Rate My Professor Catherine Cucinella

Catherine Cucinella earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside, and served as Assistant Professor of Literature and Writing Studies, Faculty Teaching Fellow, and Director of General Education Writing at California State University, San Marcos. She advanced university pedagogy through her roles, including as Interim Director of General Education Writing since Fall 2009 and lecturer in Literature and Writing, Women’s Studies, humanities, and related areas prior to her appointment to the professorial position in Fall 2012. Cucinella integrated her extensive classroom experience across writing, literature, and women’s studies into her scholarly and editorial work, contributing to curriculum development and student engagement in critical thinking.

Her research centers on 20th-century literature, American literature, women writers and poets, body and gender theory, ethnic American literatures, feminist theory, Latina/o literature, and transnational American literature. Key publications include Poetics of the Body: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, Marilyn Chin, and Marilyn Hacker (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), which examines representations of the female body in the poetry of these authors. She edited Contemporary American Women Poets: An A-to-Z Guide (Greenwood, 2002), featuring biographical and critical entries on prominent poets. Cucinella authored Border Crossings: A Bedford Spotlight Reader (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2015), a 335-page textbook with 34 readings on geographical, political, economic, social, and other borders, emphasizing the U.S.-Mexico border and issues of identity, race, gender, and global movement; and edited Funny (Fountainhead Press, 2014), both approved for use by CSUSM instructors. She has published articles and book chapters on poets including Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, Marilyn Chin, and Elizabeth Bishop. Additional contributions encompass service on the Academic Senate and various committees.