Program Director
Dr. Jeffrey Hole
Director, Pacific Humanities Scholars Program
Associate Professor, Department of English
Phone: 209.946.2026
Email: jhole@pacific.edu
Faculty Profile
Curriculum Vitae
Whether introducing students in his American literature course to the aesthetic and political intricacies of Emily Dickinson's poetry or mentoring one of our Humanities Scholars in the methodologies and theories of advanced undergraduate research, English professor Jeffrey Hole challenges all students to take intellectual risks, to exercise curiosity, and to think historically and critically about the world we inhabit.
Since receiving his PhD in English with an emphasis in Critical and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and joining the faculty at the University of the Pacific, Dr. Hole has made significant contributions to scholarship and teaching and has, throughout his career, advocated for the central role the humanities play in the university and in a democratic society broadly. By exploring and gaining a deeper knowledge of art and architecture, philosophy and religion, music and literature, among the other riches of the humanities, he has argued, we can then begin to ask important questions about our present moment.
His teaching and scholarly interests span the fields of 19th century American literature, critical and cultural theory, law and political economy, as well as slavery and U.S. empire. His essays have been published in American Literature, Criticism, and Telos, among other journals and volumes, and he is currently completing a book, "Fugitive Inventions and the Force of Law: Literature in the Wake of the 1850 Compromise," which examines the concomitances between 19th-century American literature and the tactics of fugitive slaves following the 1850 Compromise.