This paper will be presented at the upcoming South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) conference Nov.3-6 in Jacksonville, FL. The research is a part of my thesis project that will be completed in spring 2017.

In this brief paper, I first introduce Gwendolyn Brook’s “The Anniad,” a 43-stanza ballad at the center of her 1949 Pulitzer-prize winning collection, Annie Allen. Next, I make a case that “The Anniad” is informed by a medievalism combining Brooks’ girlhood reading and the physical environment of Bronzeville, her Chicago neighborhood. Finally, I…[Read more]

Title of short story: WHITING RICH AND STRANGE

A story of ethnic people in an oil refinery town in NW Indiana.
Comments are most welcome. This is part of a series of stories based in the industrial part of Chicago’s Indiana suburbs.

I am also placing the story in the Shakespeare group because–after all–it is a Romeo and Juliet story.…[Read more]

The members of the MLA Committee on the Literatures of People of Color in the United States and Canada noted at a recent meeting that they often make generalizations about humanities doctorate recipients and faculty members of color that would benefit from the light that systematic national data might shed on them. This report responds to the…[Read more]

Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature is the first anthology exploring human cognition and literature in the context of early modern Spanish culture. It includes the leading voices in the field, along with the main themes and directions that this important area of study has been producing. The book begins with an overview of the…[Read more]

Here’s a key paragraph:
“This chapter will be an exploration of the heritage function of Vikings in America. It will look at their presumptive whiteness, from the early nineteenth century, through the real mania for all things Viking in the mid to late nineteenth century, and on to present day fascinations with the Norse in popular music,…[Read more]

For an MLA panel, January 2016, this talk recalls the 2014 crisis at the University of Virginia about an alleged fraternity gang rape, discusses the policy on sexual assault that designates “responsible employees,” and proposes measures: change drinking laws; avoid segregating any space by identity; offer responsible parties. Humanities professors…[Read more]

This syllabus describes a group of meetings among faculty, proposing a sustained course of study in which we would ask:
1) Can humanities methods be made available to the public?
2) Do digital methodologies capture and operationalize humanities principles, advance humanistic methodologies, or impede humanities work?

This course focuses on developing skills of close reading and literary analysis, both in class discussion and in assignments, through the study of major black writers. This section will be a study of global black literature—novels, drama, and poetry—written in English from the twentieth century to the present. We will consider how major aut…[Read more]

English 3386 equips students for critical encounters with the texts, images, sounds, and situations that constitute American life, politics, history, and culture. This section is organized around the theme of “Versioning Digital Humanities.” Many texts go through various “versions” as they are revised for republications, corrected for new edition…[Read more]