Rate My Professor Michael Reed

Michael Reed is an emeritus professor of Literature at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1974. As Professor in the Department of English, his academic interests focus on Colonial and 19th Century American Literature, Psychoanalytic Criticism, and Logic. Reed has had a long career at the university, starting at its predecessor institution, the University of Texas-Pan American, where he was referred to as Pan American Professor in 1982. He continued as a professor, with records showing employment in 2017, and has taught essential courses including ENGL 2341 Introduction to Literature, ENGL 3303 Survey of American Literature I—a chronological study of principal authors, works, and trends in American literature from the Colonial period to the Civil War—and ENGL 3304 Survey of American Literature II.

Reed's key publication is Holy Sparkes of Heavenly Fire: A Psychoanalytic Reading of the Poetry of Edward Taylor, published by McFarland in 2024. The book examines the poetry of Edward Taylor using psychoanalytic approaches. He has published several articles on early American writers and nineteenth-century American poetry from a psychoanalytic perspective. In June 1982, he presented a paper at the Psychohistorical Meeting. Reed's scholarship integrates psychoanalytic theory with American literary studies, providing insights into the psychological underpinnings of historical literary works.