Guest Lectures and Invited Talks
2026: « Democratic Anarchy, Utopia, and the Possibilities of Literature, » Literature, Theater, and the Future of Democracy, L/T: Centre d’études littéraires et théâtrales, 19e-21e, UC Louvain, Belgium, March 13.
2025: « The Ethics of Teaching: Trigger Warnings, Cancel Culture, and Cultural Appropriation, » Formation Continue, « Dire/Interdire dans la littérature et l’enseignement, » UNIL/EPFL, November 21.
2025: « Narratives and Poetics of Desire in Contemporary North American Literature, » Lecture for SCOPE, English Department Student Organization, University of Lausanne, October 28.
2025: Guest Lecture: « New Narratives: Ecological and Democratic Practices, » « Environmental Crisis and Societal Change, » MA Course, taught by Guido Palazzo and Boris Vejdovsky, University of Lausanne/EPFL, April 10.
2024: Guest Lecture: « Contemporary American Fiction, » BA Course, taught by Patrick Vincent, University of Neuchâtel, April 30.
2024: « Democratic Anarchy and the Ends of Politics, » Doctoral Workshop in Modern and Contemporary English Studies, CUSO, University of Geneva, March 6.
2023: « On Parasites: Literature and Philosophy, » Doctoral Workshop in Modern and Contemporary English Studies, CUSO, « Philosophy by Other Means, » Robert B. Pippin, University of Geneva, May 15.
2022: « Edgar Allan Poe and the Invention of the Modern Short Story, » Formation Continue, « Less is More »: Unpacking the Short Story as a Literary Genre, University of Lausanne/EPFL, September 16.
2022: “Between Two Emancipations: The Politics of Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman,” English Department Lecture Series, University of Lausanne, March 10.
2020: “Jacques Rancière: Art and Emancipation,” ENGL775: Live Contemporary Theorists, Graduate Course, taught by Frances Restuccia, Boston College, English Department, November 4.
Selected Conference Presentations
2022: “Retelling a Story to Live: Figures of Emplotment in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys,” Swiss Association for North American Studies (SANAS), Fribourg, Switzerland, scheduled for November.
2021: “Combat Literature: Fanon and Himes,” American Studies Association (ASA), Virtual Meeting, October.
2021: “Tautology and Structure: Reading as Rereading,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Virtual Meeting, April.
2021: “Tautological Enumerations and Anagrammatical Blackness,” Modern Language Association (MLA), Virtual Meeting, January.
2021: “Democratic Equality: Nari Ward, Ocean Vuong, and the Politics of Aesthetics,” Modern Language Association (MLA), Virtual Meeting, January.
2019: “Democratic Anarchy: The Politics of Equality and the Asymmetries of Being,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Washington, D.C., March.
2018: “Refractions of the Subject: Identity Politics and Voting,” American Studies Association (ASA), Atlanta, GA, November.
2017: “Walter Benjamin and the Destruction of Democracy,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Utrecht, Netherlands, July.
2017: “William Gaddis, Failure, and the Crisis of Representation,” American Literature Association (ALA), Boston, MA, May.
2017: “A Safe Harbor between the Self and Other: Community in Toni Morrison’s Sula,” The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, April.
2015: “Walter Benjamin: Toward an Experience of the Exception,” Modernist Studies Association (MSA), Boston, MA, November.
2015: “Plasticity at the Violet Hour: The Waste Land and the Problem of Form,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), University of Washington, Seattle, WA, March.
2014: “Chester Himes, Frantz Fanon, and the Force of Blues Irony: Toward a New Humanism,” Northeast Popular Culture Association, Providence, RI, October.
2014: “Wallace Stevens’ Infinite Finitude: Negativity as Aesthetic Experience,” Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), Harrisburg, PA, April.
2014: “Henry James’ ‘impotent spectator’: Messianism in ‘The Jolly Corner,’” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), New York University, New York, NY, March.
2013: “A Radical Finitude: Recognition and Temporal Experience in T. S. Eliot’s ‘Marina,’” T. S. Eliot Society, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, September.
2013: “Refigured Time and Space in Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, April.
2013: “‘Maps and mazes’: The Road and (Post-)Modern Time,” Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), Boston, MA, March.
2012: “‘It’s a Joke’: The Recognitions and the Value of Art in Post-WWII America,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Brown University, Providence, RI, March.
2012: “‘What is its virtue and power’: Guido Cavalcanti’s Place in T. S. Eliot’s Thought and Poetry,” T. S. Eliot Society, Florence, Italy, February.
Conference Panels Chaired and Organized
2021: Panel Chair and Organizer, “Reading in Theory,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Virtual Meeting, April.
2019: Panel Chair and Organizer, “Politics and Ontology,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Washington, D.C., March.
2017: Panel Chair and Organizer, “Democracy and Liberalism in U.S. Literature and Politics,” American Literature Association (ALA), Boston, MA, May.
2017: Panel Chair, “Immigration and Identity,” American Literature Association (ALA), Boston, MA, May.
2014: Panel Chair and Organizer, “Modernism and the (Im)Possible ‘Time of the Now,’” Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), Susquehanna University, Harrisburg, PA, April.
2014: Panel Chair and Organizer, “New York City: Written, Erased, Rewritten,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), New York University, New York, NY, March.