My scholarly work and teaching reflect an interest in modernist literature and its circulation within African diasporic cultures, including its impact within Africa itself. I am interested in questions of the performativity of literature, cultural exchange, cultural economies and ethics. I conceptualize twentieth century anglophone literature less in terms of finished works and ideas than in terms of their movement, exchange, and translation within transnational circuits.
keywords
modernism, global anglophone literature, British literature, African and Caribbean literature, cultural studies
ENGL 1230 - Environmental Literature
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Spring 2023
This course explores the conjunctions of literature and environments: natural, built, and/or virtual. Students consider literary confrontations with issues such as ecological crises, climate change, human impact on the planet, technics and indigeneity, non-human animals and inhuman agencies, future natures, and environmental justice. Readings may include novels, non-fiction, short fiction, poems, graphic novels, and more.
ENGL 2058 - Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Literature
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020
This course explores how literature, art, and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries responded to the social, political, and economic upheavals that have occurred since 1900. Students will read a selection of modern and contemporary writers from Anglo-American and/or global traditions to help us understand our present moment and to see what made us who we are.
ENGL 2767 - Race, Empire, and the Postcolonial
Primary Instructor
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Summer 2023
When did the sun set on the British Empire? In the twentieth century, countries across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean fought for their independence and built their own literary and cultural traditions while grappling with the legacies of empire. This course explores how authors from these new nation-states wrote about racial oppression; global economic inequalities; the promise of new national identities; the lingering effects of colonialism; and the use of English as a literary language. Same as ETHN 2761.
ENGL 3060 - Modern and Contemporary Literature for Nonmajors
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Summer 2018 / Summer 2019 / Summer 2020 / Summer 2021 / Summer 2022
Close study of significant 20th-century poetry, drama, and prose works. Readings range from 1920s to the present.
ENGL 3068 - Modernisms and Modernity, 1900-1945
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2023
What does it mean to be modern? This course explores the aesthetic and literary experiments that flourished in the early twentieth century, as authors confronted the experience of modernity�urbanization, warfare, changing gender and sexual roles, revolutionary political ideologies, new media, anti-colonial struggles�and sought to rethink the relationship of the present to the past. Students will learn what modernisms are and how writers transformed literary conventions to capture ways of being modern.
ENGL 3078 - Contemporary Literature: 1945 to the Present
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021
This course explores contemporary literature written in English from 1945 to the twenty-first century. Students may read authors writing in British, American, or global Anglophone traditions, and will learn about the different historical trends that shaped experiments in literary and cultural production. We will consider how these texts engage with a range of issues contemporary to us, for instance, politics, racial and sexual identities, economics and globalization, families and intimacies.
ENGL 4039 - Capstone in Literary Studies
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Fall 2019 / Spring 2022 / Summer 2024
Topic varies by section, but all sections include small seminar discussions and focus on an individualized research project related to the topic. This course will draw on skills from previous courses in critical reading, thinking, and writing and will culminate in high-level discussions and in the final project. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours.
ENGL 4098 - Special Topics in the Novel After 1900
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Spring 2021
This is a special topics class where students will study particular historical trends, styles, or themes that shape the 20th- and/or the 21st-century novel. Topics will vary each semester. Check department description for details.
ENGL 4820 - Honors Seminar
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Fall 2023
Prepares prospective honors students to write honors theses. Focuses on sharpening the skills needed to write a successful thesis, including research techniques and the ability to evaluate and respond to secondary materials. Required for Honors in English Literature.
ENGL 4830 - Honors Thesis
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2024
Students accepted to English Departmental Honors are enrolled in this course.
ENGL 5169 - Multicultural/Postcolonial Studies
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2023
Introduces graduate level study of ethnic American and/or postcolonial writing in English, including relevant theoretical discourse. Emphasizes a wide range of genres, forms, historical background, and secondary criticism. Cultivates research skills necessary for advanced graduate study. Topics will vary. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours.
ENGL 6959 - Master's Thesis
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Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Fall 2024
