Researcher

Lesley Larkin

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Researcher Bio

Lesley Larkin Associate Professor 3242 Jamrich Phone: 906-227-1794 E-mail: llarkin@nmu.edu

Lesley Larkin earned a Ph.D. with distinction from the Department of English at the University of Washington in 2007 and taught there and at Seattle Pacific University before joining the NMU faculty in 2008. Her primary area of expertise is American literature (1865-present), with particular emphasis on African American literature, American ethnic literatures, race and gender studies, and reading and reception theory. She has published essays in these areas in journals such as Canadian Review of American Studies, LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, and MELUS: Multiethnic Literature of the United States. Currently, Dr. Larkin has two book-length research projects under way. The first, Reading Race in Modern and Contemporary African American Narrative, traces the many strategies employed by twentieth- and twenty-first century black writers to challenge, model, and theorize modes of reading race. The second project, American Narrative in the Genomic Age, explores how contemporary novels and non-fiction narratives respond to the rearticulations of race, gender, and humanness prompted by genomic research. At NMU, Dr. Larkin teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in composition, American literature, African American literature, gender and literature, and critical theory. Recent courses include “Women and Reading in Contemporary Fiction” (EN 250), “American Literature V: Postmodern Temporalities” (EN 376), “Major Authors: Toni Morrison” (EN 530), and “Principles of Critical Investigation: Reading and Responsibility” (EN 504).