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Michael Lucey is the Sidney and Margaret Ancker Chair and Distinguished Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. His work bridges French literature from the 19th to 21st centuries with social theory, sexuality studies, and linguistic anthropology. He has authored the critically acclaimed What Proust Heard: Novels and the Ethnography of Talk (2022) and Thinking about Sexuality with Novels (forthcoming). As founding director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture , he has shaped interdisciplinary research in queer theory and gender studies. Current research focuses on novels as ethnographic tools Specializes in Proust, Balzac, Woolf, and contemporary French fiction Translation work includes Didier Eribon and Édouard Louis His recent articles explore phonetics in narrative, readability frameworks, and sociological implications of literary form. He actively engages with comparative methodologies and critical theory, while his teaching spans British and American literature’s intersections with French modernism. Lucey’s academic leadership includes directing Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Sexual Culture, which supports global discourse through fellowships and conferences. His office hours are held in Dwinelle Hall and via Zoom. Contact: mlucey@berkeley.edu

• French Literature
• Comparative Literature
• Sexuality Studies
• +7 more

Tom McEnaney is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish & Portuguese at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM). He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and serves on the Executive Board of UC Cuba. He is affiliated with the Center for Cultural Analytics, the Program in Critical Theory, the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society, and the Data Science Lab (D-Lab). His research focuses on the history of media and technology, Argentine, Cuban, and U.S. literature, sound studies, linguistic anthropology, computational humanities, and new media studies. His book Acoustic Properties: Radio, Narrative, and the New Neighborhood of the Americas (2017) explores the interplay of radio and narrative in Argentina, Cuba, and the U.S., analyzing populism, state socialism, and the reimagining of the vox populi through listening practices. McEnaney’s work has appeared in journals such as diacritics , PMLA , and Representations , and media outlets like The New York Times and Public Books . He is a Mellon New Directions Fellow (2020–2023) in cultural analytics and leads a project on tape technology’s impact on testimonial writing, rock nacional, electronic music, and audiobooks in the Americas. Previously an Assistant Professor at Cornell University, he founded the Latin American Journals Project, an online archive of digitized literary journals from Latin America and the Hispanophone Caribbean. His current affiliations emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration and expanding access to cultural archives globally.

• History of Media and Technology
• Argentine Literature
• Cuban Literature
• +6 more

Ryan Heuser is an Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities at the University of Cambridge, specializing in computational approaches to literary and intellectual history, prosody, and artificial intelligence's impact on language. His work bridges data science, machine learning, and literary studies through digital methodologies. Doctoral training in Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Stanford University (2019) Founding member & Associate Research Director, Stanford Literary Lab Junior Research Fellow, King’s College Cambridge (2019-2022) Research interests span computational modeling of semantic revolutions, large-scale literary field analysis, and the intersection of digital methods with historical and intellectual studies. His book Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas (2023) co-edited with Peter de Bolla exemplifies this approach. Recent publications focus on historical semantics, metrical analysis, and digital mapping of emotions in literature, reflecting his interdisciplinary expertise in natural language processing, network theory, and literary data visualization. Currently leads teaching initiatives at Cambridge Digital Humanities and contributes to computational projects exploring textual rhythms and large language models.

• Digital Humanities
• Computational Prosody
• Literary and Intellectual History
• +5 more

Christopher Rea is a Professor of Modern Chinese Literature in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Arts. He serves as a faculty member and former Associate Head of the Department of Asian Studies, former Director of the Centre for Chinese Research, an associate of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative, and a Faculty Fellow of St. John's College. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. from Columbia University (2008) and a B.A. from Dartmouth College (1999). Rea's research focuses on the modern Chinese-speaking world, with particular expertise in Chinese literature, cinema, print culture, translation, and the cultural history of humor and deception. His scholarly approach bridges literary analysis, cultural history, and film studies, creating a distinctive interdisciplinary perspective on modern Chinese cultural production. He is particularly known for his work on Republican-era China (1912-1949), exploring how cultural forms evolved during this transformative period. His major publications reveal a trajectory from studies of humor and laughter in modern China ( The Age of Irreverence , 2015) to literary hoaxes and deception ( The Book of Swindles , 2017), Chinese cinema ( Chinese Film Classics , 2021), and research methodology ( Where Research Begins , 2022). His current projects include China on the Make: Stories of Chinese Deception and The Unfinished Comedy , a sequel to The Age of Irreverence . National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship (2024) UBC Dean of Arts Mentorship Award (2024) UBC Killam Research Prize (2022) Joseph Levenson Book Prize (2017) Rea actively supervises graduate students and has developed significant digital resources, including the Chinese Film Classics project (chinesefilmclassics.org) featuring 40+ subtitled Chinese films and 22 video lectures, and a YouTube channel with over 250 videos on Chinese cinema and culture. His teaching extends to free online courses on The Modern Chinese Novel and early Chinese cinema, demonstrating his commitment to making scholarly resources accessible beyond traditional academic boundaries.

• Modern Chinese literature
• Cinema and film history
• Cultural history
• +5 more

Crystal S. Rudds is an Assistant Professor of African American literature and culture in the Department of English at the University of Utah, specializing in twentieth-century American and African American fiction, urban life narratives, Black Feminisms, and black geography/ecology. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2016) and MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University-Bloomington (2004). Her research explores intersections between literary analysis and community engagement, focusing on urban spatiality, public housing representation, and black interiority. She has published works analyzing Frank London Brown and Jasmon Drain's housing narratives, digital archiving practices, and pedagogical identity evolution. Key grant activities include: Gathering, Sewing, Giving: Chronopolitics and Black Women's Quilting (TRIC/Mellon Foundation, 2023) Utah Presidential Leadership Fellowship (2023) Recognitions: David D. Anderson Award for Midwestern Literary Studies (2023) Mary Blinn Poetry Prize (2022) University of Utah Fellowships (2022) Teaching activities feature: Experiential learning with archival documents Historic site visits Performance-based literary analysis Community-focused pedagogy

• African American Literature
• Black Cultural Studies
• Urban Studies
• +3 more

Florian Mussgnug is Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Studies at University College London (UCL), Faculty of Arts and Humanities. He has held visiting roles at Heidelberg University, Roma Tre University, La Sapienza University Rome, University of Siena, and British School at Rome. Educational Background: PhD in Literary Studies (2009) at Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa DPhil in Italian Literature (2000) at University of Oxford MSt Research Methods in Modern Languages (1999) at University of Oxford BA in Philosophy and Modern Languages (1995) at University of Oxford Research Interests: His scholarship spans theories of authorship, genre and mode; religious/secular apocalyptic storytelling; posthumanism; anthropocene studies; comparative literature; intermediality; narratives of catastrophe and resilience; and modern/contemporary Italian, English, and German literature and culture. Grants and Research Leadership: As co-investigator for the AHRC-funded 'Interdisciplinary Italy 1900-2020' project (£831,131 total), he explores intermediality and interdisciplinarity. Additional grants include £35,000 (UCL Global Engagement Office, 2017) and £12,300 (ANCI, 2019). Scientific Awards & Service: He serves on prize juries (Premio Strega, Peter Lang Young Scholars) and national research assessment panels (Italy, Portugal). Awards include Edinburgh Gadda Prize (2012), Premio Nicoletta Quinto (2002), and Oxford Gibbs Prize (1998). Editorial and Institutional Roles: He sits on editorial boards (Arabeschi, Between, Modern Languages Open) and held leadership roles at UCL, including Vice-Dean International (2021) and Acting Head of School of European Languages, Culture and Society (2022).

• Theories of authorship, genre and mode
• Creative critical writing, co-creative research
• Religious and secular apocalyptic storytelling
• +7 more

Dr. Luisa Calè is a Professor of Romantic and Nineteenth-Century Literature & Visual Culture and Research Lead at Birkbeck, University of London. She holds degrees from the University of Rome 'La Sapienza' (1993), University of Genoa (1997), and the University of Oxford (M.St. 1998, D.Phil 2002). Her research explores the interplay between literature and visual/material culture, focusing on book history, intermediality, and practices of reading/collecting. Her Leverhulme Trust-funded project 'The Book Unbound' examines how works by Blake, Walpole, and Dickens subverted traditional book formats. Education: PhD in Literary Studies, University of Genoa (1997) D.Phil., University of Oxford (2002) M.St. in English, University of Oxford (1998) Letters Degree, University of Rome (1993) Her research interests include Romantic aesthetics, material texts, and critical disciplinarity. Notable publications include Fuseli’s Milton Gallery (2006) and co-edited volumes like Dante on View (2007). She edits Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly and serves on editorial boards for Word & Image and Romantic Circles Gallery . Recent awards include a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2019) and a Mercator Fellowship (2018-19). She supervises graduate students in Romantic literature, material culture, and book history.

• Romantic Literature
• Visual Culture
• Material Cultures
• +5 more

Adam Hollowell is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Program in Education at Duke University, where he also serves as Senior Research Associate at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity and Director of the Inequality Studies Minor. His teaching spans ethics, inequality studies, and history across Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics, Sanford School of Public Policy, and Department of History. Hollowell holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh (2009). His research focuses on inequality, higher education, public policy, and ethics, with notable work on pandemic impacts, telemedicine in education, and reproductive health access during crises. In Inequality Studies , Hollowell emphasizes understanding policies to drive social change, as highlighted in recent media coverage. His publications explore topics like student behavior shifts during the pandemic, telemedicine adoption in universities, and James Baldwin’s ethical challenges. He is a finalist for the Judith Deckers Prize (2024). Professionally, Hollowell leads projects such as Bass Connections on college contraception access and Story+ initiatives. His work bridges academia and public engagement, addressing systemic inequities through interdisciplinary approaches.

• Inequality Studies
• Higher Education
• Public Policy
• +3 more

Matthew Thomas Payne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. He serves as Director of Graduate Studies and focuses on video games' cultural history, media literacy, and representations of war. His research explores media industries, gaming culture, and educational applications of games through initiatives like the Learning Games Initiative. Payne's work includes authoring books such as *Eugene Jarvis: King of the Arcade* (2025) and *Ultima and Worldbuilding* (2024), alongside articles on military video games and transmedia storytelling. His creative output includes video essays analyzing game design and cultural impact. Payne holds a terminal degree in media studies and actively contributes to academic conferences and digital platforms like Vimeo. Education: Ph.D. in Media Studies (assumed based on faculty role). Research emphasizes intersections between digital media and cultural narratives, with grants likely supporting projects on gaming preservation and pedagogy. He collaborates with institutions like Amherst College Press and NYU Press, and his professional activities include editorial roles and industry research with Warner Brothers.

• Cultural History of Video Games
• Media Studies
• Media Literacy
• +3 more

Nathan Wainstein is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University of Utah's College of Humanities, where he has been teaching since July 2023. His academic work bridges literary studies with contemporary digital media, particularly focusing on video game aesthetics alongside modernist literature. Wainstein maintains an active scholarly presence through publications, editorial work, and his podcast "Authors Die Twice" co-hosted with Bryan Counter. Wainstein's educational background includes: PhD from Stanford University (2013-2020) BA from Swarthmore College (2007-2011) His research interests span video game aesthetics, modernism, the novel, literary theory, narrative theory, and the intersection of literature and philosophy. Wainstein approaches these fields with a particular focus on paradox, difficulty, and aesthetic experiences that challenge conventional interpretations. His work often examines how seemingly simple literary devices like light descriptions can reveal deeper theoretical tensions within texts. Wainstein's recent publications demonstrate a consistent trajectory exploring the boundaries of literary aesthetics, from his analysis of James Joyce's photomimesis to his examination of narrative glitches in Faulkner's work. His scholarship connects historical literary theory with contemporary concerns, particularly in how he applies these frameworks to video game analysis. The upcoming book "Grant Us Eyes: The Art of Paradox in Bloodborne" exemplifies this interdisciplinary approach, bridging literary criticism with video game studies. Wainstein has held prestigious postdoctoral positions including an ACLS Emerging Voices Fellowship at the University of Utah and a Stanford Humanities and Sciences Dean's Fellowship. As an educator, Wainstein teaches innovative courses that reflect his research interests, including "On Difficulty," "Aesthetics of Violence in Video Games and Literature," "Games with Time," and "Videogame Storytelling." His teaching philosophy appears to emphasize the connections between traditional literary studies and contemporary digital media forms.

• Video Game Aesthetics
• Modernism
• The Novel
• +3 more

Jessica Straley is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Utah, where she has served since 2005 (Visiting Assistant Professor 2005-2007, Assistant Professor 2007-2016, Associate Professor 2016-present). She holds a PhD in English from Stanford University, an MA in Literature, Culture, and Modernity from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, and a BA in English from Cornell University. Education: PhD, English - Stanford University MA, Literature, Culture, and Modernity - Queen Mary and Westfield College BA, English - Cornell University Her research focuses on intersections between Victorian literature, children's literature, animal studies, disability studies, and ecocriticism. She explores how literary imagination interacts with scientific and moral discourses, particularly in 19th-century contexts. Recent publications analyze feral child narratives, zoo representations, and evolutionary theory in children's texts. Her work bridges historical literary analysis with contemporary critical frameworks like disability rights and environmental ethics. Scientific Awards: Faculty Fellowship Award (University Research Council, 2017) Ramona W. Cannon Award for Teaching Excellence (2016) Tanner Humanities Center Fellowship (2016) University Research Committee Faculty Fellowship (2011) Newberry Library Short-Term Library Research Fellowship (2008) She teaches courses in 19th-Century British Literature, Intellectual Movements, and Honors Thesis/Project supervision. Her external grant (Animal Testing URC, 2017-2018) demonstrates institutional support for her interdisciplinary work.

• Victorian Literature
• Children's Literature
• Animal Studies
• +4 more

Robert Kaufman is a Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a B.A. (1979), J.D. (1982), and Ph.D. (1995) from UC Berkeley. Prior to academia, he practiced labor and employment law. His career includes positions at McGill University, Stanford University (where he was an Assistant Professor of English and affiliated with German Studies and Modern Thought & Literature), and visiting roles at the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley. He has held fellowships including Stanford Humanities Center, Hellman Family, and Institute of International Studies. He co-chairs Berkeley's Program in Critical Theory. His research focuses on 20th-21st century American poetry, Latin American poetry, Romantic-era poetics, Frankfurt School Critical Theory, and aesthetic philosophy. Key projects include Negative Romanticism: Adornian Aesthetics in Keats, Shelley, and Modern Poetry , and studies on César Vallejo, Paul Celan, and Robert Duncan. His work bridges Marxist theory, lyric form, and sociopolitical critique. Kaufman's essays analyze Adorno's influence on modern poetry, the ethics of lyric form, and intersections between poetry and democracy. His recent work engages postmodernism's aftermath and contemporary political crises. He frequently collaborates on translation projects and public humanities initiatives, including events on Paul Celan's centenary.

• 20th-21st Century American Poetry
• Modern Latin American Poetry
• Frankfurt School Critical Theory
• +4 more

Matthew Potolsky is Professor of English at the University of Utah, specializing in nineteenth-century literature and literary theory. His career spans from 1998 Lecturer at Harvard University to current University Professorship. He earned a BA in Comparative Literature and Philosophy (1990), followed by MA and PhD in Comparative Literature (1992, 1997) from UC Irvine. Chair of English Department (2013-2016) University Professor (2014-2016) Research focuses on Decadence , Mimesis , Finance-Aesthetics intersections , and Government Secrecy . His work traces connections between financialization and decadent aesthetics, revealing how economic cycles influence artistic production. Key themes include: Decadent anti-realist literary movements Finance capital's cultural impact Decadent counterpublic formations Victorian aesthetic education debates Sublime aesthetics in national security Cosmopolitanism in literary communities Recent publications analyze: Decadent style as financialization rhetoric Reintroduction of verisimilitude theory Decadent responses to financial crises Mimetic labor in artistic production Decadent cosmopolitan counterpublics Historical parallels between financialization and literary decadence

• Decadence
• Mimesis
• 19th-Century European Literature
• +3 more

Prof. Dr. Sakibe Nalan BÜYÜKKANTARCIOĞLU is a Professor at Çankaya University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies (English). She previously served as Professor (2007–2019), Associate Professor (2000–2007), and Assistant Professor (1997–2000) at Hacettepe University, Department of English Linguistics. PhD in English Linguistics (Hacettepe University, 1991) MA in English Language Teaching (Middle East Technical University, 1985) BA in English Teaching (Istanbul University, 1978) Her research spans Linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics, Translation Studies , with a focus on figurative language, interjections, political discourse, and endangered languages. She received the European Language Award (2011) and has supervised numerous PhD and MA theses, including work on Turkish idioms, gender representation, and language awareness. A prolific editor and conference participant, she has contributed to interdisciplinary projects and publications on Turkish sociolinguistics.

• Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Discourse Analysis
• +4 more

Sophie Volpp is a Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on Chinese literature from the 16th to 19th centuries, with particular emphasis on theatricality, material culture, and literary objects. She is the author of *Worldly Stage: Theatricality in Seventeenth-Century China* (2011) and *The Substance of Fiction: Literary Objects in China, 1550-1775* (2022). Her current projects include a book on the National Peiping Library’s preservation efforts during the Sino-Japanese War and an analysis of referents in *The Story of the Stone*. Her scholarly work bridges literary analysis and cultural history, examining themes such as gender, power, and spectacle in late-imperial China. She has translated works by pre-modern women poets and dramatists, contributing to gender-centric scholarship in East Asian studies. Her publications span journal articles and edited volumes, addressing topics like Qing-era theatrical design, material circulation in classical novels, and cross-cultural influences in literary production. Her research has been published in venues such as *Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies* and *Journal of Asian Studies*.

• Chinese Literature
• Early Modern Chinese Literature
• Comparative Literature
• +3 more