Johanna Deane

(Maya Deane)

Senior University Lecturer, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
About Me
Johanna Deane has been a lecturer at New Jersey Institute of Technology since 2020 and a senior lecturer since 2026; before that, she taught at NJIT, New Jersey City University, Rutgers University, Rider University, Richard Stockton University, Centenary University, and Mercer County Community College. She is known for innovative digital humanities pedagogies that engage student creativity and encourage authentic learning and knowledge production. Her critically acclaimed debut historical fantasy novel, Wrath Goddess Sing (William Morrow/HarperCollins) was published in 2022 and shortlisted for a Lambda Award and a Crawford Award in 2023. She writes fiction and film.
Education
M.F.A.; Rutgers University-Camden; Creative Writing; 2011
B.A.; University of Maryland-Baltimore County; English Literature and Creative Writing; 2008
Awards & Honors
2023 Excellence in Scholarship Award, College of Science and Liberal Arts, NJIT
Website
http://mayadeane.com
2026 Fall Courses
ENGL 101 - INTRO TO ACADEMIC WRITING- HONORS
HSS 404 - MEMES: RHETORIC, GENRES, APPLICATIONS
Teaching Interests
Digital humanities and internet memes, narratology and literature, commercial fiction and games writing, cognitive apprenticeship within learning communities, adversarial instruction, leveraging AI mediocrity to stimulate student excellence.
Past Courses
101: ENGLISH COMPOSITION: WRITING, SPEAKING, THINKING I
ENGL 101: ENGLISH COMPOSITION: INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC WRITING
ENGL 101: INTRO TO ACADEMIC WRITING- HONORS
ENGL 102: ENGLISH COMPOSITION: INTRODUCTION TO WRITING FOR RESEARCH
ENGL 102: INTRO TO RESEARCH WRITING - HONORS
ENGL 102: INTRO TO RESEARCH WRITING- HONORS
HSS 404: ENG SEM: MEMES - MEDIA, GENRES, AND APPLICATIONS
HSS 404: ENG SEM: MEMES: RHETORIC, GENRES, APPLICATIONS
HSS 404: ENG SEM:MEMES: RHETORIC, GENRES, APPLICATIONS
HSS 404: HUMANITIES, HISTORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCES SENIOR SEMINAR
Research Interests
Narrative design and fiction writing, historical worldbuilding through applied paleolinguistics, archeogaming
Chapter
Johanna Deane. "In Your Shadow." In Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett, C. Lawrence Gidney, eds., "Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology," Essential Dreams Press, 2025.
Johanna Deane. "When The Devil Comes From Babylon." In Lee Mandelo, eds., "Amplitudes," Kensington Publishing Corp/Erewhon Books, 2025.
Johanna Deane. "A Notorious Intergalactic Criminal." In Ann LeBlanc, eds., "Embodied Exegesis," Neon Hemlock Press, 2024.
Maya Deane. "No Gods, No Kings." In Jenn Northington & S Zainab Williams, eds., "Fit for the Gods," Penguin Random House: Vintage, 2023.
Book
Johanna Deane. "Wrath Goddess Sing." 464 pp. HarperCollins / William Morrow, 2022. ISBN 0063161184.