Heather
Hathaway
Associate Professor
of English
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs,Helen
Way Klingler College of Arts & Sciences
My research
focuses on questions surrounding American identity at the individual,
cultural, and national levels. I have a doctorate in the interdisciplinary
field of American Studies, so I incorporate history, sociology,
and ethnic theory among other disciplines into my examination
of particular topics.
My first book approaches issues of American
identity by investigating how writers Claude McKay and Paule
Marshall depict in poetry, fiction, and autobiographical memoir
the complexities
of being both black and immigrant in the United States. My goal
in this study is to challenge the simplistic — and some might
say
distinctly American — notion of "race" that collapses
national, ethnic, and regional differences within the black
American
community.
My second book project considers how the mythologies
of freedom and captivity have shaped American literary history
and culture, using Japanese internment literature as one of the
primary lenses through which to explore the issue. I also
have
a strong interest in concepts of regional distinctiveness, centering
particularly on the South and the Midwest.
Finally, I love to
teach and offer courses in African American literature and Ethnic
American literature, as well as more broadly-defined American
literature surveys.
Teaching Fields
- American, African American and Ethnic Literature and Studies
Office
Location & Contact
Office
Hours
Teaching
Schedule
Administrative Duties in A&S Dean's office
Research Interests
- American Identity
- Caribbean Literature
- Claude McKay and Paule Marshall
- Mythologies of Captivity and Freedom in literary history and culture
Selected Publications
- Caribbean Waves: Relocating Claude McKay and Paule Marshall. Indiana UP, 1999.
- Race and the Modern Artists. Oxford UP, 2003 (Co-edited with Jeffrey Melnick and Josef Jadab
Honors/Awards
- University Teaching Excellence Award, 2000
