My doctoral research:
I’m a PhD researcher at the University of Iceland in Reykjavík funded by Doktorsstyrkjasjóður Háskóla Íslands.
My project examines themes and narrative techniques in post-9/11 literature that isn’t about the events of September 11th but nonetheless tells us something about life in a post-9/11 world.
Among the novels I’m analyzing are Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Ian McEwan’s Saturday, Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being, Teju Cole’s Open City, Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows, and Amy Waldman’s The Submission.
My advisors are Dr. Giti Chandra and Dr. Gregory Alan Phipps.
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
“Joan Didion and NYC, from ‘Goodbye to All That’ to 9/11.” In Scarpino, Cinzia and Eva-Sabine Zehelien (Eds.) Joan Didion: Life in/through/with Words. Peter Lang, April 2024.
“The Paradox of Defamiliarization and Hyperfamiliarity in Taylor Swift’s Songwriting.” In Klimchynskaya, Anastasia and Betsy Tontiplaphol (Eds.) The Literary Taylor Swift: Songwriting and Intertextuality. Bloomsbury Academic, October 2024.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“9/11, Fragmentation, and Historical (Dis)continuities in Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies.” International Auto/Biography Association World Conference 2024, Reykjavík, Iceland, June 2024.
“The Towers are Still Falling: American Life and Literature after 9/11.” Nordic Association for American Studies Conference, Uppsala, Sweden, May 2023.
“Joan Didion and NYC, from ‘Goodbye to All That’ to 9/11.” First Annual Joan Didion Conference, Bamberg, Germany, April 2022.
“Memory, Counter-Memory, Trauma, and Place in Amy Waldman’s The Submission.” Stony Book GradCon, Stony Brook University, NY, February 2022.
“Memory and Masculinity in Post-9/11 Works (The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson).” 20 Years Later: Looking Back at 9/11. Toulouse, France, October 2021.