Maya Socolovsky

Education

• D.Phil. English, Oxford University
• M.Phil. English, Oxford University
• M.A. Vanderbilt University
• B.A. University of Leeds ( U.K. )

Areas of Interest

• U.S. Latino/a literature
• Multicultural American literature
• Jewish American literature
• Literary Theory
• Latin American studies

Book:

Troubling Nationhood in U.S. Latina Literature: Explorations of Place and Belonging. New Brunswick, New Jersey, London: Rutgers University Press, 2013.

Articles and Book Chapters:

“Material Literacies: Migration and Border Crossings in Chicano/a Children’s Picture Books,” MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the U.S. 43.4 (2018), 148-174.

“Material Commodities and Judaism in a Wireless World: Exploring Allegra Goodman’s The Cookbook Collector.” Studies in American Jewish Literature. 36.2 (2017), 177-204.

“Cultural (Il)literacy: Narratives of Epistolary Resistance and Transnational Citizenship in Julia Alvarez’s Return to Sender,” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 40.4 (2015), 386-404.

“Southern Discomfort: Revisiting the Jewish Question in Tova Mirvis’s The Ladies’s Auxiliary.”  In Unfinalized Moments: Essays in the Development of Contemporary Jewish American Narrative, ed. Derek Parker Royal (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011), 33-54.

“Telling Stories of Transgression in Judith Ortiz Cofer’s The Line of the Sun.” MELUS 34.1 (2009), 95-116.

“Patriotism, Nationalism, and the Fiction of History in Julia Álvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies and In the Name of Salomé.” Latin American Literary Review 34.68 (2006): 5-24.

“From Rumba to Funeral March: The Impossibility of Cuba in Oscar Hijuelos’s A Simple Habana Melody (from when the world was good).” South Atlantic Review 70.1 (2005): 117-147.

“ Cuba Interrupted: The Loss of Center and Story in Ana Menéndez’s In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd .” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 46.3 (2005): 235-251.

“Cyber-Spaces of Grief: Online Memorials and the Columbine High School Shootings.” JAC 24.2 (2004): 467-489.

“Land, Legacy and Return: Negotiating a Post-Assimilationist Stance in Allegra Goodman’s Kaaterskill Falls.” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 22.3 (2003): 26-42.

“Narrative and Traumatic Memory in Denise Chávez’s Face of an Angel.” MELUS 28.4 (2003): 187-205.

“Deconstructing a Secret History: Trace, Translation, and Crypto-Judaism in Achy Obejas’ Days of Awe.” Contemporary Literature 44.2 (2003): 225-249.

“The Homelessness of Immigrant-American Ghosts: Hauntings and Photographic Narrative in Oscar Hijuelos’ The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O’Brien.” PMLA 117.2 (2002): 252-264.

“Unnatural Violences: Counter-Memory and Preservations in Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban and The Agüero Sisters.” Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory 11.2 (2000): 143-167.

“Borrowed Homes: Homesickness and Memory in Ana Castillo’s Sapogonia.” Aztlán 24.2 (1999), 73-94.

“Moving Beyond the Mint Green Walls: An Examination of (Auto)Biography and Border in Ruth Behar’s Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story.” Frontiers: A Women’s Studies Journal 19.3 (1998), 72-97.

Presentations:

“Disappearance and Documentation in Latinx Children’s Literature,” MELUS, March 2019.

“Surveillance and Perspective: Depictions of Nations and Border in José Manuel Mateo’s Migrant,” Latina/o Studies Association, July 2018.

“Dear Mrs. Trump, Please Read This Picture Book”: The Ethics of Counting and Border Crossings in Jairo Buitrago’s Two White Rabbits,” MELUS, May 2018.

“Resisting the Call to Hate (Again): Borderland Ethics and the Polity of Belonging in 21^st Century Mexican-American Picture Books,” MELUS, April 2017.

“Running and Reading: Border Crossings and Migrant Workers in U.S. Latino/a Children’s Picture Books,” MELUS, March 2016.

“Global Diasporas and Multiethnic Studies,” Roundtable Discussion (invited), MELUS, March 2016.

“Documenting the Undocumented: The Drama of Epistolary Writing in Julia Alvarez’s Return to Sender,” Biennial U.S. Latina/o Literary Theory Conference, March 2015.

“Writing “A Planet with lots of farms and no borders:” Mexican Immigration, Property Ownership, and Epistolary Narratives in Julia Álvarez’s Return to Sender,” Imagining Latina/o Studies: Past, Present, and Future: An International Latina/o Studies Conference, July 2014.

“Material Commodities and Judaism in a Wireless World: Exploring Allegra Goodman’s The Cookbook Collector.” MELUS, March 2014.

“Transnational Narratives: Orality and Literacy in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Biennial U.S. Latina/o Literary Theory Conference, March 2013.

“DIY Ethnicity: The Practice of Recipes and Memoir in Diana Abu-Jaber’s The Language of Baklava,” MELUS, April 2011.

“Orality, Literacy, and the Narrating of Nations: Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” SECOLAS, March 2011.

“The Here and Beyond: How Transnationalism and Ethnic Studies Can Ungovern Corporate America,” Invited Speaker, Roundtable Discussion, MELUS, March 2010.

“Tales of the Unexpected: Cyberspace, California , and Cuban-American Identity in Himilce Novas’ Princess Papaya,” MELUS, March 2010.

“Dimensional Shifts, Landscapes and Cityscapes: Transgression and Movement in Esmeralda Santiago’s Memoirs,” SECOLAS, April 2009.

“The Art of Marketing: Remapping U.S. Latino Presence in Ana Castillo’s Sapogonia ,” Nuesta América in the U.S. ? A U.S. Latino/a Studies Conference, University of Kansas , February 2008.

“Knowing Mexico : Presence and Borderlands Identity in Sandra Cisneros’s Caramelo ,” Southwest Texas Popular Culture Association, February 2006.

Courses taught:

• Approaches to Literature (Engl 3100)
• Introduction to Latin American Studies (LTAM 1100)
• American Literature Survey (Engl 3300)
• Modern and Recent U.S. Multiethnic Literature (Engl 3237)
• Topics: Place and Memory in U.S. Latino/a Literature (Engl 4050/5050)
• Topics: The Promised Land: U.S. Immigrant Women’s Writing (Engl 4050/5050)
• Topics: Trauma, Memory and Migration in Contemporary American Literature (Engl. 4050/5050)
• Topics: Land, Sea and Air: Crossing Borders in Immigrant and Resistance American Literature and Culture (Engl. 4050/5050)
• Topics: Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Literature (LTAM 3050)
• Topics: Narratives of National Identity in U.S. Latino/a Literature (Engl 6070)
• Topics: The Promised Land: U.S. Multicultural Women’s Literature (Engl 6070)