Associate Professor Jaclyn Geller was granted tenure and promoted to the rank of associate in 2010 at Central Connecticut State University. An expert on the literature of the Restoration and the eighteenth century, Jaclyn Geller has been teaching in the English Department at the university since 2004. During her time at CCSU, Jaclyn Geller has designed and implemented all the English Department’s eighteenth-century courses, teaching a diverse range of classes. These include general surveys on the literature of the long eighteenth century—the period between the 1640s and the 1830s; classes in the history of the novel; and specialized upper level seminars in single authors like Samuel Johnson and Jane Austen, and in early modern satire. She also teaches survey courses that focus on the first century of English literature, classes in the principles of literary interpretation, and courses in essay writing. The current Chair of the university’s Academic Standards Committee, Jaclyn Geller is a member of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and speaks regularly at the annual meetings of this organization and its affiliate societies, presenting her research at seminars, conferences, and universities throughout the world.

Jaclyn Geller earned her B.A. in English Literature from Oberlin College and then pursued a post-graduate education that included both a M.A. and a Ph.D. in English from New York University. At NYU, Jaclyn Geller received the Halsband Fellowship and passed her doctoral examinations with distinction.

Along with her academic activities, Jaclyn Geller is also an activist who writes a column for the Alternatives to Marriage Project, a non-profit organization that promotes legal and societal equality for unmarried people. Jaclyn Geller created a new path in women’s studies with the publication of Here Comes the Bride: Women, Weddings, and the Marriage Mystique, a critique of American bridal culture. Published in 2001, this monograph was a Barnes and Noble selected nonfiction title. It is included in the syllabi of women’s studies programs throughout the country. In 2009, Bella DePaulo interviewed Jaclyn Geller in her Living Single blog for Psychology Today, discussing how society currently thinks about marriage and how people in non-traditional relationships are largely ignored in terms of legal protections.

An avid exercise enthusiast, in her free time Jaclyn Geller enjoys yoga and Pilates. She also frequently reads outside of the period of her research. Her favorite modern authors are the poets Robert Frost and Philip Larkin, and the novelist Matthew Sharpe.