Presentations

“Uncommon Ground.” Langston Hughes Society Program: “Langston Hughes’s Audiences.” American Literature Association Conference. Boston. May 2007. 

“Gwendolyn Brooks and the Black Arts Movement: The Afrocentric Modernism of In the Mecca.” The African Presence and Influence on the Cultures of the Americas Conference. The City University of New York: Hostos Community College, Bronx, NY, Nov. 2006.

“Elizabeth Bishop’s Key West and the Locations of Modern Poetry.” Seminar Paper. Modernist Studies Association Conference: “Other Modernisms, Modernism’s Others.” Vancouver, Oct. 2004.

“William Carlos Williams and Third-Phase Objectivism.” Modern Language Association Conference. San Diego, Dec. 2003.

“Beyond Mecca: The Multiple Publics of Gwendolyn Brooks.” American Studies Association Conference. Washington, DC, Nov. 2001.

“Amnesiac Modernism: Kenneth Fearing and the Erasure of Memory.” Material Modernisms Conference. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, July 2001.

“‘A Metamorphic Palimpsest’: The Underground Memory of Thomas McGrath’s Letter to an Imaginary Friend.” National Poetry Foundation Conference: “The Opening of the Field: North American Poetry of the 1960s.” University of Maine, Orono, June 2000.

“‘Disc-tortions’ of a Dream Deferred: Langston Hughes, Bebop, and the Idea of Social Justice.” MELUS 2000 Conference: “Multi-ethnic Literatures and the Idea of Social Justice.” New Orleans, March 2000.

“Claude McKay, American Imperialism, and the Harlem Renaissance.” Modern Language Association Conference. Chicago, Dec. 1999.

“‘The Eagle and the Dollar’: Claude McKay and New World Imperialism.” American Studies Association Conference: “American Histories and the Question of Empire.” Seattle, Nov. 1998.

“Post-Americanist Williams.” William Carlos Williams Society. American Literature Association Conference. San Diego, May 1998.

“Immigration and the Harlem Renaissance.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference. Baltimore, Apr. 1998.

“‘Dream within a dream’: Langston Hughes, Post-World War II Harlem, and Black Counterpublic Spheres.” American Studies Association Conference: “Going Public: Defining Public Cultures in the Americas.”  Washington, DC, Nov. 1997.

“‘Littered with Old Correspondences’: Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and the 1930s.” Elizabeth Bishop Conference.  Worcester, MA, Oct. 1997.

“The Diagnostic Practice of William Carlos Williams.” New York College English Association Conference: “The Healing Art of Literature.” St. John’s University, Queens, New York, Apr. 1997.

“Remapping Oppen’s “Return.’” National Poetry Foundation Conference: “American Poetry in the 1950s.” University of Maine, Orono, June 1996.

“‘A material collapse that is Construction”: Gwendolyn Brooks’s In the Mecca and the Poetics of Counter-Memory.” Modern Language Association Conference. Chicago, Dec. 1995.

“‘The janitor’s poems of every day’: Sites of Waste, Sites of Memory.” Canadian American Studies Association Conference: “TRASH: Class, Culture, and Waste in America, 1607 to the Present.” Vancouver, Oct. 1995.

“Objectivism, Feminism, and the Modernist Canon: Lorine Niedecker and the Poetics of Impropriety.” Modern Language Association Conference. San Diego, Dec. 1994.

“Utopian Space, Dystopian Place: History and Counter-Memory in Gwendolyn Brooks’s In the Mecca.” California American Studies Association Conference: “Cities on the Edge.” San Diego, May 1994.

“Vietnam, Historical Amnesia, and Joan Didion’s Democracy.” Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference. Chicago, Apr. 1994.

“Poetry, Property, and Propriety: Lorine Niedecker and the Legacy of the 1930s.” National Poetry Foundation Conference: “The First Postmodernists: American Poets of the 1930s Generation.” University of Maine, Orono, June 1993.

“Technologies of Memory: Recollecting the Vietnam War in Jayne Anne Phillips’ Machine Dreams and Bobbie Ann Mason’s In Country.” New England American Studies Association Conference: “The Cultures of Technology: Science, Media, and the Arts.” Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, May 1993.

“Rewriting the War: Teaching the Literature of the Vietnam War.” Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference. New Orleans, Apr. 1993.

“Another Usable Past: On Teaching the Multiculturalism Debate.” New England American Studies Association Conference: “Multiculturalism and the Americas.” University of Massachusetts, Boston, Apr. 1992.

“‘On the verge of vertigo’: George Oppen and Cold War American Culture.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference. Buffalo, Apr. 1992.

“On the Margins of Modernism: William Carlos Williams and the American ‘Avant-Garde Tradition.’” Conference on “The Canon and Marginality.” State University of New York, Binghamton, May 1991.

“Cultural Nationalism, Immigrant Ethnicity, and the Avant-Garde Poetics of William Carlos Williams.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference. Hartford, Apr. 1991.

“Re-interpreting ‘The War’: Frank O'Hara’s Revision of Williams’ Objectivist Poetics.” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference. Toronto, Apr. 1990.

Invited Presentations:

 “US vs. Them” (with Dohra Ahmad): “Vietnam War Poetry.” Sigma Tau Delta (English Honor Society) Series: “War: Poetry.” St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, Apr. 2007.

“History, Memory and the Literary Left: Modern American Poetry, 1935-1968.” New York Metro American Studies Association Salon Talk. Hunter College, New York City. Mar. 2007.

“The Art of Crossing Boundaries: Langston Hughes and the Locations of Poetry.” Writing Center Series: “The Art of Digging.” St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, Mar. 2005.

“The Harlem Renaissance and Its Impact.” African Heritage Month Program: “The Harlem Renaissance Revisited: A Rebirth in the Spirit of Africa.” St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 2002.

“Claude McKay and American Imperialism.” City College of New York, New York City, Apr. 2000.

“Segue to Bop: Langston Hughes and Post-World War II Harlem.” English Department Graduate Colloquium. St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY, Apr. 1998.

“‘A material collapse that is construction’: Gwendolyn Brooks’s In the Mecca and the Poetics of Counter-Memory.” Arts and Humanities Division Faculty Colloquium. Illinois Benedictine College, Lisle, IL, Nov. 1995.
 
“Multiculturalism and Modernism: William Carlos Williams and the Subject of American Literature.” Roberts Lecture. Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, Mar. 1994.