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Grad Interest: Post-Colonial Literature and Theory

Nathan Andrew Quinn

January 21, 2021

Degrees

2016, BA English, Princeton University

Bio

Nathan possesses a strong interest in late 20th and 21st century American literature, with a particular focus on contemporary works with magical realist and “hysterical realist” elements. This interest has led him in the direction of postsecular theory and the philosophy of language.

Contact

email |

Office:

Research Interests

American Literature to 1900 to the present | British Literature from 1900 to the Present | Contemporary American Literature | Contemporary Multiethnic American Literature | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Digital Humanities | Literature and History | Literature and Philosophy | Literature and Religion | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Science Fiction | The Novel

Antonia DiNardo

September 28, 2020

Degrees

2020, BA English/History, Mary Baldwin University

2018, AA Liberal Arts, Northern Virginia Community College

Bio

Toni DiNardo is a fourth year PhD student in the department of English and Comparative literature. Once described by a colleague as a “medievalismist,” her work is predominantly concerned with the mediation of medieval thought and constructions of the middle ages in modern genre fantasy. She is particularly interested in the use of what Umberto Eco called “the Middle Ages as pretext” as a backdrop for the construction and sustenance of socio-political identities, from bucolic queer medievalisms to white nationalist idealization of a putatively ethno-nationalist Middle Ages. Toni has given talks on the fraught intersection of fantasy and conceptions of “historical accuracy” and on the co-opting of popular fantasy franchises as recruiting tools by far-right groups, and in 2023 she held the Hanes Graduate Fellowship, studying the annotations and marginalia of C. S. Lewis’ personal collection of medieval and early modern texts.

Awards

  • Hanes Graduate Fellowship, Rare Book Collection, Louis Round Wilson Library, 2023

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Contact

email |

Office: Greenlaw 311

Research Interests

British Literature from 1485 to 1660 (including Milton) | Children’s Literature | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Disability Studies | Early Modern Literature And Culture | Feminist Historiography | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | Genre Theory | Irish Literature | Literature and Education | Literature and History | Literature and Philosophy | Literature and Religion | Literature and Science | Media Studies | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Posthumanism | Queer Theory | Science Fiction | Social Justice | Visual Culture and Arts | Women Writers

Krysten Voelkner

October 28, 2019

Degrees

2018, MA English, Wake Forest University

2016, BA English, Drexel University

Bio

Krysten Voelkner is a PhD candidate in the department of English and Comparative Literature. Her primary interests reside at the intersection of environmental humanities and contemporary Latinx literature. Recent publications of hers can be found in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, and Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures. She is currently at work on her dissertation, which investigates the ways in which Latinx writers experiment with aesthetics of horror, dread, anxiety, and other ‘bad’ affects associated with the climate crisis. In this regard, she hopes to explore the affective ecologies of Latinx environmental literature and film as they offer ways of thinking within and beyond the Anthropocene.

Publications:

  • “Vectors and Vermin: Gendered Violence and the Role of Insects in the Arthropoetics of Natalie Scenters-Zapico.” Chiricú Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2022.
  • “Another Way of Seeing: Ecological Existentialism in Cortázar’s ‘Axolotl’.” The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, vol. 36, no. 1, 2021.
  • “Memory, Temporality, and Communal Realization: Reading the Nomadic Subject in Rivera’s ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, vol. 45, no. 2, 2020.

Teaching Awards

  • UNC Latina/o Studies Program Teaching Award (UNC Latina/o Studies Department), Spring 2022
  • Erika Lindemann Award for Excellence in Teaching Composition in English 105 (UNC Department of English), Fall 2021.
  • UNC Latina/o Studies Program Teaching Award (Fall 2020)

Awards

  • UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature Early Stages Dissertation Fellowship, Summer 2022
  • Nominee: David D. Anderson Award for Outstanding Essay in Midwestern Literary Studies, 2021
  • Ruth Rose Richardson Award for outstanding record in the first year of graduate study, (UNC Department of English), 2019-20
  • H. Broadus Jones MA Student Award for Excellence in English (Wake Forest University Department of English), Spring 2018

Contact

email |

Office:

Research Interests

American Literature to 1900 to the present | Comparative Literature | Contemporary American Literature | Contemporary Multiethnic American Literature | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Latina / Latino Literature | Literature and Philosophy | Literature and Science | Literature of the Americas | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Posthumanism | The Novel | Transatlantic Studies

Thomas Eric Simonson

September 18, 2019

Degrees

2019, MA in English, Wake Forest University

2017, BA in English, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Bio

Thomas Eric Simonson divides his time between literature of the early modern era, especially drama, and 20th century transatlantic studies and literary theory.

Contact

email |

Office: Greenlaw 106

Research Interests

American Literature to 1900 to the present | British Literature from 1485 to 1660 (including Milton) | Contemporary Multiethnic American Literature | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Drama | Early Modern Literature And Culture | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | Poetry and Poetics | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Queer Theory | Transatlantic Studies

Jillian Kern

August 19, 2019
Photo of Jillian Kern

Degrees

2017, MSt English 650-1550, University of Oxford

2014, BA English and Medieval/Early Modern Studies, University of California, Davis

Bio

Jillian is a PhD student and teaching fellow in the department of English and Comparative Literature. She is a medievalist with a focus on the post-conquest period ca.1100-1300 whose previous research projects have centered on the lais of Marie de France and other vernacular texts. Additionally, she is interested in exploring the post-medieval transmission of medieval texts and medievalisms in contemporary genre fiction. Her research approaches include digital corpus linguistics, mapping and visualization, feminist and gender theory, cultural studies, and queer theory.

Jillian’s current research explores Celticity and genealogies of white aristocratic hybridity in medieval romance, as well as in modern genre fiction that uses the medieval setting.

In addition to research, she is passionate about teaching, pedagogy, and providing student support.

Awards

  • Joseph Breen Award for Outstanding Work in the Field of Medieval Studies, 2021.

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Contact

email |

Office: Greenlaw 311

Research Interests

British Literature from its beginning to 1485 | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Digital Humanities | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | History of the Book | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Queer Theory | Women Writers

Sejal Mahendru

October 9, 2018

Degrees

B.A. English, 2010, University of Delhi

M.A. English, 2012, University of Delhi

M.Phil, English Literature, 2014, University of Delhi

Bio

My research focuses on environmental justice in the Anthropocene. I am interested in the convergences in the fields of ecocriticism, post-colonial theory and global socioeconomics, to examine how the effects of climate change, displacement, toxic and electronic waste, and resource extraction are differentially experienced across the Global North and South. I am also interested reading in environmental advocacy through the the intersections between art and activism in grassroots movements. I study gobal anglophone literature, with a focus on environmental justice movements in India and the U.S.A.

Teaching Awards

  • LSP Graduate Student Affiliate Teaching Award, Fall 2021

Awards

  • Centre for the Studies of the American South Summer Fellowship, 2021

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Contact

email |

Office: Swain Hall 213

Research Interests

American Literature to 1900 to the present | Asian American Literature | Comparative Literature | Contemporary Multiethnic American Literature | Critical Race Studies | Digital Humanities | Film and Media Studies | Literature and Science | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Posthumanism | Science Fiction | Science Writing | Social Justice

Che Sokol

April 27, 2018

Degrees

2014, BA English and French Literature, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Bio

My research focuses on gender, sexuality, and sensuality in the cinemas of the Maghreb and the Maghrebi diaspora in France. I’ve taught a variety of courses, including French, Arabic, film, and queer literature and culture, and I have experience teaching ESL and English composition to non-native speakers. As a Comparative Literature student, I enjoy doing interdisciplinary work through different departments at UNC, including English and Comparative Literature, Romance Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and African Studies.

Publications:

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  • “Sensing and Self: A Haptic ‘Look’ at the Aesthetics of Women’s Labour in Contemporary Maghrebi and Maghrebi-French Diasporic Cinema.” French Screen Studies. Forthcoming.

Encyclopedia Articles

  • “Al-Akharun (2006; Saba Al-Herz).” Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History. Howard Chiang, Anjali Arondekar, Marc Epprecht, Jennifer Evans, Ross G. Forman, Hanadi Al-Samman, et al, eds. (Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019).

Book Reviews

  • Sensuous Cinema: The Body in Contemporary Maghrebi Cinema, by Kaya Davies Hayon. Review of Middle East Studies, 2021.
  • Maghrebs in Motion: North African Cinema in Nine Movements, by Suzanne Gauch. Review of Middle East Studies, 2019.

Teaching Awards

The Diane R. Leonard Award for Outstanding Foreign Language Instruction in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, 2019

Awards

  • Foreign Language Area Scholarship, African Studies: Standard Arabic and Moroccan Dialect in Fes, Morocco, Summer 2018.
  • Foreign Language Area Scholarship, African Studies: Arabic, Summer 2016.

Contact

email |

Office: Dey 121

Professional Website

Research Interests

Aesthetics | Arabic Literature | Comparative Literature | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | Film and Media Studies | Literature and Education | Media Studies | Pedagogy | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Queer Theory | Visual Culture and Arts

Rachel Warner

April 23, 2018

Degrees

2014, BA English & Psychology, Wesleyan University

Bio

Rachel Warner is a PhD candidate and teaching fellow in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Her research interests include twentieth-century American literature, women’s and gender studies, queer of color critique, and animal studies. She has completed two peer-reviewed publications: one explores Black feminist theories of embodiment and nature in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, forthcoming from Society & Animals; and the other offers an archival analysis of Zora Neale Hurston’s brief tenure at UNC and NCCU, published by North Carolina Literary Review in May 2020. Rachel also co-directs the graduate working group Literature, Medicine and Culture Colloquium (LMCC) which explores topics in health humanities. Finally, Rachel regularly teaches courses in rhetoric and composition, LGBTQIA+ literature and culture, and the history of horror literature and cinema. She is currently working on her dissertation, a literary and cultural history of female masculinity in American modernism.

 

Publications:

“Zora Neale Hurston in North Carolina: Drama, Education, and Contemporary Activism.” North Carolina Literary Review, no. 29, August 2020.

“‘A Winged but Grounded Bird’: Morrison’s Mixed Treatment of Animality in The Bluest Eye.” Society & Animals: Journal of Human-Animal Studies. (forthcoming spring 2021)

“A Crisis in (Female) Masculinity: My Ántonia & the Imaginative Recreation of the Western Frontier.” The Routledge Companion to Masculinity in American Literature and Culture, edited by Lydia Cooper and Joana Conings. (forthcoming spring 2021)

““The Poems and the Dances of the Shades’: Destabilizing Psychological Theories of Grief in The Year of Magical Thinking.” Death Within the Text: Social, Philosophical and Aesthetic Approaches to Literature, edited by Adriana Teodorescu (2018): 10-27.

Awards

Eliason Dissertation Summer Research Fellowship, 2020

MLA COVID-19 Emergency Grant, Modern Language Association, 2020

Graduate Student Travel Fund, ECL Department, 2020

Paul Green Prize, North Carolina Literary Review, 2019

Student Learning Circle Grant, UNC Center for Global Initiatives, 2019

Winchester Fellowship, Wesleyan University, 2018

Deborah W. Shelton Endowment for Graduate Travel Awards, ECL Department, 2018

Winchester Fellowship, Wesleyan University, 2017

Albrecht B. Strauss SAMLA Awards Fund, 2016

Graduate Student Travel Fund, ECL Department, 2016

Contact

email |

Office: Dey 340

Professional Website

Research Interests

African American Literature | American Literature to 1900 to the present | Critical Race Studies | Critical Theory and Cultural Studies | Feminist Theory And Gender & Sexuality Studies | Literature, Medicine and Culture | Modernism | Post-Colonial Literature and Theory | Queer Theory | Women Writers