Biography
I hold a joint appointment in English and in Women's and Gender Studies; my interdisciplinary academic home works for me because I work at the intersection of several disciplines: feminist theory, American literature, medicine, and disability studies. I have long been interested in the ways that a medicalized view of the body shapes not just our perceptions of other peoples’ bodies, but of our own. I started from American novels of the mid-nineteenth century that had plots centered on women’s illnesses, but I have—in the more than 20 years I’ve been working on this question—ended up branching out to lots of different texts (ads, science fiction film, advice books, and photography to name a few). The questions I ask have to do with how those texts use, invoke, or create a techno-scientific (or pseudo-techno-scientific) discourse to enframe bodies. My courses often focus on non-standard bodies: technologically enhanced bodies or bodies with disabilities or illnesses.
My scholarship has focused for the last several years on the cultural discourses of breast cancer, from autobiographies to novels, poetry, and art, and from Supreme Court decisions to pink-ribbon campaigns. In addition to my work on bodies and cultural representation, I have published essays on American fiction, feminist theory, and narrative theory, as well as anthologies of feminist literary theory and of women’s literature.
My teaching covers a pretty wide range; over the last twenty years, I have taught more than forty different courses, from introductory classes to graduate seminars, and in both English and Women’s Studies. I frequently teach both literary and feminist theory. Some of my other favorites have included: Toni Morrison and Critical Race Theory; Aliens, Monsters, and Cyborgs in Science Fiction Film; American Novel after the Bomb; and Bodies and Technology: Reading Gender in the Posthuman Era.
Academia has taken me around the country; a native Texan, I did my graduate work at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). I taught in Vermont, New Mexico, and Iowa before moving to USF.
My scholarship has focused for the last several years on the cultural discourses of breast cancer, from autobiographies to novels, poetry, and art, and from Supreme Court decisions to pink-ribbon campaigns. In addition to my work on bodies and cultural representation, I have published essays on American fiction, feminist theory, and narrative theory, as well as anthologies of feminist literary theory and of women’s literature.
My teaching covers a pretty wide range; over the last twenty years, I have taught more than forty different courses, from introductory classes to graduate seminars, and in both English and Women’s Studies. I frequently teach both literary and feminist theory. Some of my other favorites have included: Toni Morrison and Critical Race Theory; Aliens, Monsters, and Cyborgs in Science Fiction Film; American Novel after the Bomb; and Bodies and Technology: Reading Gender in the Posthuman Era.
Academia has taken me around the country; a native Texan, I did my graduate work at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). I taught in Vermont, New Mexico, and Iowa before moving to USF.
Courses
The Politics of Women's Health
Body Politics (graduate)
Literature by Women of Color
British/American Literature by Women
Advanced Feminist Theory (graduate)
Body Politics (graduate)
Literature by Women of Color
British/American Literature by Women
Advanced Feminist Theory (graduate)
Publishings
"Our Breasts, Our Selves: Identity, Community, and Ethics in Cancer Autobiographies." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 32.1 (Autumn, 2006): 221-45.
"Disease v. Disability: The Medical Humanities and Disability Studies." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association. 120.2 (2005): 593-8.
"Johnny Mnemonic Meets the Bimbo: Feminist Pedagogy and Postmodern Performance." eds. Diane Freedman and Martha Stoddard Holmes. The Teacher's Body. Albany: State U of New York P, 2003. 59-68.
"Reconstructing the Posthuman Feminist Body Twenty Years after Audre Lorde's Cancer Journals." Enabling the Humanities: A Sourcebook for Disability Studies in Language and Literature. eds. Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Brenda Brueggeman, Sharon Snyder. New York: MLA, 2002. 144-55.
"Disease v. Disability: The Medical Humanities and Disability Studies." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association. 120.2 (2005): 593-8.
"Johnny Mnemonic Meets the Bimbo: Feminist Pedagogy and Postmodern Performance." eds. Diane Freedman and Martha Stoddard Holmes. The Teacher's Body. Albany: State U of New York P, 2003. 59-68.
"Reconstructing the Posthuman Feminist Body Twenty Years after Audre Lorde's Cancer Journals." Enabling the Humanities: A Sourcebook for Disability Studies in Language and Literature. eds. Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Brenda Brueggeman, Sharon Snyder. New York: MLA, 2002. 144-55.