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Social media, texting, and instant messaging: these are all examples of 21st-century technology that is changing the way we read and write. Instead of declaring the death of the book, we will consider how print and digital literacy converge in a participatory culture that produces creative work, encourages collaboration, and shapes the flow of information. Our approach to what constitutes a "text" will be flexible and may include blogging, texting, media boards, videomaking, podcasting, wikis, etc. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. Prerequisite: ENGL 111 or 121. This course replaces ENGL 112 as the second course in the core Literature and Writing sequence. ENGL 190 students should take an ENGL 205 or above literature course to satisfy the core Literature and Writing requirement.
Social media, texting, and instant messaging: these are all examples of 21st-century technology that is changing the way we read and write. Instead of declaring the death of the book, we will consider how print and digital literacy converge in a participatory culture that produces creative work, encourages collaboration, and shapes the flow of information. Our approach to what constitutes a "text" will be flexible and may include blogging, texting, media boards, videomaking, podcasting, wikis, etc. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. Prerequisite: ENGL 111 or 121. This course replaces ENGL 112 as the second course in the core Literature and Writing sequence. ENGL 190 students should take an ENGL 205 or above literature course to satisfy the core Literature and Writing requirement.
Both Frank Sinatra and Alicia Keys sing about New York as a place of endless possibility--it's the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, and if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere. Cities have long occupied a place in the national imagination as the engines for the American Dream--work hard, make money, become successful--and in this way, have become highly charged symbols for national identity and ideologies. This class will examine the ways writers over the twentieth century have imagined cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago that construct and interrogate these mythologies of success and alchemical transformation. We will consider how authors have written about the role of race, class, and gender in their literary creations of space, place, and urban community. Possible authors covered include Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Nella Larsen, Carl Sandburg, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ann Petrie, Grace Paley, Mike Davis, Elmore Leonard, Sandra Cisneros, and Alejandro Morales. This course satisfies the Human Diversity requirement of the core curriculum and the Diversity Literature requirement for English majors. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 111/121 and ENGL 112/ 201-204, or ENGL 190.
Students will read and write about literary texts critically and closely. The course emphasizes recursive reading and writing processes that encourage students to discover, explain, question and clarify ideas. To this end, students will study a variety of genres as well as terms and concepts helpful to close analysis of those genres. They will practice various forms of writing for specific audiences and purposes. Students will reflect on and develop critical awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses as readers and writers.
The study of significant American authors from the turn of the century to the present. This survey course will consider the diverse literary, cultural, and historical contexts from which the American literary tradition has been formed. Possible authors studied include Hemingway, Faulkner, Hurston, Wright, Morrison, Cather, Wharton, Rich, and O'Neill. Prerequisites: ENGL 111 and 112 or 190
The study of significant American authors from the turn of the century to the present. This survey course will consider the diverse literary, cultural, and historical contexts from which the American literary tradition has been formed. Possible authors studied include Hemingway, Faulkner, Hurston, Wright, Morrison, Cather, Wharton, Rich, and O'Neill. Prerequisites: ENGL 111 and 112 or 190
Academic History
M.A., Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin B.A. DePaul University At St. Thomas since 2009
Expertise/Specialties
Mexican American Literature Latino Literatures Urban and Working-Class Literature Chicana Feminisms Race and Place in American Literature Latinos/as in Film, Art, and Popular Culture
Selected Publications
“Revolutionary Dreams and Folkloric Practice: Radical Labor Politics in the Work of Carlos A. Cortez and Richard Wright.” Forthcoming, Interior Borderlands: Writings on Latina/o Literature of Chicago and the Midwest, ed. William Barillas, University of Illinois Press.
Interview with Ramon Saldívar. Ethnic and Third World Review of Books, University of Texas, Spring 2008.
Rev. of Lost City Radio, by Daniel Alarcón. The Austin American-Statesman, 18 Feb. 2007: J05.
Rev. of the Gloria Anzaldúa Papers. Ethnic and Third World Review of Books, University of Texas, Spring 2007.
Selected Presentations
“So Far from Aztlan, So Close to the Borderlands: Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo, and Mexican Chicago Literature.” Paper presented at the American Comparative Literature Association, New Orleans, LA, April 2010.
Invited speaker, inaugural Américo Paredes Literature & Letters Award ceremony honoring Ana Castillo, Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas, Austin, May 2009.
“Revolutionary Dreams and Folkloric Practice: Radical Labor Politics in the Work of Carlos Cortez and Richard Wright.” Paper presented at the American Studies Association conference, Albuquerque, NM, October 2008.
“In the Master’s House: Chicago Space, Race, and Labor in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Richard Wright’s Native Son.” Paper presented at the Conference of Ford Fellows, Washington D.C., September 2008.
“Blogueando: Chicano/a Bloggers and the Construction of Gender Identity.” Paper presented at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference, Boston, MA, April 2007.
“Fea is as fea does: Revisions and Reiterations of Latina Beauty in Ugly Betty.” Paper presented at the SW/TX Popular/American Culture conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2007.
“Work for Whoever Wants It? Race, Gender, and the Promise of Work in the City of Big Shoulders in Ana Castillo’s Peel My Love Like An Onion.” Paper presented at the Society for the Study of American Women Writers, November 2006, Philadelphia, PA.
“Latina Literature and Trends in Mainstream Publishing.” Paper presented at the Latina Letters Conference, San Antonio, TX, July 2005.
“‘For those who cannot out’: Textual Differences in Three Editions of The House on Mango Street.” Paper presented at the South Central Modern Language Association Conference, Houston, TX, October 2005.
Awards
Dissertation Fellow 2008-2009 Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships
Borderlands Research Award College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin, Spring 2007
Alternate selection Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships, April 2004
