Maryanne Rhett, Ph.D.

Professor, Chair
Scholarly interests: Islam, Comics, Nationalism

Department: History and Anthropology

Office: James and Marlene Howard Hall 345

Dr. Maryanne A. Rhett, Professor of Middle Eastern and World History, works on topics related to modern Middle Eastern and Islamic history at the intersections of popular culture, nationalism, and world history. Her teaching duties, too, reflect these interests. Some of her classes include Islamic history, Modern Middle Eastern history, Popular Culture and the Middle East, and the history of Militant Nationalism. Additionally, she teaches the Perspectives class: A Graphic World: World History and Sequential Art.

Dr. Rhett is actively involved in the World History Association, world history pedagogy, and the Monmouth University Biennial Conference on Race. As the department’s Director of the Graduate Program in History, she oversees a number of theses and comprehensive exams each year and is always ready to talk to those interested in joining the MU History Master’s program.

Education

Ph.D., Washington State University

Books

Representations of Islam in United States Comics, 1880-1922. London: Bloomsbury, 2019.

A Global History of the Balfour Declaration: Declared Nation. London: Routledge, 2015.

Scholarly Articles

“Emerging Empires: The Attempts to Create an Indian Empire in Africa and a Japanese Empire in the Pacific,” In Empires in the First World War. Eds. Richard Fogarty and Andrew Jarboe. 49-73. London: I.B. Tauris, 2014.

“The Mask or the Veil: Unraveling the Cultural Discourse in France and Popular Culture” The Middle Ground Journal: World History and Global Studies. No. 7 (Fall 2013).

“Leagues, Evil Doers, and Tales of Survival: Graphic Novels and the World History Classroom,” In Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom: Essays on the Educational Power of Sequential Art. Eds. Robert G. Weiner and Carrye Syma. 111-119. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013.

“Orientalism and Graphic Novels: A Modern Reexamination of Popular Culture.” In Graphic History: Essays on Graphic Novels and/as History, Ed. Rick Iadonisi. 203-222. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012.

“Kirk, Andrew G. Doom Towns: The People and Landscapes of Atomic Testing” The Public Historian 43:2 (May 2021). 170-172.

“The Graphic Novel and the World History Classroom.” World History Connected (WHC) 4:2 (2007).

Book Reviews:

“Kirk, Andrew G. Doom Towns: The People and Landscapes of Atomic Testing” The Public Historian 43:2 (May 2021). 170-172.

“Getz, Trevor. Abina and the Important Men.” Journal of World History 23:4 (December 2012). 941-943.

Other Publications:

“Superhero with a Migration Background” Das Goethe, Issue 1, 2021.

Forthcoming

Rhett, M. and Bridget Keown. “Diana in No-Man’s Land: Wonder Woman and the History of World War.” In Drawing the Past: Comics and the Historical Imagination. University of Mississippi Press. Eds. Michael Goodrum, David Hall, and Philip Smith.

“Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, Islamic Feminism, and a Global Dialogue” in Gendered Defenders: Marvel Superheroines in Transmedia Spaces. Eds. Meta Carstarphen and Bryan Carr.

“Humans and Gods: Trevor, Candy, and Diana in Wonder Woman,” The Human in Superhuman. Lexington Books. Eds. Alex Romagnoli and Sandra Eckard.

Professional Associations

Secretary (2013-Present) and Program Chair (2009-Present), World History Association