Student Research

If you are a Bucknell student interested in doing undergraduate research with me, please get in touch. I usually work with students with a strong background in literary studies as well as US ethnic studies, but I’d be happy to work with any motivated student.

Recent Research Projects

  • “Research Activism Online,” students from Fall 2021 ENLS 311 “Staging Activism in US Latinx Theater” class amplify the work of US Latinx playwrights on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bucknell_latinx_lit/
  • “Staging Activism in US Latinx Theater” Project
    • Student Collaborators
      • Margarita Torres-Loredo, Mellon “Confounding Problems” Undergraduate Research Assistant; Humanities Center; Summer 2021.
      • Siobhan Nerz, Presidential Fellow; Fall 2021-Spring 2022; Fall 2023-Spring 2024.
  • “Digital Archives of Latinx-Caribbean Writing” Project
    • Student Collaborator: Tucker Leighty-Phillips, Emerging Scholars in Interdisciplinary Studies Summer Research Program; Summer 2017.

BA Honors Theses

  • Margarita Torres-Loredo, “Sol, Raices, and Identity.” Creating Writing Program, English Department, Bucknell University. Graduated 2022. [Served as second reader.]
  • Kathryn Nicolai, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist’s Depiction of the Postmodern.” Literary Studies Program, English Department, Bucknell University. Graduated 2020. [Served as second reader.]

MA Theses

  • Madison Weaver, “Writing the Womb, Writing the Wound:  The Function of Vulnerability in Autotheory.” English Department, Bucknell University. Graduated 2021. [Served as second reader.]
  • Samantha Stephens, “Shape, Space, and Typeface: Mapping Black Subjectivity through Caribbean Aesthetics.” English Department, Bucknell University. Graduated 2020. [Served as second reader.]
  • Tabitha Fisher, “Perspectives on Lynching in William Faulkner’s Novels and Nonfiction.” English Department, Bucknell University. Graduated 2020. [Served as second reader.]
  • Jason Klus, “Mobilizing Genre, Revising Politics: The Intersection of Audience, Author, and Allusion in Contemporary Latinx Fiction.” English Department, Bucknell University. Graduated 2019. [Served as thesis chair/advisor.]
  • Raquel Alonso, “Authority, privilege and violation: the role of the subaltern and the intellectual in the novels of Julia Alvarez.” English Department, Florida Atlantic University. Graduated 2010. Winner of 2011 Howard Pearce Award for best thesis of the year. [Served as thesis chair/advisor.]

PhD Dissertations

  • Ruth McHugh-Dillon, “Voicing Violence: Language, Self and the Legacies of Authoritarianism in Junot Diaz.” Spanish and Latin American Studies Department, University of Melbourne, Australia. Graduated 2019. [Served as outside reader.]
  • Sheryl Gifford, “(Re)Making Men, Representing the Caribbean Nation: Authorial Individuation in Works by Fred D’Aguiar, Robert Antoni, and Marlon James.” English Department, Florida Atlantic University. Graduated 2013. [Served as thesis chair/advisor.]
  • Josie Urbistondo, “Caribbean Bodyscapes and the Politics of Sacred Citizenship.” English Department, U. of Miami. Graduated 2012. [Served as outside reader.]