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Sara L. Pfaff
English Department, Brown University
Box 1852, Providence, RI 02912
phone: (586) 596-7130
email:
Education:
Brown University, Providence, RI 2008—
Ph.D., English, completion May 2015
M.A., English, May 2010
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 2003—2008
B.A., English, May 2008
B.A., History, May 2008
Dissertation:
“Pluralism and the Body Politics of Neoliberalism” traces the articulation of national ideology through embodied pathology in ethnic American literary and cultural production of the late twentieth century. My project is particularly interested in the prevalence of illness attending the acquisition and negotiation of cultural identity in ethnic American novels appearing after World War II, and reads works ranging from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Manand N. Scott Momaday’sHouse Made of Dawnto Louise Erdrich’sThe Plague of Dovesand Colson Whitehead’s Apex Hides the Hurt. Such sickly identities appear, I argue, as arepudiation of the racialist and essentialist logics discretely animating prevalent social discourses in the postwar United States:liberal pluralism, multiculturalism, and neoliberalism. Thepredominance of the pathological ethnic body in literary and cultural production indicates the political disqualification inherent in these social paradigms, and ameliorates it by embracing conflict, paradox, and contingency as the bases for collective identification and solidarity.
Chair: Rolland Murray
Committee: Professors Daniel Kim, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, and Ralph Rodriguez
Research and Teaching Interests:
American literature of the twentieth century, African American and Native American literature, Identity Politics, Science and Literature, Political Theories of Liberalism, Composition and Writing.
Teaching Experience:
Brown University, Graduate Student Instructor
Writing the Analytic Essay (2013-4), Department of Continuing Studies
Putting Yourself into Words (2013), Department of Continuing Studies
Wolf Like Me: Retroviral Anxiety in American Literature (2011), Department of English
The Academic Essay as Ophthalmology (2010), Non-Fiction Writing Program
Brown University, Teaching Assistant
Writing for College and Beyond, Instructor Khristina Gonzalez (2011), Department of Continuing Studies Online Program
Cultures and Countercultures, Professor DeakNabers (2010), Department of English
Literature of the American Renaissance, Professor DeakNabers (2009), Department of English
Brown University, Additional Teaching Experience
Writing Center Associate, 2008—2013
Sheridan Center Certificate 1 Program, 2010
Wayne State University, Tutor
Detroit Fellows Tutoring Project, 2004—2006
Papers Presented:
“‘That Persistent Mind-Body Problem’: Timeless Bodies of Pluralism in Colson Whitehead’s Novels”. Northeast Modern Language Association Convention. Harrisburg, PA. April 2014.
“The ‘blood magic’ of Ralph Ellison’s Three Days Before the Shooting”. Futures of American Studies Institute. Hanover, NH. June 2013.
“‘The slack string is just a slack string’: Network and Translation in The White Boy Shuffle”. American Comparative Literature Association Conference. Providence, RI. April 2012.
“Queer Phenomenologies: Placelessness and Queertopia in Inherent Vice” (pre-circulated). Cityscapes and Fiction Conference, Providence, RI. April 2010.
“Munro, Sideshadowing, and Biopolitical Subjectivity”. Annual Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities Conference, Providence, RI. March 2010.
Publications:
“‘The slack string is just a slack string’: Nonhuman Networks in The White Boy Shuffle”. LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory26.3 (2015). Forthcoming.
Fellowships and Grants:
Brown University Dissertation Fellowship; Brown University (2012-13)
Mellon Graduate Seminar Fellowship; Brown University (2010-2013)
Brown University Teaching Fellowship; Brown University (2009-2011)
Brown University Fellowship; Brown University (2008-2009)
Joseph and Mary Yelda Scholarship; Wayne State University (2007-2008)
Mark and Linee Diem Scholarship; Wayne State University (2007-2008)
Wayne State University Presidential Scholarship; Wayne State University (2003-2007)
Academic Service:
Mentor, “Excellence at Brown”: Intensive Writing for Incoming Freshmen (2010-2013)
Chair, English Department Graduate Student Forum, (2011-2012)
Conference Organizer, Cityscapes and Fiction Conference. Graduate Conference (2010)
Co-chair, Graduate Student Lecture Committee (2010)
Professional Affiliations:
Modern Language Association
The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
American Comparative Literature Association