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
- Caribbean and Caribbean American, African American, Japanese American, and U.S. literatures and cultures
Office Hours
Spring 2013
- TU 12:00-3:30
- and by appointment
Teaching Schedule
Spring 2013
- Not teaching
Research Interests
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Caribbean and Caribbean American literature and culture
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African American literature and culture
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"American" identity
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Japanese Internment literature and culture
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Mythologies of captivity and freedom in U.S. Literature 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.
- Conversations with Paule Marshall, eds. James C. Hall and Heather Hathaway, UP of Mississippi, 2010.
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Honors/Awards
- Summer Faculty Fellowship for “Barbed Art: A Cultural Study of Japanese Internment Camp Aesthetics,” Marquette University, December 2010
- Wisconsin Humanities Council, with Lake Mills Public Library, 2010
- American Council of Learned Societies, 2006-2007
- National Residence Hall Honorary Faculty Excellence Award, 2004.
- Marquette University Sabbatical Fellowship, 2000-2001.
- John P. Raynor Award for Teaching Excellence, Marquette University, 2000.
- American Council of Learned Societies, 1998-1999.
- Summer Faculty Fellowship and Regular Research Grant for “The Harlem Numbers Game: A Study of Ethnic Boundary Crossing,” Marquette University, 1998.
- Summer Faculty Fellowship for “Caribbean Immigrant Literature in the United States: Claude McKay, Paule Marshall, and Jamaica Kincaid,” Marquette University, 1996.
- American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellow, 1992-1993.
- Distinguished Teaching Award, Harvard University, 1990.
English Department
