It is well known that Walter Scott adapted the forms of sentimental fiction for his initial trilogy of novels on Scottish manners and that he drew on philosophical theories of sympathy when conceiving of his characters and placing them in historical relation to one another and to his readership. Scott’s adaptations of sentimentalism and of…[Read more]

El artículo examina el relato de Jack London “La Peste Escarlata” desde la perspectiva de la actual epidemiología evolucionista, sosteniendo que su comprensión pesimista de la dinámica epidemiológica en poblaciones crecientes, y su visión catastrofista de la evolución, son esencialmente correctas y se hallan muy por delante de las ideas recibi…[Read more]

This article examines the concept of ecomasculinity – how masculinities and ecologies interact – through the lens of deep ecology, arguing (following Serpil Oppermann) that Pynchon’s postmodernist boundary collapsing informs deep-ecological interconnections for male characters previously embroiled in negative cycles of patriarchal dominance.…[Read more]

In this short essay I discuss two new translations of Helmuth Plessner’s work, “Political Anthropology,” translated by Nils F. Schott (Northwestern University Press, 2018), and “Levels of Organic Life and the Human: An Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology,” translated by Millay Hyatt (Fordham University Press, 2019).

In Philip Roth’s The Human Stain (2000) and Percival Everett’s Erasure (2001) multiculturalism is described as moralistic and essentialist; both novels present black American male protagonists who feel victimized by multiculturalism. Although critics have maintained that the two novels present a universalist view of American identity, in this cha…[Read more]

This chapter explores links among food, class and gender in two memoirs written by contemporary American expatriates in France. The argument made is that references to French cuisine simultaneously create and resolve the tensions that arise in the texts when the authors describe their ideal and elitist lives to a presumed American female…[Read more]

First presented as a paper at the 2018 SAMLA Convention in Atlanta, this article will become a chapter of my book in progress on the photobooks of the 1930s and 1940s illustrated with the photographs of the Farm Security Administration.

First presented as a paper at the 2018 SAMLA Convention in Atlanta, this article will become a chapter of my book in progress on the photobooks of the 1930s and 1940s illustrated with the photographs of the Farm Security Administration.

A brief talk for a roundtable on the centenary of Langston Hughes’s “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”

This course is a study of the literature of the U.S.-Mexico border from the 1980s to the present. We begin with Gloria Anzaldúa’s foundational texts, Borderlands / La Frontera, and her landmark feminist anthology, co-edited with Cherríe Moraga, This Bridge Called My Back: Radical Writings by Women of Color. We then consider the legacies and aft…[Read more]

This course is a study of Latinx literatures and cultures produced in the last two decades. We will concentrate our attention on how contemporary art works represent and participate in the upheavals of the twenty-first century—9/11, global economic and ecological crisis, mass migration and mass deportation, political and social mobilization, s…[Read more]

The syllabus for science fiction course offered Spring 2021 in the English Department at Davidson College.

Introduction to a special issue on Renaissance post-humanism and its afterlives.

This autoethnographic exploration, describes and reflects upon my attempt to crowdsource a modern myth on the origins of racism in America. It draws on my work in narrative studies with a special focus on stories and their role in human development. Part one is analysis of the ‘functions’ of story as both plot variables and sociological act…[Read more]

VARIEDADES is a Spanish conversation book for the student at the intermediate / advanced intermediate level. Through audiovisual activities, the student is expected to put their previous knowledge into practice and continue to develop their ability to understand, write, listen, and speak in Spanish.
VARIEDADES offers communicative activities…[Read more]

Emily Dickinson’s unique style of poetic composition is marked by ambiguity and open-endedness, leading to the genesis of a privileged space wherein reader and writer are able to meet as co-creators of meaning. As a poet, Dickinson addresses many themes in ways that are subject to countless layers of interpretation. This essay focuses p…[Read more]

Direct and indirect women’s access to the expression of their ideas and wishes on ink and paper has significantly contributed to the construction of the Latin American colonial archive. Nevertheless, this contribution to the area of Latin American women’s studies still remains little known and understudied. The colonial tradition of women’s autho…[Read more]