- Department, Office, or School
- Department of English
- Professor
- emailaduneer@ric.edu
- phone401-456-8658
- location_onCraig-Lee Hall, 166
I have been teaching full time at 香港六合论坛 since 2009, but I have a longer history with the College. I first came to 香港六合论坛 in 1997 as an undergraduate through the National Student Exchange Program. A few years later, while completing my graduate work, I taught courses in 香港六合论坛鈥檚 Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies and Africana Studies programs. I currently teach courses in Postcolonial Literature, Literary Theory, African American and Ethnic American Literatures, 19th- to early-20th-century American Literature, and Maritime Literature.
My recent book , published by the University of Alabama Press in 2022 as part of the series Studies in American Realism and Naturalism, claims a central place for London in the maritime literary tradition. The book explores London鈥檚 immersion in the lore and literature of the sea, revealing the extent to which his writing is informed by travel narratives and sensational sea yarns, the history of exploration, and first-hand experiences as a sailor in the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean. Drawing on unpublished materials from London鈥檚 personal subject files and his notes for story 鈥渕otifs,鈥 the book鈥檚 interpretive analysis sheds light on London鈥檚 creative process, providing evidence of London鈥檚 broad knowledge of adventure literature and likely sources for the historical contexts and cultural details in his fiction. Through its exploration of the intersections of race, class and gender in London鈥檚 writing, Jack London and the Sea plumbs the often-troubled waters of his representations of the racial Other and positions of capitalist and colonial privilege. We can see the manifestation of these socio-economic hierarchies in London鈥檚 depiction of imperialist exploitation of labor and the environment, inequities that continue to reverberate in our current age of global capitalism.
Other recent research projects have led me to investigate trends in the study of literary modes and movements. My chapter in The Oxford Handbook of American Literary Realism, 鈥淎esthetic Slippage in Realism and Naturalism,鈥 considers the slippages in realist and naturalist aesthetics that transcend traditionally defined genres, terrains, and time periods. My most recent article in Studies in American Naturalism, 鈥淎merican Literary Naturalism鈥檚 Postcolonial Descendants,鈥 considers consonances between the social and aesthetic concerns of literary naturalism and postcolonialism. At their core, I argue, the urgent matter for both American literary naturalism and postcolonial literature is the plight of characters trying to maintain humanity and dignity while subjected to a range of intersecting forces, from socio-economic inequity, labor exploitation, territorial expansion, and environmental threats that disproportionately affect marginalized individuals and communities. Since 2015, I have also served as book review editor for Studies in American Naturalism, a role that keeps me on top of cutting edge publications in the field.
Outside of school, some of my favorite things are my golden retrievers, Sylvie and Echo; yoga, biking, hiking, skiing, and sailing; strong coffee (with a good book) in the morning and dark chocolate in the afternoon.
Education
B.A., University of Alaska
M.A., University of Connecticut
Ph.D., University of Connecticut
Selected Publications
Book
, University of Alabama Press, 2022
Articles
鈥淎merican Literary Naturalism鈥檚 Postcolonial Descendants,鈥 Studies in American Naturalism 15.1 (Summer 2020): 49-74.
鈥淎esthetic Slippage in Realism and Naturalism,鈥 The Oxford Handbook of American Literary Realism. Ed. Keith Newlin. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2019. 119-137.
鈥淟ast Stands and Frontier Justice in Jack London鈥檚 Pacific and Ernest Hemingway鈥檚 Key West,鈥 Studies in American Naturalism 11.1 (Summer 2016): 23-42.
鈥淭he Old Man and the City: Literary Naturalism and the Postcolonial Subject in Achy Obejas鈥檚 Ruins,鈥 Studies in American Naturalism 10.2 (Winter 2015): 150-171.
鈥淎ndrogyny and Sexuality in The Sea-Wolf.鈥&苍产蝉辫;The MLA Approaches to Teaching the Works of Jack London. Ed. Kenneth K. Brandt and Jeanne Campbell Reesman. New York: Modern Language Association, 2015. 93-101.
鈥淐rafting the Sea: Bridging the Gulf Between Maritime Romance and Realism in Jack London鈥檚 Martin Eden.鈥&苍产蝉辫;American Literary Realism 47.3 (Spring 2015): 250-271.
The MLA Approaches to Teaching the Works of Jack London, edited by Kenneth K. Brandt and Jeanne Campbell Reesman. New York: Modern Language Association, 2015. 93-101.
鈥淛ack London鈥檚 Seafaring Women: Desire, Risk, and Savagery,鈥 Studies in American Naturalism 8.2 (Winter 2013): 186-213.
鈥淰oyaging Captains鈥 Wives: Feminine Aesthetics and the Uses of Domesticity in the Travel Narratives of Abby Jane Morrell and Mary Wallis,鈥 ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance 56.2 (Spring 2010): 192-230.
鈥淢argaret West: A 鈥榮ea of contradictions鈥 in The Mutiny of the Elsinore,鈥 The Call: The Magazine of the Jack London Society 20.2 (Fall/Winter 2009): 3-5.
鈥淏rooklyn in the Making: Reading the Existential Utopian Vision in Paul Auster鈥檚 Smoke through The Wizard of Oz,鈥 The Midwest Quarterly 50.1 (Autumn 2008): 57-73.
鈥淐ritical Editions of Kate Chopin鈥檚 The Awakening: Literary and Theoretical Trends, Pedagogical Choices,鈥 ALN: The American Literary Naturalism Newsletter 2.2 (Spring 2008): 21-28.
鈥淪arah Orne Jewett and (Maritime) Literary Tradition: Coastal and Narrative Navigations in The Country of the Pointed Firs,鈥 American Literary Realism 39.3 (Spring 2007): 222-240. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism Vol. 138, Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Detroit: Gale/Cengage, 2010:79-88.
鈥淥n the Verge of a Breakthrough: Projections of Escape from the Attic and the Thwarted Tower in Charlotte Perkins Gilman鈥檚 鈥楾he Yellow Wallpaper鈥 and Susan Glaspell鈥檚 The Verge,鈥 The Journal of American Drama and Theatre 18.1 (Winter 2006): 34-53.
鈥淧ostpositivist Realism and Mandala: Toward Reconciliation and Reunification of Vietnamese and American Identities in Andrew X. Pham鈥檚 Catfish and Mandala,鈥 a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 17.2 (Winter 2002): 204-220.
Courses
Courses Recently Taught
English 121: Studies in Literature and Nation
English 209: American Literature
English 300W: Introduction to Theory and Criticism
English 302: American Literature from 1860-1914
English 315: Literature, Environment, and Ecocriticism
English 326: Studies in African American Literature
English 327: Studies in Multicultural American Literature
English 336: Reading Globally
English 460: Seminar in Major Authors & Themes (Jack London: His Writing, His Life, His Time)
English 460: Seminar in Major Authors & Themes (Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Maritime Literature)
English 523: Social Protest and American Literary Naturalism
English 524: Postcolonial Literatures and the Environment
English 524: Global Naturalisms
English 540: American Realist Short Fiction
FYW 100-H: Introduction to Academic Writing (Honors)
COLL 202: Open Books 鈥 Open Minds (Mentor Program)