Rate My Professor Jonathan Shaw

Jonathan Shaw is an Associate Professor of English and serves as the Chair of the Department of English at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, located in Old Main 439. He holds a B.A. from Temple University, an M.A. from Beaver College, another M.A. from Temple University, and a Ph.D. from New York University. As department chair, he leads a program that emphasizes the critical study and production of texts across various genres, supporting undergraduate and graduate students in literature, writing, and related fields.

A key contributor to gothic and vampire studies, Dr. Shaw co-edits and serves as copy editor for the Journal of Dracula Studies, a peer-reviewed annual publication sponsored by the Kutztown University Department of English and the Transylvanian Society of Dracula. Collaborating with Dr. Nicole McClure, he has overseen numerous volumes, including those from 2018 to 2025, featuring scholarly articles on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, vampire folklore, depictions in film and popular culture, and related themes. This editorial work underscores his engagement in specialized literary analysis within the field of Literature.

Dr. Shaw has presented scholarly work on music and cultural history, delivering the paper “The Punks are Doomed” at the 2018 Punk//Metal conference. Affiliated with Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, the presentation explored the “crossover” genre blending hardcore punk and thrash metal in 1980s Los Angeles, focusing on slow, heavy styles amid social crises like the crack epidemic, drawing on Raymond Williams’ structure of feeling, Fredric Jameson’s cultural analysis, and Mike Davis’s histories of Los Angeles.

In addition to research and administrative duties, Dr. Shaw teaches core English courses and participates in university service as a member of the University Community Response Team. He also coordinates summer internships for the English Department.