RESEARCH

 

Here is a summary of my research activities.

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research focuses on North American and Inter-American Literature and Culture. I am particularly interested in the following areas.

  • Transnational North American & Border Studies.
  • Transatlantic & Inter-American Studies.
  • Travel Writing, Autobiography, and Drama.
  • Black Diaspora & Latinx Studies.
  • (Post-)Colonial Studies.
  • Gender & Sexuality Studies.
  • Medical & Environmental Humanities.
  • US American Popular Culture.

 

CURRENT RESEARCH

Black Inter-American Mobility and Autobiography in the Age of Revolutions, 1760-1860.

In my current interdisciplinary project, I explore the ways transnational autobiographies by black authors address different forms of black mobility in the Americas during the Age of Revolutions and its aftermath (1760-1860). During that time, different black-authored narrative text genres emerged in the region. Among them are four major types of black autobiography: slave narratives, Indian captivity narratives, spiritual autobiographies, and memoirs-as-travelogues. In these, different forms of (im-)mobility played a defining role in shaping black identities and experiences. Drawing on the approaches of Inter-American Studies, Black Atlantic Studies, Mobility, and Autobiography Studies, my project closes a gap in the scholarship of the Americas and the Atlantic World.

EU flag: with a circle of 12 starsThis research project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 834975.
For more information, please visit the project website: BIMAAR

 

Postdoctoral book cover

 

COMPLETED MAJOR PROJECTS

Lone Star Vistas: Constructions of Texas in Nineteenth-Century US American, Mexican, and German Travel Narratives, 1821-1861.

In my postdoctoral project, I analyzed narrative con­structions of Texas from 1821-1861 in selected works of American, Mexican, and German travel writing. My research addressed how these works addressed the region as a geographic, social, and cultural space. Through the lens of travel writing, I looked at the ways the region’s major settler populations contributed to the public discourses on Texas during the period. Analyzing different types of journey narratives, my project also engaged theoretically with the genre of the travelogue. This research project received funding from the German Research Foundation, project no. 195040265. The resulting monograph appeared as Lone Star Vistas: Travel Writing on Texas, 1821-1861 (University of Texas Press, 2021).
You find the table of contents here: TOC LSV

Stages of Agency: The Contributions of American Drama to the AIDS Discourse.

In my doctoral research, I explored the contributions American stage drama made to the dis­course on HIV/AIDS in the United States from 1985-1998. My study maps the diachronic development of this body of work in its increasing thematic, formal, and political heterogeneity. Here, I analyzed the strategies the plays employed to blend art with activism. In connecting these activities, the dramas established a counter-discourse to the mainstream public debate about AIDS. This enabled them to provide social agency to the affected populations.

For purchasing information, please click on the book cover image.
Here is the table of contents: TOC SOA

 

dissertation book cover

 

SELECTED RESEARCH DISTINCTIONS

Marie Sklodowska Curie Research FellowshipEuropean Union. Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 834975). 2019-2022. EU Project 
DFG Research Grant. German Research Foundation (project no. 195040265). 2011-2014. DFG Project
Finalist, Rodríguez Family Award for Most Significant Scholarly Book, Texas Institute of Letters, published book Lone Star Vistas, 2022.
IAS Thesis Award. International Association of Inter-American Studies. Awarded for the book manuscript “Lone Star Vistas.” 2016.