broad survey of authors, texts, and genres from the medieval period through the late eighteenth century, covering approximately 1000 years of English literature. As a survey, this class presents particular challenges, as we seek to cover a breadth of material without sacrificing depth of understanding. A wide base of knowledge, effective communication skills, and critical thinking are integral to success in virtually every discipline, both in college and beyond, and practicing these vitally important skills lays the groundwork for success in your future as you read and ponder the works of the earliest and greatest writers in the English language. To this end, it is essential that you read the assigned texts carefully.
19831	LIT3933	Literature and Law	Mixed Mode (M)	M,W 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM	Unavailable
POST-1865 In this course, we will read texts that think philosophically about acts of violence (Arendt, Benjamin, Zizek) and connect these ideas to issues and ideas of justice. Through this matrix of violence and justice, we will read literature that includes instances, scenarios, scenes, and characters of vigilante action and discuss the role violence plays in constructing ideas of justice. By using the various and complex categories of violence to understand how it is seemingly permissible in some instance and not in others, we can then begin to understand how language shapes representations of certain actions as a means to claim or legitimize these actions as a form of “justice.” Along with the philosophical, there will be legal ramifications that emphasize or, again, legitimize state and individual actors. We will also attend to the various arguments about the violence of law and laws, as well as the violence of language.