ALS at the MLA

It was another strong showing of American Literary Studies faculty and graduate students at the 2014 MLA in Chicago.

New doctoral student, Amy Gore, presented “Indigenizing the Gothic Novel: Harold Johnson’s Backtrack and Its Uncanny Conventions” at the Native Voices in Genre Fiction panel, and she also presided over a session on the American Indian Gothic. The Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures arranged both panels.

Oliver Baker, a second year doctoral student, presented “Dispossession and Instability: The Free Labor Market and Southern Anxieties in John Rollin Ridge’s The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta” at the Native South panel organized by the Society for the Study of Southern Literature. Katie Walkiewicz, who earned her MA in English and UNM and is now completing her PhD at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, was also on the panel.

Dr. Kathleen Washburn presented “After 1893: Writing Indigenous Chicago in the Early Twentieth Century” at the Native Literary Chicago panel arranged by the Division on American Indian Literatures.

Dr. Jesse Alemán served as a panelist on a round-table session titled “Rethinking Postbellum Literary History.” He also completed his three-year term on the Advisory Council of the American Literature Section and started his elected seat on the MLA’s Delegate Assembly.