Every semester, Cornell’s American Studies Program invites faculty members to bring scholars who can speak on behalf of a theme. This semester, Director of American Studies Shirley Samuels has chosen the theme of recovery work. Recovery work is the process of highlighting the careers of writers, artists, and musicians who have been overlooked in various ways. Professor Brigitte Fielder and Professor Xine Yao both received their Ph.D.s from the Literatures in English Department with an emphasis on American Studies projects in the nineteenth-century United States. Their presentations will further explore aspects of recovery work.
Professor Fielder will speak at noon on Friday, March 11 in 258 Goldwin Smith. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature & Folklore Studies at UW-Madison. She currently studies nineteenth century American literature with a particular focus on Black female writers, African American Literature, and children’s literature. Her book Relative Races: Genealogies of Interracial Kinship in Nineteeth-Century America was published by Duke University Press in 2020.
Professor Yao will speak at noon on Monday, April 11, also in 258 Goldwin Smith. Her stay will include a meal at Flora Rose House for further interactions with students. She is a lecturer at the English Department at University College London. Her work engages the interface of science, law, race, gender, and sexuality throughout nineteenth century literature. Her first book Disaffected: The Cultural Politics of Unfeeling in Nineteenth Century America was published by Duke University Press last year. This book also won one of the inaugural Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Awards and the 2018 Prize Yasuo Sakakibara Prize from the American Studies Association.
The series is meant for Cornell faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students to celebrate “a whole cultural phenomenon,” said Samuels. By inviting these scholars to campus Samuels hopes to inspire others to create their own work of recovering the cultures of the United States.
Fielder will give her talk at twelve o’clock on March 11th and Yao will give her talk at twelve o’clock on April 11th. Both events will be held in the English Department Lounge in 258 Goldwin Smith Hall.
