AMS Student Spotlight—Shara Henderson
Name: Shara Henderson
Pronouns: They/she
Contact information: hendersonshara@utexas.edu
Question (Q): What are your research interests, both academic and for fun, while in American Studies at UT!?
Answer (A): If my academic and non-academic interests were put into a Venn diagram, it would probably look like a circle that’s constantly expanding and consolidating. My core interests in abolition, Indigeneity, neurodiversity, and the city of Austin have guided me through countless research inquiries, ranging from K-12 curriculum censorship to the history of substance use and anti-drug rhetoric. I’m also into astrology, which isn’t something I’ve had the opportunity to encounter yet within academia…but I’m getting there.
Q: How did you make your way to American Studies as a discipline?
A: I had very little exposure to American Studies as a field prior to coming to UT, but once I read up on it, it felt very familiar. My interests as an undergraduate were primarily in sexual violence, settler colonialism, and disability justice, which I was hoping I could continue learning about after two years of not using my degree. After looking through several programs, I was most intrigued by this particular department because of its expansive, interdisciplinary approach as well as the innovative work that has come out of it.
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your current work align within American Studies at UT?
A: As someone who’s had their fair share of struggles with academia, I try to take off my “scholar” hat whenever I can and approach my interests simply as a person–as a born-and-raised Austinite when I’m looking at gentrification, as a neurodivergent individual when I’m imagining new means of accessibility, etc.–and I look at all of these things put together to show a bigger picture of who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I’m going. I want for my work to not just be a reflection of myself but also of my friends, family, and community, most of whom live outside the ivory tower. As I’m in my first year of coursework, I haven’t had the opportunity to develop a particular set of methods, but I know that in the future I’d like to find imaginative, emotional means of bringing unheard stories to light.
Q: Are you currently working on any projects, and if so tell us about them!
A: Nothing is set in stone since I’m primarily focused on my classes and TA duties, but I am potentially going to be working with Austin Justice Coalition as well as some other UT students to increase civilian oversight over the procurement of APD’s surveillance technology and provide education on the harm they produce. I’m also regularly coming up with project ideas I don’t have the time to work on, the most recent being a m(app)ing project that highlights all the spaces in between the man-made landmarks that Google maps documents. There could be filters to look at the flora and fauna of Austin, track the movement of different groups of people over time, allow users to submit location-specific stories to create a library of affective geographies of the city, etc. This is definitely ambitious and probably won’t end up actually happening, but if you know about app design and/or mapping and need a project idea, let me know.
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: After being here for a little over a semester, I’ve been fortunate to encounter several brilliant minds that have taught me about topics I wasn’t even aware I didn’t know about. American Studies stretches your mind in all directions, which is both scary and exhausting, but also incredibly rewarding. My cohort, fellow students, professors, and staff have of course provided me with academic support and laughter to get me through these challenges.
Q: What is your favorite thing about AMS at UT?
A: Although the “What is American Studies?” question from outsiders got old quickly, I do think it’s pretty cool to be in a sort of mysterious field where people think they know what it is but they ask you just to be sure only for you to tell them you also don’t quite know. It’s very queer to me. American Studies is whatever you want it to be, and I feel like that’s how academia should be–unburdened by the need to fit within one disciplinary structure.
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and/or students to know about you?
A: For all of my childhood/teenage years I was 100% sure I would be some kind of scientist when I grew up. I was really into astronomy for a while, then switched over to wanting to be in the medical field. My change in direction towards what I’m doing now was mostly thanks to one great professor and one toxic professor in my first year as an undergrad.
AMS Student Spotlight--Lillian Nagengast
Name: Lillian Nagengast
Pronouns: She/Her
Title: PhD Student
Question (Q): What are your research interests, both academic and for fun, while in American Studies at UT!?
Answer (A): Broadly, my research explores the cultural history of gender in the rural United States. I’m interested in how rural women understand their identities and communities. I interrogate this field by engaging with a variety of sources, such as country music, memoir, and feminist zines. More recently, I’ve become interested in how rural women participate in their local economies. Some of my most generative research that came out of my coursework this fall was my final paper for Dr. Beasley’s U.S. Capitalism & Culture course. In that essay, I traced the emergence of multi-level marketing companies in the United States and their long history among rural women. Throughout my time at in American Studies at UT, I hope to continue researching these and other rural women’s economies.
Q: How did you make your way to American Studies as a discipline?
A: I majored in English as an undergraduate, and I have my Master’s degree in English. However, especially in my MA program, I felt that I had outgrown the discipline’s focus on “traditional” literature. I found myself gravitating toward professors whose work pushed the boundaries of the English discipline and whose research explored ideas that affect our daily lives. During my MA program, I also realized that my interests were not represented in canonical literature. I turned to other sources, like television, country music, and memoir. When I began researching doctoral programs, I realized that the professors whose research I admired—as well as my own interests—fell under the discipline of American Studies.
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your current work align with American Studies?
A: Although I’m only in my first year in the program, I feel as though my research has become much richer and layered because of the freedom of not being wedded to a particular method. I draw on a variety of methods in my research, but I engage in quite a bit of close reading of archival sources. This past semester, I conducted several oral history interviews which was new and exciting. Because my research is informed by my personal experiences growing up in rural Nebraska, I think ethnography could be very generative in my future research.
Q: Are you currently working on any projects, and if so tell us about them!
A: I’m excited to share that my essay,“‘Mamas, If Your Daughters Grow Up to Be Cowboys, So What?’: Women Refiguring Rurality and Class in Country Music,” was recently published in the Journal of Working-Class Studies—my first publication! I’m currently gearing up for my next—and final—semester of course work. I’m working on my presentation for the American Society for Environmental Histories Conference in March, “Representing Rural Environmental Histories in Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones and Behn Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
In terms of nonacademic projects, I’m collaborating with a group of rural undergraduate and graduate students to plan a virtual conference for rural students this February (follow me on Twitter @LMNagengast for updates).
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: Although I’ve been in the program for less than a year, I’ve grown tremendously as a researcher, writer, and person. Every faculty member I’ve interacted with in AMS has furthered my research in some way, and I think that is unique to the department. American Studies at UT does not force me to fit my research into a box and encourages me to think broadly across methods and disciplines.
Q: What is your favorite thing about AMS at UT?
A: In American Studies at UT, I feel as if I have the support of the entire department. Because we have faculty and graduate students with such diverse interests, I learn something new from every conversation. I’m tremendously grateful to belong to such a kind, welcoming, and congenial cohort.
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and/or students to know about you?
A: I’m taking crochet classes this semester! If anyone is interested in setting up an ongoing crochet session, let me know :) .
AMS Graduate Student Spotlight—Jonathan Newby
Name: Jonathan Alexander Newby
Pronouns: He/They
Optional—contact information: janewby@utexas.edu, @JonNewbyA (Twitter)
Question (Q): What are your research interests, both academic and for fun, while in American Studies at UT!?
Answer (A): I have many, many different areas of interest! But there are five that I typically cite: digital studies (specifically social media and video gaming), Black and Queer studies, the history and policies of the modern university, urban studies and planning, and the politics and cultures of the Christian Right.
Q: How did you make your way to American Studies as a discipline?
A: When I first entered undergrad at William & Mary, I was set on becoming a sociology and philosophy double major, but we weren’t allowed to declare a major till our second year, and on top of that, I didn’t get into any SOCL or PHIL courses my first semester. I did, however, get into an American Studies seminar as part of my scholar program, which was taught by then-chair Leisa Meyer—Intro to LGBTQIA Studies. After connecting with Dr. Meyer throughout the course and expressing all of my different interests, she thought I would be perfect for American Studies, and she was right! I quickly fell in love, and never looked back. By the way, never did get around to taking a SOCL or PHIL class, but they were still part of my AMST classes in some interdisciplinary way.
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your current work align within American Studies?
A: I considered myself pretty big on ethnography and engaging with community knowledge directly, so I learned a fair bit about interviewing and community archives and, as part of my broader academic mission, making marginalized studies front and center in my work. I did an honors thesis on Black Queer history in America, an independent study on the impact of indie video games to the digital humanities and promoting the creativity of people of marginalized identities, and also a digital ethnography on Black Queer Twitter influencers and organizations. I take those lessons with me into UT AMS in emphasizing the work of the communities that I am studying—"nothing about us without us” sticks with me every day as a research motto to live by, for both my own communities and in doing justice to others wherever possible.
Q: Are you currently working on any projects, and if so tell us about them!
A: I am working on a couple conference proposals! I have never presented at an outside conference before, and since I am on fellowship this year, I figured this would be a great opportunity to try my hand at writing proposals and (hopefully) presenting them to my peers across the country. I proposed a paper on the importance of technology and social traditions (specifically alcohol consumption) in a video game, The Red Strings Club, to the Popular Culture Association (shout-out to Dr. Randy Lewis for turning me onto that opportunity!) which got approved! So, I will be presenting "Cybernetics, Humanity, and the Bar in The Red Strings Club" in San Antonio this spring! And I am currently working to propose to the Cultural Studies Association a paper on the possibilities of Afrofuturism and Black engagement with technology in understanding Black history and current Black movements for justice.
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: UT AMS makes this work possible because, on a personal level, it is engaging and challenging in a productive way. Even though I am just starting out, I still feel that I am being challenged to do more and be more to advance myself as a scholar. It remains an adjustment, but one I am happy to engage with every day, because there is real growth to be had here, and a wide support network to help me in that self-improvement. Many thanks to the AMS professors I’ve had the fortune of meeting or taking courses with thus far, and extra love to my cohort that I’ve gotten to know well and can’t wait to collaborate with more in the semesters to come!
Q: What is your favorite thing about AMS at UT.
A: It has to be the environment! There are a lot of different conceptions of what grad school is like, but from the first time I stepped foot in Burdine, it felt real in the best way possible. I knew this could be a department and a university where I could thrive as a student and a person. Everyone has been so supportive of me through the ups and the downs, and I can say so definitively that this was the right choice for me, because the community that I am now a part of is truly a rock for me even as I am still transitioning and coming into myself, from the older cohorts to the professors I see in passing, if there’s a family to be had in academia, UT AMS is as close as they come.
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and/or students to know about you?
A: I’m actually really proud of this one, but I have a (very amateurish) photography Instagram (@jonphotonewby)! I made it sort of on a whim at a friend’s suggestion and made a New Year’s Resolution to get 100 photos on there in 2022, which I managed to exceed! You’ll find a copious number of shots of the UT Tower, Downtown Austin, and Burdine Hall on my page, so if that suits your fancy, give it a look!
AMS Faculty Spotlight—Dr. Lina Chhun!
Dr. Lina Chhun, Assistant Professor (she/her)
Contact information: lina.chhun@austin.utexas.edu
Question (Q): What are your research interests, both academic and for fun!?
Answer (A): It’s funny because no matter how many times I’m asked this question, I still find it difficult to answer—regarding my research interests. They’re incredibly varied and constantly shifting (which is one of the main reasons I love being situated in American Studies). I’m interested in historical and cultural memory, in transnational forms of knowledge production, in popular culture, in technologies of subjectification (how we come to understand ourselves as subjects moving, living, being in the world), in feminist approaches that move beyond liberal understandings of reparation, freedom, and desire… I also have a somewhat unhealthy addiction to reality television, a kind of love/hate relationship with Bravo TV, in particular (I know, terrible but fascinating). I think I’m probably pretty basic when it comes to my “nonacademic” interests, actually. There are so many courses I’d like to teach here at UT but one I’d like to resurrect from my time as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford is called “All Things Basic,” which is essentially a grab bag of topics loosely related to popular culture trends.
Q: Are you currently working on any projects (academically or otherwise), and if so tell us about them!
A: I’m currently working on my first book manuscript Walking with the Ghost (subtitle continually changes, currently it’s: Silences, Memory, and Cambodian American Histories of Violence), which is something of a deconstruction and reconstruction of my doctoral dissertation, which itself began as a critique of my master’s thesis. Partly due to the nature of return and revision integral to the project, I’m thinking of the book as a methodological intervention… an imperfect exercise in feminist reflexivity necessary to the process of doing research on violence. The book began as a set of oral history interviews conducted over a decade ago with members of my immediate and extended family regarding the Cambodian Holocaust of 1975-1979 and has shifted to become an inquiry into why and how violence registers—in personal narratives, inter- and trans-generationally, in historical, collective, national, and transnational narratives, within archival collections and institutions, and across space and time. I’ve also become especially interested in manifestations of Cold War orientalism—initially in relation to the narrativization of Cambodian history—but also in mainstream cultural productions like the film Eat, Pray, Love and within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Dr. Chhun in Cambodia conducting research!
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your work align with American Studies at UT?
A: I think the nature of my work… is multi-methodological and necessarily interdisciplinary, largely due to my academic training. I utilize a range of methods from autoethnography and other ethnographic methods to archival frameworks to close readings of visual and material cultures. I think this kind of capacious approach to theory and method aligns well with American Studies at UT where folks are doing an amazing range of work, both utilizing and reorienting traditional disciplinary approaches to doing research.
Q: How did you come to American Studies as a discipline?
A: I came to American Studies as a discipline in a highly roundabout way and perhaps like Dr. Steve Hoelscher articulated, somewhat serendipitously. I actually began my doctoral career in Social Psychology, where I first conducted oral history interviews with my family… this too, after shifting from a more policy-focused research trajectory and switching advisors. At the time, I was highly reluctant to do research so explicitly situated at the intersection of the personal, political, and historical… but I was fortunate to encounter some really amazing feminist mentors who were highly supportive of the work, at my first graduate institution and then at UCLA, where I eventually received my PhD in Gender Studies. I came to American Studies during my second round on the academic job market... I had not received formal training in American Studies as an undergraduate or graduate student but drew heavily from American Studies scholarship, especially American cultural studies scholarship, in my own work.
The academic job market was… well, that’s a much longer conversation for another time, perhaps… and the situation has changed somewhat as well, but at the time, part of my struggle was making my work legible to different academic audiences. I was told once when I was a graduate student, that in my transnational feminist approach to Cambodian and Cambodian American Studies, that I was something of a unicorn… and it felt a little bit like that while on the market, especially because of my treatment of gender as an analytic rather than an identity category in the dissertation project. And then I encountered this job posting from UT, with appointments in American Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Asian American Studies, and it seemed too good to be true, but here I am.
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: In so many ways, one of the most significant reflected in my previously narrated experience of the academic job market… American Studies at UT makes my work possible. There’s a real investment in interdisciplinarity and openness to reaching across traditional disciplinary boundaries in the department and a kind of collegial complementarity in terms of methods and training. We have a wonderful intellectual community here.
Q: Favorite thing about AMS at UT?
A: My favorite thing about AMS at UT… I love working with students, in an individual advising capacity but also within the context of the classroom. My own work and thinking always changes and shifts as a result of the conversations and discussions we have, and in graduate seminars especially, when I oftentimes assign texts that are new to me too, there’s a collaborative quality to the knowledge we produce that’s really exciting to me.
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and students to know about you?
A: I love thrifting, for myself as well as my dog, Ivy. One of my favorite things to do is to visit Goodwill and find half-off graphic tee-shirts and sweaters in the children’s section to add to Ivy’s growing wardrobe.
Batman (left) and Ivy (right) wearing their new shirts! Batman is Dr. Chhun’s sisters dog!
AMS Graduate Student Spotlight—Kameron Dunn
Name: Kameron Dunn
Pronouns: he/him
Question (Q): What are your research interests, both academic and for fun, while in American Studies at UT!?
Answer (A): I research the relation between mass consumption, intimacy, and the internet, focusing on how web-based cultures forge new roads to each other to find love and connection. At the center right now is the furry fandom: a spread-out collective of folks interested in anthropomorphic animal art and role-play. I show how furries use fandom-based means like cosplay, convention-going, and visual productions to negotiate self and collective identity among one another and in the broader world.
Q: How did you make your way to American Studies as a discipline?
A: My background and primary methods involve literary studies, so I found my way into the field wanting a broader grasp on the cultural-historical and economic forces that undergird my analyses.
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your work align with American Studies?
A: My work involves a mix of online participant observation, textual analysis, and autoethnography, along with some cultural-historical work, too, which aligns with the interdisciplinary mission of many American Studies scholars.
Kameron Dunn presenting “Fur-gone Con-clusions: Furry Conventions and Transformation, Broadly Speaking” at the American Studies Association conference in New Orleans, November, 2022.
Q: Are you currently working on any other projects, and if so tell us about them!
A: My dissertation, entitled “Cringe Utopia: The Furry Fandom, Vernacular Aesthetics, and the Intimacy of Mass Consumption.” I’m also a freelance culture writer focusing on rural, small-town Texas events, sports, and history.
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: The faculty support along with a nurturing graduate student community and the general flexibility of this program has enabled a lot of experimentation that has helped shape my work and make timely completion possible.
Q: What was your favorite thing about AMS at UT.
I love seeing everyone’s projects grow!
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and/or students to know about you?
A: I make a mean pitcher of sweet tea.
AMS Faculty Spotlight--Stiles Professor in American Studies Emeritus Dr. Jeff Meikle
Q: What are you research interests, both academic and for fun!?
I continue to be intrigued by the impact of new technologies, the changing shapes and meanings of the material world as people become more absorbed in the virtual and digital, and the pursuit of authenticity through artificial media. Now that I'm retired and no longer teaching, I have time to indulge a wide range of interests outside my main areas of research--such as Iain Sinclair's obsessive forays into psychogeography and Orhan Pamuk's deep dives into Turkish history and culture.
Serving as specialist in product design at Design USA, a U.S. government exhibition that toured the Soviet Union, in Alma-Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan, July 1990. Exhibit guide Clint O'Brien is at left.
Q: Are you currently working on any projects (academically or otherwise), and if so tell us about them!
I'm redefining the scope of an ongoing book project on neo-Beats (artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and other cultural producers who appropriated themes and techniques from writers of the Beat generation). With archival research completed on people ranging from Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs to Laurie Anderson, Paul Auster, and Robert Wilson, and articles already published on Anderson, Tom Waits, and on directors such as Wim Wenders and Aki Kaurismäki who made Euro-American road movies, the subject is expanding too much. I'm now downsizing the project so I can complete a manuscript in the next couple years. I'm also trying to recast the project so there may actually be an audience for it. If not, I may veer in some new direction (maybe fiction involving the Aaron Burr conspiracy). I'm also scanning favorite images from thousands of 35mm slides I've taken over the years. Sometimes I wish digital photography was around before I started taking pictures.
Celebrating Vappu (May Day) with Professors Markku Henriksson and Ritva Levo-Henriksson while serving as Bicentennial Fulbright Professor of North American Studies, Renvall Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland, 2003-04.
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your work align with American Studies at UT?
I devoured theory in the 90s while teaching a seminar on postmodern culture and still enjoy reading the occasional dense tome, but my work is best described as old-fashioned pre-theoretical cultural history. Before writing about a topic, I read everything I can find that's remotely related, both primary and secondary sources, until there's nothing left to look at. I take copious notes along the way. Back in the day I wrote on 5x8 note cards, one card for each fact, brief topic, short source, or long quotation. Later I added comments, questions, and directions using colored markers. After reading and taking notes for a project, a process that would take years for a book, I organized the mountain of cards, added more comments on them, shuffled them around, and made lists of topics to cover. Now I type notes into a Word file for each article or book that I've read, eventually copy-pasting and printing out the stuff I really need. Bottom line is that I do all the reading and note taking before I write a single word. Then I start with chapter one and work through to the end. Theory comes in, when needed, as I organize and write, and is mostly relegated to endnotes. If a general reader interested in the subject can't read and enjoy what I've written, then I've failed.
Q: How did you come to American Studies as a discipline?
When I was a sophomore at Brown University in the late 60s, I took a year-long survey course on American literature from Barton St. Armand, a young English professor who organized everything through his own quirky myth-and-symbol categories: the apocalyptic and the transcendental. He happened to be director of Brown's American Civilization program, and I realized in that program I could major in American literature and culture without having to read Chaucer or Spenser, so I did. Later I discovered a more historical but equally open and freewheeling approach studying with Bill Goetzmann, who ran UT's American Studies program during the 1970s. As with so many experiences that turn out to have been formative, American Studies was something I just happened into.
Meeting with Azat Akimbek, an expert on Uighur antiques and decorative arts, in Alma-Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan, July 1990, while serving as specialist in product design at Design USA, a U.S. government exhibition that toured the Soviet Union. Graphic designer Mimi Carroll is at left.
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
During my 40 years on the UT AMS faculty, I was able to teach, research, and write about whatever I wanted. There were no disciplinary borders and sanctions I had to obey. That openness has pros and cons. One of the latter was having very few people around, other than undergrad students taking specialized lecture courses and seminars, to discuss my work with. I think the freedom then provided by American studies outweighed that.
Fourth from left at UT AMS 75th anniversary celebration in November 2016, along with (left to right) the late David Wharton, Tim Davis, Donn Rogosin, Jonathan Silverman, Alicia Barber, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Ray Sapirstein, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Angie Maxwell, Shirley Thompson, Kimberly Hamlin, Joel Dinerstein, Cary Cordova, and Steve Hoelscher. With the exception of Steve, Shirley, and Shelley (who is former faculty), everyone received a Ph.D. from UT Austin.
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and students to know about you?
My birthday is July 2, the actual Independence Day, the date the Continental Congress definitively voted to declare the United States separate from and independent of Great Britain. July 4 is the day the written statement was adopted.
AMS Graduate Student Spotlight—Holly Genovese
Name: Holly Genovese, PhD Candidate
Pronouns: she/they
Contact information: holly.genovese@gmail.com, you can read & subscribe to my substack here: What Is Much?, and to view more thorough & in depth information about my work visit my website!
Q: What are your research interests, both academic and for fun, while in American Studies at UT!?
A: My academic interests are primarily in the ways that aesthetic work reacts and resists the carceral state. My dissertation focuses on cultural production (visual art, memoir, poetry, and hip hop) that is resistant to the carceral state in the Black South (which may or may not be an excuse to listen to Outkast constantly). But I am also working on an anthology of academic and creative work about American Girl Dolls, a memoir, and have taught a class on haunting which I adored.
Q: How did you make your way to American Studies as a discipline?
A: So I was a History and Political Science major as an undergrad and got my MA in American History as well. But more and more I wanted to stretch the bounds of academic history (which I do love) by writing about literature, art, and music in ways that American Studies allowed for and encouraged.
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your current work align with American Studies?
A: So I feel like every chapter of my dissertation project has a different method. I wish I was joking. But I am primarily working in literary criticism, visual culture studies, and popular music studies with influences from ethno-musicology, art history, ethnography, Black studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. I do still have a bit of that archival impulse as well and am currently (digitally) sifting through the Angela Davis papers. My work feels in tune with the field as a whole–it is very much centered on my ideology as a prison abolitionist, my passion for art and literature, and an interest n centering Black studies in my work, all things that I see in the field now (especially with the most recent theme and Keynote at ASA).
Q: Are you currently working on any projects, and if so tell us about them!
A: Well, my dissertation. I am working on this anthology on American Girl Dolls. I am writing a memoir in essays. And I am revising an article on The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia. I am working on bringing a documentary on incarceration to UT and trying to figure out how to integrate haunting into my academic and creative work. I am trying to needlepoint a tiny strawberry.
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: American Studies at UT allowed me to explore all of my academic interests. I got to explore my interests in courses within the department but was also encouraged to go outside of the department to English, AADS, CWGS and to join organizations like E3W. I was encouraged to volunteer with TPEI, which allows me to teach at a women’s prison, a goal I have had since undergrad. And I was encouraged to read everything. My co-advisors Dr. Shirley Thompson and Dr. Samantha Pinto (English) have truly allowed me to embrace my varied and sometimes unmanageable interests.
Q: What is your favorite thing about AMS at UT?
MY FRIENDS DUH. And the sense of community that permeates the department and also the brilliance of all of my fellow students and the faculty.
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and/or students to know about you?
A: My best quality is actually just being my cat Petunia’s human.
A Conversation Between Dr. Steve Hoelscher & PhD Student Amanda Tovar
Amanda Tovar (AT): Hi! To get started, please state your name, title, and pronouns.
Dr. Steve Hoelscher (SH): I am Steve Hoelscher. He, him, his, I've got three titles, I guess. Um, associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts, professor of American Studies and Geography, and Faculty Curator Photography at the Harry Ransom Center.
AT: Oh, wow that’s really interesting! You’re wearing many hats! What are your current research interests. Both for fun and academically!
SH: Interesting? For fun? Well, for fun, I would, I wouldn't even call this research interest, but it's an interest and I eventually want to teach a course on it. And that is, um, the, the cultures of bicycling. It's something that means a lot to me personally. I love riding bicycles. Um, but it's also important professionally because I believe that, um, the best cities, at least that I've been to in terms of quality of life are cities that are good for people to ride bicycles in. So you might not yourself be a bicyclist, but you benefit by living in a city where there's good bicycling infrastructure. So the history of that, how we got to a place where cars are, are hegemonic, uh, I think is interesting and important. So that's something I'm thinking about or read a lot about, and I hope to teach a course on that with my good friend, um, fellow cyclist and fellow UT professor colleague Dr. Dan Birkholz in the Department of English. Um, what was the other part of it?
AT: What do you do? Uh, like academically and for fun?
SH: Ah! Fun. Okay. So that was for fun. So academically, so I've given you, I've made copies of a couple of my most recent articles that'll give you a sense of the work that I'm doing, that one (hands Amanda two articles) is forthcoming in January, um, and this one was published last year (Wounded Landscapes: The Aesthetics of a Damaged Earth). Um, they're both in the area of documentary photography and the relationship of photography to both personally and group identity and to space and place. And that's become something that I've been interested in for quite a few years now. Um, and I've written and taught classes, um, and done a lot of research in that area.
AT: I think this is really fantastic. I, um, you sent me the link, uh, to the museum talk, which I missed again, um, which was very unfortunate for me. But I guess, you know, orals like have kind of taken over my life. And I wanted to ask you like, if I could have a copy of that, of the forthcoming article?
SH: Mm-hmm.
AT: Um, but I was like, I don't know if that's rude.
BOTH: Laughter.
SH: Oh, no. It's nice of you to be interested and ask! Thank you.
AT: No, thank you. I'm super excited about this. Since we are limited on time, what are you currently working on?
BOTH: Laughter.
SH: If, well, actually what I, my thing with bicycles is just sort of a fun hobby. Eventually I hope to teach a course on it. Um, but it's not what I would call serious academic research, but I too have do two projects. Um, one is a Oxford University Press has a series called a very Short Introduction in like, of everything, um, capitalism, Marxism, US History, psychology, Freud, whatever. And I have a contract to write one on documentary photography. And so it is by definition a very short introduction.
SH: Laughs.
AT: Laughs.
SH: So it's supposed to be very short, but it's hard to write on anything of interest in a very sort of condensed way. So that's one thing I'm working on. And then I, I do, I'm trying to collect resources on the long history of documentary photography, but also it's contemporary practices, and I've been doing some research sort of ongoing on this.
The second is a project that I began, oh, probably half a dozen years ago, that's based on a, um, collection at the Harry Ransom Center of a journalist who in the early 1930s tried to, um, end, um, chain gang incarceration in the Jim Crow south by exposing the atrocities of that practice through photography. Um, the Ransom Center has a small collection of both his photographs and his writing on this particular project. Um, I'm interested in it for a couple reasons. One is, um, it, it, it just, that's a part of American history that I do not believe, um, is really well understood. But yet it's incredibly important, this sort of bridge between both, um, slavery and today's mass incarceration is this moment of convict leasing and chain gang labor. Um, and, and secondly, it feels, uh, in many ways very contemporary. Um, he, his name was John L Spivak was not successful in addressing or helping change, um, attitudes in the way that he believed his photographs should and would.
Um, but we're seeing, of course, during the summer of 2020 with protests after the murder of George Floyd, which became apparent to the world because of the video images taken by a young woman named Darnella Frazier at that scene, that moment helped trigger the response to these atrocities in a way that this photojournalist was not able to do. So that's what I'm working on now. And that's also a book project. Um, mean I published a little bit on that. I could, if you're interested, I could send you that just to absolutely give you kind of a sense of what that's like. That that's a, and I've done a lot of research on that.
SH: Laughs.
AT: Laughs.
AT: Yes.
SH: But with work right now it makes it difficult to find much time to work on all of these projects.
AT: I was about to ask; how do you have the time to do all of this?
BOTH: Laughter.
SH: Well, you, I mean, it's, it's, it's sort of put on hold, honestly. Okay. Um, I mean, I, I'm, I'm working on it. Um, whenever I can writing little bits and pieces, um, I've made, you know, I, I keep making conference presentations on it to get feedback on this. I take a lot of notes, so it's moving along, but it's, it's going much slower than would be ideal.
AT: I can only imagine. Um, you know, you mentioned having three, three full titles, you know, and working on several projects at one time like that. And like, I'm struggling to find the time, like, and I'm a baby academic, like, ooh, that sounds, difficult.
SH: No, but I mean, but you are, you also have a really busy life. I recognize that. I remember what that's like. I mean, you are reading everything under the sun and you are also teaching a course and you're thinking about you own research. Um, that is a full-time job also, which I, I honor and respect.
BOTH: Laugh
AT: Oh it absolutely is a full time job. Um, so I guess like for the sake of time, ‘cause we only have five minutes, uh, what methods do you, do you utilize the most in your research and how do you feel your work, um, aligns with American studies at UT specifically?
SH: Well, I should say, so I'm trained in history and geography, and I bring the tools of a geographer but also a historian, um, to what I work on. Um, what I've described in sort of history of photography is more sort of obviously cultural history. And so those methods are the sort that anybody doing visual culture studies, um, brings to bear in their research. And for me, an archive is, um, finding a photographic archive in working through that photographic archive is central to what I do. I'm really, I mean, it's not enough just to look at interesting pictures. I really am interested in looking at the stories behind the creation of those pictures and the work that those pictures do. And so you need to have, um, a wide array of materials that you're, you know, at your disposal to do that kind of work. Um, my other training is in geography and that's probably most apparent, honestly now in, in this part of my career, my, in my teaching.
Um, I have published a lot in geography, but actually I'll share this with you. This was my, uh, mentor in graduate school. He just died. Um, his name was, Yi-Fu Tuan, here's a picture of him as graduate student in Berkeley. He worked on geo morphology in Arizona. Um, this is me Yi-Fu and a couple years ago. Uh, and then this is his obituary. In fact, I might, I'm gonna give this to you. Okay. But that's an extra copy, so then you can read about him. He was a very important person to help me develop who I am. And he's, but I mean, isn't that great? Yeah.
AT: He’s so cute!
SH: Laughs.
SH: You know, look this. He, it really invented a field, and I think that's reasonable to say of humanistic geography in what he meant by that is trying to put the human directly in human geography and the way that humans interact with are affected by and change the environments in which they live and dwell. That was e's great project. And so for me, that's like big underneath, um, question or issue that I deal with. And I now, I, it's probably most apparent in my teaching and I still am teaching a course even though I have this, this, uh, this job that feels like eight days a week. Um, in the summer I teach a study abroad course in Vienna, Austria. Um, and the theme of the course is, um, “Memory in the City.” And I'm interested in how different elements of the urban landscape, um, communicate a sense of collective memory, but also collective forgetting.
Um, and these are things of course that we find, you know, in our own city, in our own campus, in our own culture. But Vienna is an interesting place to, to look at that. Um, I, I consider it to be an interesting American Studies course because I believe that in many ways the best way to think about our own places is from outside our places. And so the United States, Austin becomes, I think in many ways, more legible once we're outside the United States. And we compare our own challenges of memory with what Austrians are dealing with. And I just happened to pick Austrian ‘cause it's a place I know, well, I speak to language, um, but one can find questions of memory and free forgetfulness in, I would say any culture. And I know our, um, my colleague in American Studies, Dr. Lina Chhun has worked on this a lot. Um,
So how is it connected to these sort of things connected to American Studies at UT? Well, I think all of us, whether we're trained in history or not, do have a commitment to understanding how the past impacts and shapes our lives. Um, we take that commitment to understanding the past seriously. Um, I think what I bring to the department is a geographical perspective. Um, and then also many people in the department work in different aspects of visual culture. And so I, I think that's, that is the strength of the department. I, I hope that I can add a little bit to that.
AT: That's, like, so fantastic to hear you talk about, like the collective like memory, but also forgetfulness. Um, cause I feel like my research is, I mean, I'm from south Texas and so like my research is primarily, like from a bordered perspective, right?
SH: Mm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.
AT: Um, but what I'm really looking at right now is like agriculture and the way that agriculture kind of shaped the city. And um, at first I had a very pessimistic view of it because I was like, oh, this is colonizers world, like fruits, like how, like why is it so like etched onto our identity? Right. Um, ‘cause I don't know if you're familiar with the fact that, um, south Texas is one of like, our, our number one export is grapefruits.
SH: Yes. Mm-hmm.
AT: Um, and so, um, there was like this whole thing when, um, Four Corners Brewery launched their like grapefruit beer, like the Queen Bee.
Um, and the grapefruits that they selected were from South Texas and everybody was like, so happy and excited. I was, you know, like a baby graduate student, a master’s student actually, like, just viewing the world critically and only in this like, very pessimistic. Um, and I was like, how dare—are you really going to be happy about this? Like, oh. Like, it was just like, I had like such a visceral response to it. Um, but then as I started my like, time here at UT Austin, I kind of had a different approach to it that was like more positive, um, because I was like, wait a minute. Like people in south Texas have sort of like reclaimed this right. And, uh, made it our own. So like, we have like grapefruit queens in citrus festivals and it's just like very different things. Um.
SH: What what led you to change your, your view on that, do you think?
AT: Um, honestly, reading all of the (ASA) presidential addresses and, oh, Dr. Carry Cordova! Mainly Cary! She, um, assigned this one reading about, um, I can't remember the author, but basically just like how everybody just wants to like critique things, but like, nothing really formidable comes from that. So then, um, and she like gave us this reading in the fall of 2020. So then my 2020, like New Year's resolution was like, I'm not gonna critique anything unless I have a solution. And so like that really like shifted like my perspective on everything.
SH: That's awesome.
AT: Yeah.
BOTH: Laughter.
AT: It shifted my perspective on everything. Yeah. She's, she's really fantastic.
SH: She is, yes.
AT: I’m so sorry that I was late. I was so lost. Um, but I guess there are two other questions. One of 'em being, or two, two of 'em are, um, how did you come to American Studies? And then another one is how does UT make your work possible? Maybe if you wanna send that to me in an email, but one thing I'm really interested in, in hearing and having a first first-hand visual response is on what is your favorite thing about American Studies at UT?
SH: Well, three, gosh, three, three big questions. So my favorite Yeah. Thing about UT American Studies I would say, can I say a couple things?
AT: Mm-hmm.
SH: One is I've always found the com the community to be simultaneously, intellectually engaging in all sorts of incredibly interesting and important issues from multiple viewpoints. People are, are curious, they're hardworking, they really care about what they do, they take it super seriously. At the same time, it's a, a community that I found to be incredibly warm and generous and supportive. I think it's fair to say that that combination is not shared universally in every academic department in the country. And we are really fortunate to be in a place that is so simultaneously supportive but also high powered and energetic. I mean, so when I got here from, uh, my first job was at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I came here and I recognized a couple of things. It's like, oh my God, everybody here's a great teacher!
SH: Laughs.
SH: I better really up my game! And then secondly, oh my goodness, everybody is an amazing scholar who are publishing works all over the place and all these important issues. And so I just felt, um, like I would, I I landed at the best place imaginable for me.
I mean, American study is also, I love the, the open nature of intellectual inquiry. Like one of the things that bore me about geography was the question I heard in grad school. So how was this geography? I thought how, to me, those disciplinary boundaries seem so unimportant and dull. And I got that from Yi-Fu ‘cause he was never interested in that either. Uh, but we both thought of ourselves as geographers. And for me, geography is best when it's asking interesting questions in, in using multiple approaches. And that attitude was kind of at the core of the DNA of what American Studies was.
AT: I would agree.
SH: Yeah. Is it, do you like it?
AT: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean because I mean, I never had really considered myself, um, someone who was like a geographer. Cause I have no training whatsoever in that. But yesterday, like during my oral exam, at the end of it, everybody was like, are like, are you a geographer? Like really all of my responses were really very place-based. Oh. And, um, so like hearing you talk about this, I'm like, yeah, like I resonate with this like so hard, like because I think that like there is a human component to like geography and like where we are and what does that mean and how does it, how do we affect geography and how does geography affect us? I mean especially because as I mentioned, I'm like researching grapefruits and then so there's a way that geography affects us and our identity, right?
SH: Mm-hmm.
AT: But then we affected the geography by bringing them and cultivating them.
*At this point Dr. Hoelscher & Amanda ran out of time during the interview, and Dr. Hoelscher sent the rest of his responses via email. They are as follows:
Question (Q): How did you come to American Studies as a discipline?
Answer (A): By comparison to many in the field, I came to American Studies rather late, and at a moment of serendipity. What I mean is that, during a research leave from my first tenure-track job at LSU, where I was teaching in the Department of Geography and Anthropology, two things happened. First, I was contacted by the editor of American Quarterly to write a review essay on performance and ethnographic encounter in the United States. Then, within weeks, a friend from graduate school sent me a copy of a job ad for the position at UT AMS. The timing of these two events seemed uncanny. Afterall, I had no formal training in American Studies (Wisconsin, for reasons I still don’t quite understand, didn’t have an American Studies program), so my “training” in the field was informal. I took classes in History and Anthropology, which introduced me to American Studies, reading deeply into what I now recognize to be the discipline’s canon, without really even naming it. My mentors in Geography also encouraged me to read and research topics well beyond the boundaries of that field. It seemed like a stretch to apply for the job, but a couple of the areas that the department highlighted fit me well, most notably cultural geography and public history. I’ve felt at home ever sense.
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: American Studies at UT has made my work possible in all sorts of ways, both large and small. Most importantly, colleagues—many of whom are true peer mentors— have always encouraged me to follow whatever directions my interests have led, even if the destinations were not entirely clear. I’ve always felt supported by very smart, extremely dedicated scholars. These colleagues are leaders in the field, but also kind, compassionate people, who care about each other and the students who are part of our community. The older I get and the more experienced I’ve become makes me realize how rare and precious that combination is.
Q: Fun fact about you that you'd like your colleagues to know!
A: I’ve skied the 55 km American Birkebeiner race six times; and my favorite symphony is Beethoven’s Seventh, but I can’t really tell you why.
AMS Graduate Student Spotlight—Coyote Shook
Name: Coyote Shook
Pronouns: they/them
Title: PhD Candidate
Q: What are your research interests, both academic and for fun, while in American Studies at UT!?
A: My research is interested in the interacting histories of disability, capitalism, and the ocean in US history. I also have an emerging interest in including Arctic Studies as something that binds the three more clearly. The irony of an emerging interest in the Arctic when it is in the process of shuffling off this mortal coil is not lost on me. Maritime history has always interested me, but it wasn’t until I was working on my oral exams that I noticed an opportunity for more scholarship that might bridge eco-crip studies and blue humanities. I didn’t see as much research on ocean environments and disability,, even though water fundamentally challenges our conception of “able-bodiedness” and gives people an accessible frame of reference for accommodations. For example, a scuba tank is a form of accommodation, as are flippers, diving masks, etc. Yet we seldom think of them in those terms. I found that to be a really interesting application of critical disability studies, and I dove in, so to speak.
For my dissertation (which I’m presenting as a graphic novel), I’m specifically looking at the history of whaling in America through a disability lens. Whaling was once one of the largest industries in the US and was a significant source of energy prior to the discovery of crude oil in Pennsylvania around the time of the Civil War. From a disability perspective, this was work with low pay and a high risk of “maiming” that left many whalers permanently disabled from amputation, heatstroke, illness, and insanity. I’m attempting to position the Yankee whale boat as a form of “water factory” and apply disability histories of factories in the Industrial Revolution to the process of making whale oil on ships thousands of miles from dry land. Next, I’m attempting to examining whales in contemporary environmental discourse. While people erroneously assume 19th century whaling significantly damaged whale populations, whales are faring worse now from collisions with cargo ships and sound pollution, despite their status as charismatic megafauna. I’m interested in bridging questions of “empathy’ for the environment and for disabled people under late capitalism. Considering that disabled people are disproportionately like to be impacted by climate change, I’m seeking to challenge the limits of “empathy” when it comes to ocean and water justice.
For fun, I really, really enjoy cooking, drawing comics, depression naps, archery, swimming, and ruining low-stakes game nights by being overly competitive.
Q: How did you make your way to American Studies as a discipline?
A: I’ve always been drawn to interdisciplinary fields when it comes to research. When I was in undergrad, I really loved fusing subjects. It probably helped that I studied literature, gender studies, and US history. When I went back to graduate school, I figured out pretty quickly that I was an Americanist because of all the “newness” (both good and bad) of United States histories and cultures. My MA thesis analyzed blizzards and frostbite on the 19th century Great Plains. I would not have been able to do the research I did without fusing literary studies, history, and gender studies. Furthermore, I love the freedom that AMS offers when it comes to what is considered research. There is much more space in this field for public-facing creative research that is designed to give access points for non-academics. Things like The Wisconsin Death Trip have been hugely influential on my work and my own fluctuating definitions of my research. Similarly, I find the kinds of questions emerging in the field to be stimulating, challenging, and growth-oriented.
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most? How does your current work align with American Studies?
A: In terms of methods, the overarching approaches in my work are critical disability studies and comics-as-research. In terms of overlap, I’m trying to take a public-facing, climate justice-oriented approach to research. As many American scholars have noted, the goal of our work should be rooted in social justice and innovative approaches to making out work broadly accessible. While that’s still certainly a work in progress for me, I feel my research has improved vastly by utilizing AMS methodology. I’m drawing a lot of inspiration from a mix of artists, writers, and scholars, such as: Andy Kirk, Sunaura Taylor, Lucia Berlin, Julie Buffalohead, Ellen Samuels, Sami Schalk, Leonora Carrington, Lisa Noring, Joe Sacco, Thi Bui, Jina B. Kim, Cynthia Wu, Jack Davis, Rachel Carson, Manuel Rodriguez Lozano, Juli Berwald, Rafael Zarza Gonzalez, and Grace Hale. I’m also doing a bit more reading into American Studies scholarship on bioacoustics and sound studies, both of which are really fascinating, especially when put in conversation with critical disability studies. Finally, I’m trying to think through Alaska and Arctic studies through an American Studies lens and the place of both of those topics in the history of energy, which has been challenging and requires a lot of “suturing,” but has also introduced me to a lot of great work many Alaskan and Arctic scholars have been doing.
Q: Are you currently working on any projects, and if so tell us about them!
A: Firstly, I’m trying to learn the Wednesday Addams dance. Of lesser importance, I’m working on my dissertation, Ahab’s Leg: a Disability History of American Whaling in Pictures. While it’s a way off, I’m also working on two other projects: a graphic novel about the history of mermaids in America and a graphic novel about Anna Nicole Smith.
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: In addition to having such wonderfully intelligent and generous people on my committee, faculty across the department have been so kind and thoughtful with their suggestions and recommendations that have moved my research forward. One faculty member who I met with in office hours last year emailed me a great article on bioacoustics because they remembered it was of interest to my research on recording whale “songs.” Another gave me great resources about the history of whaling in Hawai’i and the impact it had on colonization. Furthermore, I’m supremely fortunate to have the professional and personal community I’ve been able to form with several of my fellow graduate students. Being able to learn more about and celebrate each other’s interests has made me feel part of a larger community trying to do new things in the field. It also gave me new colleagues whose feedback and insight I trust wholeheartedly and whose friendships I deeply value.
Another thing that sets AMS at UT apart from other programs is their willingness to wade into new territory when it comes to how research is presented. I’d heard from graduate students employing nontraditional research methods (such as creative and/or multimedia dissertations) at other programs that faculty might be initially friendly to new types of research but would try to funnel you into a more traditional model later on. However, that was the total opposite of my experience here. Not only were my committee members supportive, they also gave me suggestions and professional contacts for people doing similar research. My committee has consistently shown a commitment to graduate students producing excellent work, and I appreciate them holding my unorthodox graphic novel dissertations to high standards.
Q: What is your favorite thing about AMS at UT.
A: To call it an Island of Misfit Toys would probably seem condescending on the surface because this is such a phenomenal group of gifted and prodigious scholars. No misfits here. However, what I love about this program is that such a wide variety of research is represented and how so little of it fits within neat boxes. The fact that people in this program can take such complex and fascinating topics and make brilliant, unique, and insightful connections is a testament to the caliber of this space. We have such a plethora of experts that cover so many different topics and fields in this space that it becomes overwhelming. Walking around in a UT AMS event, you could hear conversations about Titanic, sharks, murder clowns, the Alamo, HIV/AIDS memorials, dinosaurs, digital borderlands, banana imports, and pretty much anything else you could imagine related to US culture and history. It’s a wonderfully stimulating space and people have genuine love and affection for their research topics. I cannot remember one event, academic or social, in this department that didn’t end with me wanting to go home and immediately research more about something I overheard.
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and/or students to know about you?
A: I spent my undergraduate years convinced I’d get my PhD in medieval studies and become a Chaucer expert. I still have my mom’s Riverside Chaucer that she used at school in the 80s, and it’s one of my favorite possessions (along with my first edition copy of Silent Spring). I’m still a sucker for medieval and Renaissance history and will put on Ruth Goodman specials when I have down time and need to unwind. I also love Renaissance fairs and go to at least one per year. It’s deeply uncool. It’s probably a cry for help.
AMS Graduate Student Spotlight—Giulia Oprea!
Question (Q): What are your research interests, both academic and for fun, while in American Studies at UT!?
Answer (A): Broadly I’m interested in exploring the contradictions of technology. I’m not concerned with perpetuating the binary arguments of “technology is good” or “technology is bad” because that is reductive in many ways. So, I’m interested both in how it generates and reproduces social power structures while also existing as a tool of social control and oppression. But I am also interested in what the liberatory possibilities of and with technology might be—if there are any. I think there is a productive tension to be explored there. Specifically I’m interested in how these ideas are reflected in science fiction and speculative fiction. What do these stories tell us about our anxieties, contentions, and hopes about technology and our relationship to it? How might we learn from these stories and how might they help us reimagine alternative, radical, and liberatory futures?
Q: How did you make your way to American Studies as a discipline?
A: Believe it or not, in my more credulous days, I used to be a Political Science major. I found the discipline to lack to the critical edge that I craved, but I didn’t really have the language to express what I desired then. During my first year as an undergraduate student at California State University, Fullerton (CSFU), I took two AMS courses—Intro to Pop. Culture and American Character—which blew my mind at the time. Those two courses shifted everything for me academically. I liked it so much that I switched majors and after graduating I decided to pursue my MA in American Studies. And now here I am in the midst of my second year at UT!
Q: What is the nature of your work? What method(s) do you utilize the most?
A: This is a good question—and one I am still working on answering myself. My work is always aimed against dominant narratives, while seeking to (re)center the stories that we didn’t get to hear growing up—the ones that didn’t make it into the mainstream because they disrupt those neat little narratives that have been carefully crafted to uphold certain American ideals. My aim is to encourage people to think critically, to question everything, and to see a more nuanced picture of the way things are. More importantly my aim is to reimagine how things could be. As such, my approach aims to be anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, as well as inherently abolitionist. I’m inspired greatly by scholars like Sylvia Wynter, Frantz Fanon, Vine Deloria Jr., Achilles Mbembe, Alexander Weheliye, Eric Stanley, Nick Estes, Cedric Robinson, Edward Said, Hortense Spillers, Eve Tuck, Simone Browne, Saidiya Hartman, Ruha Benjamin, Catherine Steele Knight, and so many others.
Q: Are you currently working on any projects, and if so tell us about them!
A: I am currently reading for my oral exams! The experience is invaluable, and I feel like my brain is getting bigger every day. I’m lucky to be working with wonderful and brilliant group of professors: Dr. Lina Chhun, Dr. Iván Chaar López, and Dr. Erin McElroy. I also have two conferences coming up in the Spring—I’ll be presenting “JFK Reloaded: Another Shot at Reexamining the Conspiracy Through a First Person Shooter” at Southern Humanities in January as well as “Knight Rider: A Shadowy Flight into the World of Technology and A.I. in the 80s” at the Pop Culture Conference in April. Over the summer I’m hoping to curate a science fiction/speculative fiction journal and will soon be putting out a call for short stories and art!
Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible?
A: Because of AMS’s interdisciplinary nature, my academic horizons have always felt limitless. Being in the field for a while now, both here and at CSUF, American Studies has really allowed me to follow my heart in producing not only the type of work that I think is important but also the type of work that I genuinely enjoy and am passionate about. I never thought that I would be able to write about science fiction in such a meaningful and critical way and I feel quite lucky to have the space and support to do that.
Q: What is your favorite thing about AMS at UT.
A: I’ve met some wonderful professors, colleagues, and staff here that have, and continue to, provide me with inspiration, support, and opportunity.
Bonus Q: What is a fun fact about you that you would like your colleagues, peers, and/or students to know about you?
A: I’m currently learning to play the piano!