E. Thomson Shields, Jr.

Associate Professor of English, East Carolina University

Director, Roanoke Colonies Research Office, East Carolina University

Education: BA, Bucknell University (1982); MA Western Kentucky University (1984); PhD University of TennesseeóKnoxville (1990).

Areas of Study: English and Spanish exploration literature; Spanish colonial literature of North America; colonial North Carolina.

Selected Publications: Searching for the Roanoke Colonies: An Interdisciplinary Collection, edited with Charles R. Ewen (Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, forthcoming 2001); "Negating Cultures, Saving Cultures; Franciscan Ethnographic Writings in Seventeenth-Century la Florida," Recovering the U. S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, vol. 3, ed. María Herrera-Sobek and Virginia Sánchez Korrol (Houston: Arte Público Press, 2000); "Colonial Spanish Writings," with Dana D. Nelson, Teaching the Literatures of Early America, ed. Carla Mulford (New York: MLA, 1999), 97-111; "íA Modern Poem,í by the Mecklenburg Censor: Politics and Satire in Revolutionary North Carolina," Early American Literature 29 (1994): 205-32; "El Adelantado de la Florida, Hernando de Soto: El carácter literario" ("The Adelantado of la Florida, Hernando de Soto: The Literary Character"), trans. Manuel Sanchez Garcia, Hernando de Soto y su tiempo (Badajoz, Spain: Junta de Extremadura, 1993), 325-337; "Beyond the Anthology: Sources for Teaching Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Colonial Spanish Literature of North America," The Heath Anthology of American Literature Newsletter 12 (Fall 1994): 2-11; "Paradise Regained, Again: The Literary Context of John Lawson's A New Voyage to Carolina," North Carolina Literary Review 1.1(1992): 83-97; "East Makes West: Images of the Orient in Early Spanish and English Exploration Literature of North America," Medievalia et Humanistica19 (1992): 97-116.

Other: Editor, Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter 1993-present.

Vision Statement: The Society of Early Americanists has been a wonderful gathering of people with shared interests since its beginnings some eight years ago. While originally rooted in literary studies, one of the SEAís most important functions has been to expand the idea of what the study of early America means. To this end, disciplinary boundaries have been expanded so that people in fields such as American studies, art, archaeology, history, music, religion, womenís studies, and theater are now participating in SEA activities. In another direction, the SEA has included scholars working on materials from outside just the British American tradition, looking at German, French, Native American, Spanish and other histories and traditions from the Americas as well. My main goal for the SEA is to continue its efforts in making the organization as truly multidisciplinary as possible, actively seeking out members in all fields of study.