Degrees

2012, AB, Georgetown University

Bio

Teaching Fellow, Dept. of English and Comparative Literature

Degrees

Bio

Dwight Tanner is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the recipient of a Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship for 2019-2020. Dwight works in 21st century American/British literature with a focus on Ethnic Literatures and Critical Race Theory. His current research focuses on minoritarian identity and conceptions/rhetorics of change in apocalyptic narratives. He also studies posthumanism, speculative fiction, environmental humanism, and drama and performance theory.

Publications:

• Refereed Journal Article
  • 2019  “‘She Forgot’: Obscuring White Privilege and Colorblindness in Harper Lee’s Novels” South Atlantic Review. 84.1 (March 2019): 54-71.

• Book Review
  •  2020  Review of Beth Lew Williams. The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America. Harvard University Press,  2018. In Journal of Asian American Studies (2020). Forthcoming February 2020.

Teaching Awards

• Gaskin Award for Excellence in Teaching First Year Composition (2015)

Awards

• 2019-20  Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
• 2019   Graduate Tuition Incentive Scholarship, The Graduate School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 2019  Graduate Student International Travel Grant, The Graduate School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 2018  Kenan Graduate Fellowship, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 2018  Summer Dissertation Research Fellowship, Department of English and Comparative Literature
• 2018  Baxter Grant, American Studies Association
• 2018  CSA Travel Grant, Center for the Study of the American South, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 2017  Institute for the Arts and Humanities Collaboration Grant, UNC Institute for the Arts and Humanities
• 2015  Gaskin Award for Excellence in Teaching, UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature
• 2013  Booker Fellowship, UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature

Degrees

2012, MA English, University of California Irvine
2007, BA English, Loyola Marymount University

Bio

I study medieval and early modern literature because it is wild, interesting, weird, and fun. My dissertation, “Tricks of Faith: Trickery as Jest, Test, Experiment, and Corrective in Early Modern English Literature,” focuses on the representation of scientific thinking as it intersects with religious experience on the English stage. As an educator, I bring a little bit of the magical, early modern past into the classroom by teaming up with UNC’s Wilson Rare Book Library and the Ackland Art museum for immersive student projects. I also work as a project assistant for the Blake Archive where I get to generate xml mark-up for some truly captivating William Blake illustrations.

Teaching Awards

• James R. Gaskin Award for Excellence in Teaching Composition, 2016-2017
• Erika Lindemann Teaching Award in Composition and Literature, 2016-2017
• Future Faculty Fellowship Program, Center for Faculty Excellence, Fall 2017
• UNC Writing Program Professional Engagement & Pedagogy Award, 2015-2016

Awards

• Off-Campus Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2018
• Folger Shakespeare Library Paleography Seminar taught by Dr. Heather Wolfe, 2017
• Department of English and Comparative Literature Departmental Research Fellowship, Summer 2017
• Chi-Jung Chu Memorial Graduate School Summer Research Fellowship, 2017
• Folger Shakespeare Library Seminar Fellowship, “Researching the Archive,” taught by Dr. Keith Wrightson and Dr. James Siemon, 2016-2017
• Medieval & Early Modern Studies Center travel Grant, Fall 2013, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017
• Chapel Hill Medieval & Early Modern Studies Center Graduate Recruitment Award, 2012-2013
• University of California Irvine – MA Thesis Distinction Award, 2012

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Degrees

2012, M.A. English Literature, University of South Carolina
2010,  B.A. English and Psychology, University of South Carolina Honors College

Bio

Awards

• Harry Ransom Center Research Fellowship in the Humanities, 2018
• Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellow at the Huntington Library, 2018
• Summer Dissertation Fellowship, Department of English and Comparative Literature, 2018
• Shakespeare Association of America Graduate Student Travel Award, 2018
• Folger Shakespeare Library Grant-in-aid, Researching the Archive Seminar taught by Ann Blair and Peter Stallybrass. 2017
• Bibliographical Society of America Scholarship for travel to “Bibliography Among the Disciplines,” 2017
• Association for Computers and the Humanities Travel Bursary to Digital Humanities Summer Institute, 2017
• Digital Humanities Summer Institute Tuition Scholarship, Digital Editing with TEI: Critical Documentary and Genetic Editing taught by Elena Pierazzo and Peter Stokes, 2017
• Folger Shakespeare Library Grant-in-aid, Cavendish and Hutchinson Seminar taught by Julie Crawford, 2017
• Carolina Digital Humanities Initiative, Digital Innovation Research and Dissertation Fellowship, 2017
• Jerry Leath Mills Research Travel Grant, Studies in Philology, 2016
• Digital Humanities Summer Institute Tuition Scholarship, Understanding the Predigital Book: Technology and Texts, 2016
• Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant, UNC Center for Global Initiatives, 2016
• Folger Shakespeare Library Grant-in-aid, Mastering Research Seminar taught by Robert Matz, 2011

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Degrees

2014, MA English, Florida Gulf Coast University

2011, BA English, Florida Gulf Coast University

Bio

I’m a Ph.D. student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC Chapel Hill studying medieval and early modern literature. I’m specifically interested in early modern encyclopedias, epistemology, and the history of science. I’m also interested in insects, gastropods, gender and sexuality, power dynamics, amphibians and amphibiousness, fungi, and the confluence of natural philosophy/magic/religion.

Awards

• Folger Shakespeare Library Grant-in aid, After the Great Instauration taught by Reid Barbour, 2018
• Folger Shakespeare Library Grant-in aid, Introduction to English Paleography taught by Heather Wolfe, 2016
• Folger Shakespeare Library Grant-in aid, Scale of Catastrophe taught by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, 2015

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Degrees

• 2013, M.A. English and Comparative Literature, UNC-Chapel Hill.
• 2008, B.A. English, George Mason University.

Bio

María J. Durán is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and Graduate Assistant for the UNC Latina/o Studies Program. Her dissertation examines portrayals of pain in Latinx literature and the ways it can give birth to or elevate political consciousness to incite resistance and social protest in Latinx communities.

Durán has served as a guest blogger for UNC’s Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA), and she has published in the leading Chicana/o Studies Journal, Aztlán. She has taught ENGL 105, ENGL 105i Business, ENGL 129, WGST 233, and ENGL 364.  As a theatre artist, Durán co-directed a sold-out production of In the Heights(Spring 2017), staged at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC. She was invited to share her theatre work at the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Regional Arts Training in Charlotte, NC (Summer 2017). Recently, she directed a staged reading of Just Like Us, a play about undocumented youth by Karen Zacarías (March 2018). She currently serves on the PlayMakers Repertory Company Advisory Council.

Durán is an advocate for underrepresented minority education.  She has worked with The Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (MURAP) at UNC-Chapel Hill to assist talented underrepresented undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds in their pursuit of doctoral degrees. In Summer 2015, she received the UNC Graduate School’s Richard Bland Fellowship and interned with Juntos, a North Carolina State University cooperative extension program that helps Latinx students achieve higher education. She is also a Carolina Firsts Advocate for undergraduate students and serves on the advisory board for the Carolina Grad Student F1RSTS. In her spare time, Durán enjoys visiting coffeeshops, hot yoga, traveling, and spending time with her two pet bunnies. Click here to read about Durán’s decision to pursue graduate studies and what advice she has for prospective graduate students.

Publications:

Refereed Journal Articles

• “Bodies That Should Matter: Chicana/o Farmworkers, Slow Violence, and the Politics of (In)visibility in Cherríe Moraga’s Heroes and Saints.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, vol 42, no 1, 2017, pp. 45-71.

Other Publications (published under maiden name “Obando”)

• “Harvesting Dignity: Remembering the Lives of Farmworkers.” Institute for the Study of the Americas, UNC-CH (December 2012).
• “Latinos Reach New Highs in College Enrollment.” Institute for the Study of the Americas, UNC-CH (November 2012).

Awards

• Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, Honorable Mention (April 2018)
• Diversity and Student Success Travel Award, The Graduate School, UNC-CH (April 2018)
• Performing Arts Special Activities Fund Grant, Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, UNC-CH (2017-2018)
• Chancellor’s Doctoral Candidacy Award, Initiative for Minority Excellence, UNC-CH (Fall 2017).
• Mellon Dissertation Grant, Institute for the Study of the Americas, UNC-CH (Summer 2017).
• Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar (Spring 2017).
• Future Faculty Fellowship Program, Center for Faculty Excellence, UNC-CH (Fall 2016).
• Florence Brann Eble Summer Research Fellowship, The Graduate School, UNC-CH (Summer 2016).
• Richard Bland Fellowship, The Graduate School, UNC-CH (Summer 2015).
• Travel Grant, English and Comparative Literature, UNC-CH (Spring 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012).
• Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program Fellowship (Summer 2008).

Degrees

2011, BA English, Colby College

Bio

Michael J. Clark is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill who specializes in Renaissance drama. In his dissertation, Michael examines how trust and distrust between patients and physicians are depicted in Italian, English, and French Renaissance comedy.

As a comparatist, Michael has studied Italian, Spanish, ancient Greek, Latin, Old English, and Irish, but his primary literatures are English and Italian. His research interests include Renaissance literature, the history of medicine, classical reception, performance studies, translation studies, and pedagogy.

At UNC, Michael’s teaching experience has been cross-disciplinary and has included Italian language courses, first-year composition courses, and introductory literature courses. In addition to these teaching responsibilities, Michael has served as a coach at the UNC Writing Center.

When not teaching, writing, or conducting research, Michael likes to travel and to sing.

Teaching Awards

• Literature Teaching Award, 2016
• Foreign Language Teaching Award, 2016
• Engaged Instructor Award, 2015

Awards

• Future Faculty Fellowship Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017