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:
The Documented Child: Migration, Personhood, and Citizenship in Twenty-First-Century U.S. Latinx Children’s Literature (forthcoming: University of Arizona Press, 2025)
Troubling Nationhood in U.S. Latina Literature: Explorations of Place and Belonging. Rutgers University Press, 2013.
Articles and Book Chapters:
“Borderland Ethics, Migrant Personhood and the Critique of State Sovereignty in Jairo Buitrago’s Two White Rabbits and José Manuel Matéo’s Migrant: The Journey of a Mexican Worker.” The Lion and the Unicorn 46.2 (2022), 175-200.
“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:
“Orphanhood, Storytelling, and Kinship in Matt de la Peña’s We Were Here.” MELUS, April 2024.
“The Dreamer Brand: Immigration, Storytelling and Commodification in Maria Andreu’s The Secret Side of Empty.” 5th Latinx Literary Conference, April 2023.
“Re-Branding the Dreamer: Commodification, Storytelling and Art in Alberto Ledesma’s Diary of a Reluctant Dreamer: Undocumented Vignettes from a Pre-American Life.” Children’s Literature Association, June 2022.
“Narratives of Shame and Healing: Tourism, Consumption, and Solidarity in Malín Alegría’s Young Adult novel Sofi Mendoza’s Guide to Getting Lost in Mexico,” SECOLAS, March 2022.
“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 21st 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)