Balaka Basu

Education

Ph.D., English, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 2012
B.A., English, Cornell University, 2004, cum laude

Research Interests

Children’s and Young Adult Literature
New Media Studies & Digital Humanities
Fan, Reception, and Audience Studies
Television Studies
Narrative Theory
Adaptation Studies
Queer Theory
Novels of the “Long” Nineteenth Century (British and North American)
Early Modern/Renaissance Fiction
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Popular Culture Studies
Genre Fiction

Selected Publications and Presentations

Books:

Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers. New York: Routledge, 2013. (co-edited with Katherine R. Broad and Carrie Hintz.)

Essays:

“What Faction Are You In?: The Pleasure of Being Sorted in Veronica Roth’s Divergent.”  Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers. Eds. Balaka Basu, Katherine R. Broad, and Carrie Hintz. New York: Routledge, 2013: 19-34.

“Sherlock and the (Re)Invention of Modernity.”  Sherlock and Transmedia Fandom. Eds. Louisa Stein and Kristina Busse. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2012: 196-209.

“When Worlds Continue: The Doctor’s Adventures In Fandom and Metatextuality.” Peregrinations, Ruminations, Regenerations: A Critical Approach to Doctor Who. Ed. Christopher Hanson. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010: 164-176.

Entries:

“A Scandal in Bohemia.” In Short Story Criticism. Detroit: Gale, 2014. (As editorial advisor.)

“Approaches to Teaching: Lady Mary Wroth.” In the Instructor’s Guide to the Broadview Anthology of English Literature, 2007.  http://sites.broadviewpress.com/bablinstructors/

“Actors.” In The Encyclopedia of Love, Courtship, and Sexuality through History Vol. 3: The Early Modern Period. Eds. Cherrie A. Gottsleben, Victoria Mondelli and Kristen P. Chew. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 2007.

Recent Presentations:

• 2013. “Playing Along with Alcott, Montgomery, and Eager: The Evolution of Participatory Culture in Children’s Literature.” Children’s Literature Association; Biloxi, MS; June 13-15.
• 2013. “‘Nothing Gold Can Stay: Reading Apocalypse, Revelation, and Paradise (Not) Regained in Fan Fiction.” Modern Language Association; Boston, MA; January 3-6.
• 2012. “‘Matters of Predestination’: Writing Out-of-Order as Prophecy in L.M. Montgomery’s Journals and Fiction.” L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island: L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory; Charlottetown, PEI (Canada); June 21-24.
• 2012. “What Faction Are You In? The Pleasure of Being Sorted in Veronica Roth’s Divergent.” Children’s Literature Association; Boston, MA; June 14-16.
• 2012. “Where We Have Gone Before: Mimicry and Repeated Imagery in Star Trek.” North East Modern Language Association; Rochester, NY; March 15-18.
• 2012. “The Power of the Wound: Manifesting Trauma and Self Destruction in YA Fantasy Novels.” Modern Language Association; Seattle, WA; January 5-8.
• 2010. “‘It’s all real. I knew it!’: Metafiction, Belief and the Audience Embodied in SF/F Television.” Bristol Institute of Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition & the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto: Desiring the Text, Touching the Past: Towards an Erotics of Reception; University of Bristol (UK); July 10.
• 2009. “The Devil’s Parties: Regency Romance and The Byronic Hero in His Dark Materials.” North East Modern Language Association; Boston, MA; February 26 – March 1.
• 2008. “When Worlds Continue: The Doctor’s Adventures in Fandom and Metatextuality.” Film and History; Chicago, IL; October 30 – November 2.
• 2007. “‘She Saved the World – A Lot’: Reading Fictional Universes and Writing Utopias in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Society for Utopian Studies; Toronto (Canada); October 4-7.

Courses Taught

• ENGL 3103 Children’s Literature
• ENGL 4050/5050 Special Topics: Digital Narratives for Young People

Professional Appointments

Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte: 2013-present.
Adjunct Lecturer, Queens College, City University of New York: 2010-2013.