Reading Through Terror: Shelat Challenges Cultural Understanding in the Classroom

Assistant Professor of English Jay Shelat, Ph.D., has always been a bookworm. Growing up in what he describes as a “nerdy” family, Shelat was a reader just like his parents and siblings. Captivated by book series such as “Harry Potter” and “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” he often found himself getting in trouble at school for reading when he shouldn’t.

Now a professor at Ursinus College, Shelat has combined his love of reading and his academic expertise in 20^th and 21^st century political violence to offer students a unique opportunity to learn about terrorism through literature.

“Events that happen abroad, like the War on Terror after 9/11, often reflect what’s happening domestically within the nation,” explained Shelat. “I look into those trends and see how literature and culture respond to that kind of tension.”

In his classroom, Shelat puts terror in a historicized context and uses popular books, movies, and media to explore its influence on contemporary culture.

“Terror has become a buzzword—especially since 9/11, which was something of an inaugural event for the 21st century—but it has always existed in various forms throughout U.S. and global history,” Shelat said. “The definition of terror has also become so manipulated that it exists as a “free and floating signifier,” where you can apply any definition to it.”

Among the most popular examples he analyzes with students are superhero films—particularly those from the Marvel Cinematic Universe—zombie movies, and “The Hunger Games series.”

“My favorite question to pose is, ‘Is Katniss a revolutionary or a terrorist?” Shelat said. “I get to teach using all these well-known movies and media, and then I get to watch students have their entire dynamic become upset when I pose specific questions.”

Shelat’s interest in this line of study was sparked during his undergraduate years at Georgia State University, where he took a literature class that featured the work of 1993 Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison. He was especially compelled by Morrison’s argument that the 20th and 21st centuries are fundamentally different in how they grapple with race, history, and culture.

“Morrison wrote that history, race, and culture are all kind of together in one and you can’t look at one without looking at the other two,” Shelat said.

Beyond terror and its cultural implications, Shelat also teaches 20^th century literature, contemporary literature, graphic narrative, methods and literary studies, and theory, and he’s a lover of all types of authors, from Shakespeare to Jane Austen.

“Reading literature from different time periods can teach us so much,” Shelat said. “Cultural texts often replicate the social expectations of their era, especially in terms of race, gender, and sexuality.”

Shelat is currently working on his book “Domestic Denial: Terror, Home, and Race in Post 9/11 Literature.” The book examines the way war on terror is fundamentally rooted in the home through the violence that manifests. He hopes to have the book published by early 2027.

For Shelat, reading remains essential in this world and literature offers real-world tools that extend far beyond the classroom.

“Literature classes teach us how the rest of the world lives and works,” Shelat said. “You also gain an analytical apparatus and realize being uncomfortable is not a threat, it’s a place of production.”