Caren Irr
Department of English
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02454
irr@brandeis.edu
http://people.brandeis.edu/~irr/homepage/cv.html
ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT
Brandeis University.
Professor of English, 2010-present.
Associate Professor of English, 2002-2010.
Assistant Professor of English, 1999-2002.
Affiliated faculty: Film and Interactive Media Program, Environmental
Studies, Women's and Gender Studies.
Pennsylvania State
University. University Park, PA.
Assistant Professor of English, 1994-1999.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in English, Duke
University, 1994.
M.A. in English, Duke
University, 1990.
B.A. in English, with
honors, Swarthmore College, 1987.
ACADEMIC HONORS
Research Collaborator,
Institute on Globalization and Autonomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON.
2002-2007.
Fulbright Lectureship,
Department of English and American Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech
Republic. 2003-04.
Hewlett Foundation Grant
for Interdisciplinary Faculty Projects. 2000-02.
NEH Summer Seminar
Fellowship, Columbia University, Summer 1999.
Internal Faculty Awards,
Penn State, 1996, 1998.
Fulbright Scholarship,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, 1994-95.
Canadian Studies Graduate
Student Fellowship, Canadian Embassy, 1993.
Research Award, Canadian
Consulate General. 1993.
Graduate Student Award,
Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, 1993.
Research Award, Center for
International Studies, Duke University, 1992.
Graduate Fellowship,
Department of English, Duke University, 1989-1994.
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Pink Pirates: Contemporary
American Women Writers and Copyright (Iowa City: University of Iowa
Press, 2010).
On Jameson: From
Postmodernism to Globalization. Co-edited with Ian Buchanan (SUNY 2006).
Rethinking the
Frankfurt School: Alternative Legacies of Cultural Critique.
Co-edited with Jeffrey T. Nealon. (Albany: SUNY, 2002).
The Suburb of Dissent: Cultural
Politics in the United States and Canada during the 1930s (Durham:
Duke University Press, 1998).
Works in progress:
"Toward the Geopolitical
Novel: U.S. Fiction in the 21st Century" (in progress)
"The Arid Zones: Imagining Sustainable Everyday Lives in
East Africa" (in progress)
Articles and Book
Chapters:
"Postmodernism in
Reverse: American National
Allegories and the 21st-Century Political Novel." Accepted for special issue of Twentieth
Century Literature.
"Toward the World
Novel: Genre Shifts in 21st-Century
Expatriate Fiction." American
Literary History 23: 3 (Fall 2011):
660-679.
"Media and Migration:
Danticat, D’az, Eugenides, and Scibona," Wretched Refuge: Immigrants
and Itinerants in the Postmodern. Eds. Jessica Datema and Diane
Krumrey (Cambridge Scholars Press 2010): 9-26.
"World Heritage Sites
and the Concept of the Commons," in Global Ordering: Institutions
and Autonomy in a Changing World. Eds. Louis Pauly and Will Coleman
(Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008): 85-105.
"A Challenge for
Post-National American Studies," American Literary History 20:
3 (Summer 2008): 601-608.
"The Americanization
of Yoga?: Understanding Intellectual Property in the Context of Global
Capitalism" in "Americanization and Globalization," a special
issue of Genre 38 (Fall 2005): 281-307.
"Empire and
the Commons," the electronic book review (posted December 2005).
www.electronicbookreview.com 14 pp.
"The American Grounds
of Globalization: JamesonŐs Return to Hegel" in On Jameson:
From Postmodernism to Globalization. Eds. Caren Irr and Ian
Buchanan (SUNY 2006): 213-240.
"Introduction"
(with Ian Buchanan) in On Jameson (see above): 1-14.
"Going to the Library
in the Czech Republic," Profession (December 2004). 74-82.
"The Properties of
Nature in Josephine Herbst's Trexler Trilogy" in The Novel and the
American Left: Critical Essays on Depression-Era Fiction, ed.
Janet Galligani Casey. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2004):
81-95.
"Beyond
Appropriation: Pussy, King of the Pirates and a Feminist Critique
of Intellectual Property," in Devouring Institutions: The
Life Work of Kathy Acker, ed. Maria Gonzalez and Michael Hardin. (San
Diego State University Press, 2004): 211-234.
"On ¨TMark,
or the Limits of Intellectual Property Hacktivism," in Web Authority:
Online Domination and the Informatics of Resistance, eds. Marc Bousquet
and Katherine Wills. (http://www.electronicbookreview.com/, posted September
12, 2003). 16 pp.
"All Published
Literature is World Bank Literature, or The Zapatistas' Storybook" in World
Bank Literature, ed. Amitava Kumar. (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press: 2002): 237-252.
"Who Owns Our
Culture?: Intellectual Property, Human Rights and Globalization" in Refounding
Human Rights in an Age of Globalization, eds. Andrew Nathan, Kavita Philip,
Neal Engelhart, and Mahmoud Monshipoori. (London: M.E. Sharpe, 2003):
3-33.
"One-Dimensional
Symptoms: What Marcuse Offers a Critical Theory of Law" in Rethinking
the Frankfurt School: Alternative Legacies of Cultural Critique
(see above): 169-186.
"Literature as
Proleptic Globalization, or a Prehistory of the New Intellectual
Property," South Atlantic Quarterly (Spring 2002): 773-802.
"The Timeliness of Almanac
of the Dead, or A Postmodern Rewriting of Radical Fiction" in Leslie
Marmon Silko: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Louise K.
Barnett and James L. Thorson (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1999): 223-244.
"Curious George at
the Border: American Intellectual Property and Canadian Culture," Essays
on Canadian Writing (Summer 1999): 266-292.
"From Nation to
Generation: The Economics of North American Culture, 1930s/1990s," Canadian
Review of American Studies 27: 3 (1997): 135-144.
"Queer Borders:
Figures from the 1930s for US-Canadian Relations," American Quarterly
49: 3 (September 1997): 504-530.
"The Politics of
Spatial Phobias in Native Son," in Critical Essays on Richard
Wright's Native Son, ed. Keneth
Kinnamon (New York: Twayne, 1997): 196-212.
"Between the
Avant-Garde and Kitsch: Experimental Prose in U.S. and Canadian Leftist
Periodicals of the 1930s," Journal of Canadian Studies 30: 2
(Summer 1995): 19-38.
"Political
Surveillance: Notes on Reading an FBI File," Found Object
(Spring 1994): 91-112.
Reviews and Short
Essays:
Review of Shades of the
Planet: American Literature as World Literature. Eds.
Wai-chee Dimock and Lawrence Buell. Comparative Literature Studies 45: 4
(2008): 518-521.
Review of Signs and
Cities: Black Literary Postmodernism by Madhu Dubey. New
Formations 55 (Spring 2005): 195-199.
"Fredric
Jameson" and "Immanent Critique" in Edinburgh Dictionary of
Continental Philosophy. Ed. John Protevi (Edinburgh University Press,
2005): 323-324, 304-305.
"The Frankfurt
School," (w/Vincent Pecora) in Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory
and Criticism. Eds., Michael Groden, Martin Kreisworth and Imre
Szeman. 3rd edition. (2005): 361-365.
Review of Exiles from a
Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth-Century Literary
Left by Alan M. Wald. Forthcoming in Studies in Contemporary Jewry
(2005).
"The Postmodern Goes
Global," Southern Review 34: 2 (2001): 102-106.
Review essay on The Ends of Globalization by Mohammed A. Bamyeh, Negotiating
Postmodernism by Wayne Gabardi, and Questions of Modernity, ed. by
Timothy Mitchell.
Review of A Gendered
Collision: Sentimentalism and Modernism in Dorothy ParkerŐs Poetry
and Fiction by Rhonda S. Pettit, American Literature (December
2001): 880-881.
Review of The New Red
Negro by James Edward Smethurst, American Literature 72: 3
(September 2000): 645-646.
Review of Multilingual
America: Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and the Languages of
American Literature, ed. Werner Sollors, Comparative Literature Studies
37: 3 (2000): 364-370.
Review of The Making of
Modern Intellectual Property Law: The British Experience,
1740-1911 by Brad Sherman and Lionel Bently, Business History
Review (Summer 2000): 352-355.
"Irving Layton"
in Contemporary Jewish-American Poets and Playwrights, ed. Joel Shatzky
(New York: Greenwood Press, 1999).
Review of October Cities:
The Redevelopment of Urban Literature by Carlo Rotella, American
Literature (March 1999): 202-203.
"Josephine
Herbst" in American National Biography Vol. 10 (New York:
Oxford, 1999): 640-642.
"Kenneth
Rexroth" in American National Biography Vol. 18 (New York:
Oxford, 1999): 373-374. Republished on-line in Modern American
Poetry, ed. Cary Nelson; http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps.
Review of A Measure of
Perfection: Phrenology and the Fine Arts in America by Charles
Colbert, Modernism/Modernity 5: 3 (1998): 123-124.
Review of Partisans and
Poets: The Political Work of American Poetry in the Great War
by Mark W. Van Wienen, American Literature (June 1998): 409-410
Review of Daughters of
the Great Depression: Women, Work, and Fiction in the American
1930s by Laura Hapke and The Long War: The Intellectual
People's Front and Anti-Stalinism, 1930-1940 by Judy Kutulas, American
Literature (December 1996): 865-7.
"Edith Abbott"
in The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States, ed.
Cathy N. Davidson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994): 3.
Review of Framing
Truths: Parodic Structures in Contemporary English-Canadian
Historical Novels by Martin Kuester, Modern Fiction Studies 39: 2
(1993): 392-3.
Review of The
Responsibility of Intellectuals by Alan Wald, American Literature
65: 2 (1993): 393-394.
"Realism and
Utopia," Polygraph 6/7 (1993): 205-208.
"New Word Order:
The Recycling of the Literary 1930s," Polygraph 4 (1992):
257-262.
CONFERENCE
PARTICIPATION AND TALKS (since 2000)
"Neoliberal Spaces in
the 21st-Century Novel of Nation Building." American Literature Association. Boston, MA. May 2011.
"Reading the
21st-Century Pirate: Five Tries." Plenary talk. Brandeis
University Graduate Student Conference. October 2010.
"Utopian Mediascapes
in 21st-Century Immigrant Fiction." Northeastern Modern
Language Association. Boston, MA. February 2009.
"The Girl and the
Seed: Utopian Figures in Leslie Marmon Silko's The Gardens in the
Dunes." Society for Utopian Studies. Colorado
Springs, CO. October 2006.
"Copyright and the
Commons in Contemporary Women's Writing." Invited lecture,
Swarthmore College. April 2006.
Chair, "Thinking in
Time," panel commemorating the History of Ideas program, Brandeis.
October 2005.
Plenary panel
presentation, Globalization and Autonomy working group. McMaster
University, Hamilton, ON. September 2005.
"What is a
Superpower?" plenary at Re-imagining Power, Brandeis Graduate Student
Conference. Waltham, MA. March 2005.
Chair, "The Trauma of
the Present: Historicizing Recent Fiction." Modern Language Association.
Philadelphia, PA. December 2004.
"The Americanization
of Yoga," plenary at Boston College Graduate Student Symposium.
Newton, MA. November 2004.
Chair, "Periodizing
Modernity." Modernist Studies Association. Vancouver, BC.
October 2004.
"American Youth
Cultures Today." Invited lecture, University of Magdeburg, Germany.
June 2004.
Panelist, Roundtable on
Alain BadiouŐs Ethics, Duke University, April 2004.
"World Heritage Sites
and a Crisis-Ridden Concept of the Commons," Duke University, April 2004.
Panelist, Roundtable on
the Frankfurt School, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, April 2004.
Respondent, "What
Comes after Postmodernism? Contemporary Fiction Now," Modern Language
Association. San Diego, CA. December 2003.
"Amputated Slave
Bodies in Katherine Dunn's Geek Love," Society for the Study of
Narrative Literature. Berkeley, CA. March 2003.
"Abbie Hoffman Was a
Jock," McMaster University, Hamilton, ON. October 2002.
"The Surrealist
Commons of Rikki Ducornet." Harvard Humanities Center.
Cambridge, MA. May 2002.
Panelist, Gender and Music
Working Group, Tufts University, April 2002.
"American
Intellectual Property and Global Yoga." Circulations:
"America" and Globalization. Gainesville, FL. February 2002.
"(On Not) Owning the
Fruits of Immaterial Labor," Modern Language Association. New
Orleans, LA. December 2001.
Chair, "Does
Intellectual Property Threaten Intellectual Life?: A Roundtable on Teaching and
Research," American Studies Association. Washington, D.C.
November 2001.
"The Grounds of
Globalization: JamesonŐs Sublation of 1960s Marxism," Globalicities.
East Lansing, MI. October 2001.
"How American is the
World Intellectual Property Organization?" American Studies Association.
Detroit, MI. October 2000.
"Pink-Collar
Media," 100 Years of Popular Culture. Pittsburgh, PA.
September 2000.
"Reflections on
Adorno," 100 Years of Popular Culture, pre-conference session. Pittsburgh,
PA. September 2000.
"All Published
Literature is World Bank Literature," Marxism 2000. Amherst, MA.
September 2000.
"The Concept of
Property Long After Engels," Marxism 2000. Amherst, MA.
September 2000.
"Intellectual
Property and the Logic of Conspiracy: Some Discussion of a 1984 Case
Involving Nuns, Nazis, Mothers, and Hummel Figurines," International
Society for the Study of Narrative. Atlanta, GA. April 2000.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL
ACTIVITY
Convener, Contemporaneity
Working Group. Brandeis University. 2010-12.
Co-organizer,
"Rethinking the Frankfurt School," two-day conference at Penn State,
November, 1998.
Participant, School of
Criticism and Theory, Cornell University, Summer 1997.
Reviewer, book manuscripts
and research proposals for Continuum, Oxford University Press, University of
Minnesota Press, Duke University Press, University of Toronto Press, Palgrave
MacMillan, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Bentley
University, Jackson State University, and numerous periodicals.
Reviewer, tenure and
promotion files, various institutions.
TEACHING AREAS
U.S. literature and culture since 1900, especially contemporary fiction;
social/political theory; film and media studies; global studies.
Recent Course Titles:
Undergraduate
literature courses: 21st-Century American Literature,
American Fiction since 1945, American Writers and World Affairs, American
Utopias, The Rock and Roll Novel, Nature Writing, Underground and Alternative
Journalism
Film courses:
Documentary Prose and Film, American Independent Film, New American Cinema of
the 1960s and 70s, The Films of Disney
Theory courses:
Literature and Geography, Media Theory
Graduate seminars:
Copyright and Contemporary American Fiction, The Worlds of American Fiction,
Methods of Literary Study
Advising:
Dissertation director:
á Daniel
Worden, "Urban Cowboys and Rural Reds: The Production of Masculinity in Modern
American Fiction" (2006)
á Aaron
Ritzenberg, "The Sentimental Touch: Hands in American Novels During the
Rise of Managerial Capitalism" (2006)
á David
Bottorff, masculinity and contemporary American fiction (withdrawn)
á Mikel
Parent, politics and poetics in the modernist epic (in progress)
á Daniela
Kukrechtova, "'and fair fables fall': De-Symbolized Lyrical Cityscapes of
Jean Toomer, Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams and Gwendolyn Brooks"
(2008)
á Ryan
Wepler, "Laughing Matters: Humor in the Post-1945 American
Novel" (2010)
á Jessie
Stickgold-Sarah, genetics and dystopia in American fiction (2011);
á Joseph
Wensink, philanthropy and American literature since 1980 (in progress)
á Kyle
Wiggins, the politics of revenge in the twentieth-century American novel (in
progress)
á Amy
Easton-Flake (2011)
á Nicholas
Van Kley, sociology and the naturalist novel (in progress)
á Megan
Hamilton, American short fiction and the history of the magazine (in progress)
Second reader, six
dissertations, Penn State and Brandeis.
Director, two Masters
essays, Joint MA in English and Women's and Gender Studies, Brandeis.
Director, more than thirty
undergraduate independent studies, internships, Honors essays and theses.
SELECTED SERVICE
Member, Undergraduate
Curriculum Committee, Brandeis. 2008-10.
Chair, PhD Admissions,
English Department, Brandeis. 2008-09.
Director of Graduate
Studies, English Department, Brandeis. 2004-06, 2011-12.
Member, search committees
in postcolonial theory/Anglophone literature, journalism, early modern
literature, postcolonial and women's studies, postwar Anglophone literature,
and Chicano/a studies, Brandeis and Penn State.
Undergraduate Advising
Head, English Department, Brandeis. 2000-02.
Coordinator, American
Studies Faculty Workshop, Penn State. 1996-99.
MEMBERSHIP IN
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Modern Language
Association
American Studies Association
Society for the Study of
Narrative Literature
Modernist Studies
Association
LANGUAGES
French; some Spanish,
German and Czech. Beginning Amharic.
REFERENCES
Available on request.