Jason Zuzga
4715 Baltimore Ave. Apt 1F
Philadelphia, PA 19143
jasonzuzga@gmail.com
267-902-0731
Education
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
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Ph.D. candidate, Department of English
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Coordinator of Science and Literature Reading Group, 2008-2012.
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Advanced to Ph.D, candidacy with Distinction, May 2009
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
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M.F.A. Creative Writing: Poetry and Creative Nonfiction, 2005
Brown University, Providence, RI
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B.A. Comparative Literature, (English, French, Italian) 1996
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SEA semester in marine biology on tall ship
Work-in-Progress
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Ph.D. Thesis, Dissertation Chair Prof. Charles Bernstein
Visions from the New Frontier: Post-War Nature Documentary from Jacques
Cousteau to Biomolecular Animation.
An introduction to conflicting orientations in space and time and temporal media
from Darwin to the cataclysm of WWII, the project includes close readings of
Jacques Cousteau’s and Louis Malle’s directorial cinematic collaboration The Silent
World (1957), the collaborative Australian indigenous land-rights documentary Two
Laws, and Harvard’s BIOVisions Inner Life of the Cell animation series.
Teaching Positions
(syllabi available upon request)
Instructor: University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Fall 2007 - present
 Seeing Animal: The Animal in Cinema from Muybridge to the Present
Department of Cinema Studies, Fall 2015
 Bad Kids: Child Psychology and Juvenile Delinquency in, Film & Literature
Department of English, Fall 2015
 Animal Tales: Animals in Literature and Film
Department of English, Fall 2015
 Science and Literature: Language, Love and Science Fiction
Department of English, Summer 2014
 Pox, Pest, Plague: Literature, Media and Medicine
Department of English, Fall 2013
 Poetry and Art in New York City from WWII to the Present
Department of English, Spring 2013
 Documentary Media and Ecological Advocacy
Departments of Cinema Studies & History of Science, Spring 2013
 Frank O’Hara and Andy Warhol: Poetry and Painting NYC
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University of Pennsylvania Critical Writing Program, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall
2012, Spring 2013
Eros the Bittersweet: The Arts and Performance during the AIDS Crisis
University of the Arts Writing Program, Philadelphia PA, Fall 2012
Introduction to Documentary Film Practice
University of Pennsylvania Critical Writing Program, Fall 2008, Spring 2009.
Instructor: University of Arizona, Tucson AZ
 Poetry: Sound and Image:
The Poetry Center at the University of Arizona 2005
 Honors Undergraduate Introductory Poetry Workshop.
Department of English Fall 2004, Summer 2004
 First-Year Composition. Fall 2002- Spring 2005
 Pre-Med Summer English Program. Summer 2003, Summer 2004
Teaching Assistant, University of Pennsylvania
 Feminist Theory, Department of English, Fall 2015
 Film Theory, Department of English, Fall 2015
 Modern American Poetry, MOOC –Coursera, 2012 – Present,
 World Cinema to 1945 and World Cinema 1945 to the Present,
Dept. of Cinema Studies: 2012-2013
 History of Animation, Department of Cinema Studies, Spring 2009.
 History of Technology, Department of the History and Sociology of Science,
Spring 2009, Spring 2011.
 Shakespeare, Department of English, Spring 2008.
 Romantic Poetry, Department of English, Fall 2007.
Scholarly and Literary Publications
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(forthcoming) Heat Wake: Poems. Saturnalia Books, March 2016.
(forthcoming) “LIVE from the Body: Charles Olson’s “Proprioception” Evening Will
Come.
(forthcoming) Zuzga, Jason. “The Properties of Radio Broadcast as Poetic Medium:
Francis Ponge’s Le Savon.” Jacket2.
Poems published in a range of print and online venues, 1999-present, including
The Paris Review
Fulcrum
Volt
Fence
Tin House
Elective Affinities
White Wall Review
Painted Bride Quarterly
Drunken Boat
out of nothing
Forklift Ohio
EOUGH
The Yale Review
Five Finger Review
Apiary
Gulf Coast
Zoland Poetry
Provincetown Arts
jubilat
LIT
canwehaveourballback
Atom’s Licks. Poetry Chapbook. 2014 Scharmel Iris Press.
Zuzga, Jason. “Review of The Animal Gaze: Animal Subjectivities in Southern
African Narratives by Wendy Woodward” in Safundi, Volume 11 Issue 1 & 2
(Special Issue on Animal Studies and Ecocriticism) January 2010 , pages 180 – 183.
Zuzga, Jason. “Nonfiction: A Frying Pan, editor’s statement” A Best of Fence: The
First Nine Years, Vol. II, Edited by Rebecca Wolff, Jonathan Lethem, Ben Marcus,
Lynne Tillman, and Jason Zuzga. Albany NY: Fence Books, 2009. Printed Book.
Zuzga, Jason and David Zuzga. “ Open Pharynx: A Fantasia on the Development of
Human Gills.” In Predictions: ChainLinks 4. Ed. By Cara Benson. Philadelphia:
ChainLinks, 2009.
Zuzga, Jason. “Monkeys” Volume: Urban China (in English and in Chinese
translation) 19: 2008. Journal
Zuzga, Jason. “The Death of Robert Smithson,” Seneca Review, 36:1 (Spring 2006).
Journal.
Zuzga, Jason. “Donald Judd: Untitled Concrete Installation,” Cue 3:1 (Winter
2006.) Journal.
Zuzga, Jason The Shelter of No Shelter: Essays on Place and Landscape. Master’s Thesis
Zuzga, Jason 100 Clews and Other Poems. Master’s Thesis
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Conference and Guest Presentations
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“The Sound of Poetry” Poetry Workshop, Ursinus College, Fall 2015
“The Sound of Poetry” Poetry Workshop, Fashion Institute of Technology, Fall 2015
“Human Rights and Gay Marriage” Feminist Theory, Department of English, UPenn,
Fall 2015
“James Robert Baker’s Adrenaline” Sex and the City, Temple University, Fall 2015
The Violent, Silent World: Ethical Orientation on Screen and at Sea.
Society for Cinema & Media Studies Conference, 2012.
My Neighbor Totoro. screening and discussion, co-presenter.
University of Pennsylvania Interdisciplinary Forum on Mental Health and Society:
Cinema and Psychoanalysis. 2011.
“Agriculture and Culture” History of Technology, UPenn, Spring 2011
Simulations and Artist’s Renderings: The Objects of Microbiological Animation.
The Powers of Display: Cinemas of Investigation, Demonstration, and
Illusion, University of Chicago: Department of Cinema & Media Studies Graduate
Student Conference, 2011.
The Virtual Life of the Inner Life of the Cell.
Penn Humanities Forum Conference: Virtualities, 2011.
Erasmus Darwin’s The Botanic Garden as Poetic Hybrid.
Philomathean Society, University of Pennsylvania, 2010.
The Triumph of the Organelle: Harvard's Biovision Project & the Animated Cell.
SLSA International Conference, Indianapolis, 2010.
Encountering the Bio-Uncanny: Cousteau, Painlevé and the Eye of the Octopus.
Cinema Studies Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2010.
Blood on the Calypso: Viewing Frenzy in Cousteau's & Malle's The Silent World.
Dialogues on Animality Conference, Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, 2009.
Jacques Cousteau, Louis Malle, and the Elusive Genre of Nature Documentary.
Philadelphia Cinema and Media Seminar, Philadelphia, PA, 2009.
Francis Ponge's Le Savon as live "Foamcast" –
PSI Performance Studies Conference, NYU, New York City, 2007.
Editorial Work
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Nonfiction and Other Editor, FENCE literary journal 2008-present
Inaba, Jeffrey, Katharine Meagher, and Jason Zuzga. World of Giving. Baden,
Switzerland: Lars Müller Pub, 2010. Print.
Phillips, Dana, and Jason Zuzga, Guest Editors. Safundi, Volume 11 Issue 1 & 2
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(Special Issue on Animal Studies and Ecocriticism) January 2010. Journal.
Zuzga, Jason, Guest Editor, Cue. 4:1 (Winter 2007). Journal.
New Media Coordinator, Website content creator with authors:
Alfred A. Knopf New York, NY Sept 2000 - August 2002
Editorial Assistant to Poetry Editor and Fiction/Nonfiction Editor
Alfred A. Knopf New York, NY Sept 1998 -- Sept 2000
Editorial Assistant , Ballantine Books
New York, NY June 1997 -- Sept 1998
Assistant to the President, Harold Ober Associates Literary Agency
New York, NY Sept 1996 – June 1997
Fellowships and Honors
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Certificate in Cinema Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Critical Writing Program Teaching Fellowship, Fall 2011-Spring 2012
Penn Genome Frontiers Basic Lab Techniques Training Course Graduate, Spring
2011
University of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, 2006-2011
Selected to teach Honors-Level Poetry Workshop, University of Arizona, 2005.
James Merrill Writer-in-Residence, Stonington, CT, 2005-2006.
Bread Loaf Poetry Scholarship, Middlebury, VT, 2004.
Fine Arts Work Center Residential Fellowship in Poetry, Provincetown, MA, 20012002.
Reading Series Curator
High Tea at the Poetry House
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The Poetry Center at the University of Arizona
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Tucson AZ, Sept 2004 – April 2005
Writing Contest Judge and Reader
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The Dolman Prize, Ursinus College, Spring 2015
Reader, Saturnalia Book Prize, 2015
Reader, National Poetry Series, 2006
Professional Associations
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SCMS (Society of Cinema and Media Studies) 2011-present
SLSA (Society of Science, Literature, and the Arts) 2009-present
MLA (Modern Language Association) 2007-present
ASLE (Associate for the Study of Literature and the Environment) 2005-present