Comparative Literature
Graduate Group

Belén Bistué

mbbistue@ucdavis.edu

Licenciada in Letras, with a specialization in classical languages and literatures, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, in Mendoza, Argentina. Her thesis explores Aristophanes� use of the woman-man opposition as political un-metaphor in Lysistrata.

Currently working towards a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, with a D.E. in Critical Theory. The latest version of her dissertation title is "The Multilingual Imagination: Placing Early Modern Translation Strategies in a Cultural History of the Novel."

Languages

Spanish - English - Ancient Greek - Latin - beginning Arabic

Areas of teaching and research interest

Her interests include translation, literacies, the history of the book, Medieval and Renaissance literature, and literature by women in particular. Her teaching experience has made her interested in conceptualizations of multilingualism and language policies.

At UC Davis, she has worked as a Research Assistant in the Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews digital archive, a three-year project funded by the NSF and the NEH, which makes available audio files and transcriptions of Prof. Samuel G. Armistead's recordings of ballads and stories, collected among Sephardic Jews from North Africa, the Balkans, and the Near East between 1957 and 1980. She has taught "Comparative Literature 1: The Ancient World" and "Comparative Literature 2: From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment," in the Great Books of Western Culture series.

Awards

Universidad Nacional de Cuyo award to academic excellence
FAMU (Federation of Argentine University Women) award to the highest GPA in graduating class
UC Davis Non-Resident Tuition Fellowship
PEO Internatioal Peace Scholarship
UC Davis Dissertation Year Fellowship
The Bancroft Library Study Award

Publications

"Translation as Collaborative Authorship: Margaret Tyler's The Mirrour of Princely Deedes and Knighthood." Comparative Literature Studies 44.3 (2007): 298-323. (in press; written in collaboration with Deborah Uman) Two entries ("Printing" and "Literacy") in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Love, Courtship, and Sexuality through History. Vol. 3: The Early Modern Period. Ed. Victoria Mondelli. Greenwood (in press). Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. 1ed., New York, Morrow, 1994 (Reseñ bibliográfica). Anales del Instituto de Lingüística 18-21 (1999): 253-255.

Rune Christensen

rist@ucdavis.edu

I hold a B.A. in English from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. One year of the degree was completed at the University of Montana, Missoula. I initiated my graduate career at the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Interests

My research is primarily focused on film studies and Scandinavian studies. I am currently writing my dissertation which takes classical American film noir as a comparative model and discusses how noir cinema is expressed in Denmark during the 40s and 50s.

Brian Davisson

bmdavisson@ucdavis.edu

B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature with a German minor from North Carolina State University where I also did coursework for an M.A. work before transferring to UC-Davis.

Areas of teaching and research interest

Contemporary narrative from Latin America (particularly Central America) and the Iberian Peninsula, with respect to historiography and the manner in which narratives are read from distinct national perspectives - Critical Theory and Marxism

I have taught courses in introductory and intermediate Spanish, and will be teaching in Comparative Literature for the next few years. I have studied or done research in Vitoria, Spain; Tubingen and Mannheim, Germany and in Costa Rica.

Shawn Doubiago

scdoubiago@ucdavis.edu

B.A. in Comparative Literature from the American University of Paris - M.A. in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University. - Her dissertation entitled, "Writing Wrongs: Representation and Resistance in Twentieth Century Women's Writing on War and Conflict" (in progress) for the Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at UC Davis.

Areas of teaching and research interest

The study of French/Francophone and Italian literature. She has studied Arabic. Her designated emphases include; Gender and Women's Studies and Critical Theory, with a special interest in postcolonialism, psychoanalysis (trauma theory), gender, race, aesthetics, and film. She has taught the COM 1-4 course series as well as Humanities courses. Shawn received the 2006-2007 UC Davis Dissertation Year Fellowship, the 2006-2007 UC Davis Humanities Research Grant, and the 2006 Consortium for Women and Research Grant.

Michael Graziano

mrgraziano@ucdavis.edu

B.A. in Philosophy and in Asian and Middle-Eastern Studies from Dartmouth College

Languages

English - Japanese - Spanish

Interests

Twentieth-century Japanese, American, and Latin American literature.

Shannon Hays

smhays@ucdavis.edu

Elisabeth Lore

emlore@ucdavis.edu

Giovanna Montenegro

gmontenegro@ucdavis.edu

BFA in Photography, San Francisco Art Institute - MA in Comparative Literature, San Francisco State University.

Languages

Spanish - German - French - Italian - Int. Russian

Areas of teaching and research interest

Early twentieth- century prose and lyric from Germany and Latin America focusing on gender, domestic and urban space, as well as social class. Critical Theory especially psychoanalysis. Transatlantic Avant-Garde encounters between Latin America and Germany, France, Italy, and Russia as evidenced in literature and visual and performing arts. Confession as genre, particularly memoirs of prostitution.

She is also interested in second language acquisition and the pains of language learning as displayed in multilingual literature and immigration memoirs.

Jing Nie

jnie@ucdavis.edu

BA in English from Beijing Language and Culture University - MA in Film from Ohio University.

Areas of teaching and research interest

Chinese literature and film, British Literature, world cinema, Japanese Literature

Prizes/Awards

Various Travel Awards, TA and RA positions, Denmark Democracy Fund

Publications

Critical essay, prose, poem, and novella

Daphne Potts

dapotts@ucdavis.edu

B.A. in Art History - B.A. in Comparative Literature from UC Irvine.

Areas of teaching and research interest

My interests include notions of space and time, identity and issues of nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism and spaces of cultural contact, particularly as relates to African literature, film, cultural media, and the African diaspora.  I have taught COM 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Monica Powers

mpowers@ucdavis.edu

MA in Italian Studies, McGill University, Montreal, 2006. Thesis: Developing a Poetics of Ordinariness: Language, Literature and Communication in Gianni Celati's 1970s Novels. � BA in English and Italian Studies, UC Davis, 2003. I studied for a year at the University of Bologna in Italy with EAP.

Areas of teaching and research interest

My areas of interest and research include 20th Century Italian and American literature (and earlier), ethics in literature, the development of the novel and translation.

Anne Salo

amsalo@ucdavis.edu

B.A. English Literature (Major) and Spanish (Minor), Scripps College, May 1996; M.A. Spanish Literature, UCD, June 1999.

Languages

English - Spanish - Latin - some French

Areas of teaching and research interest

I am most interested in teaching Classic and Medieval Literature. I have taught Spanish 1 & 2, Comp Lit 1, 2 & 3, and I have TA'ed for Comp Lit 6 & 7.

Dissertation

I am writing about coded forms of political critique in the literatures of late-medieval England and Spain.

Prizes/Awards

Professors for the Future, UCD 2006-2007 (declined); Travel Grant, Medieval Association of the Pacific (MAP) 2006; Graduate Student Scholarship, Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) 2004; Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award, UCD 2004; Teaching Resource Center Curriculum Development Grant, 2004. First Year Fellowship, UCD 2002.

Publications

Diego Blázquez Martín, Herejía y Traición: Las doctrinas de la persecución religiosa en el siglo XVI (2001). Book Review.
The Sixteenth Century Journal (Winter, 2005) 161-2. "Anglo-Norman," "Anglo-Norman Poetry," "Chaucer's To Rosemounde," and "St. Erkenwald."
Companion to Pre-1600 British Poetry. Ed. Michelle M. Sauer. (New York: Facts on File, 2007). "The Jeu d'Adam."
Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 1: The Middle Ages. Ed. Joseph Black, et al. (Toronto, Canada: Broadview, 2006) 626.

Nick Sanchez

ngsanchez@ucdavis.edu

BA in Literature, Claremont Mckenna College, 2001.

Interests

20th Century American and Latin American literature; media theory; intersections between technology and literature

Christina Schiesari-Van Den Abbeele

cmschiesari@ucdavis.edu

BA from San Francisco State University with a major in Theatre Arts 1997; MBA from Sacramento State University, 2002.

Languages

English - French - Italian

Interests

In 2004 Christina began her doctoral candidacy at UC Davis in Performance Studies. Her transfer to Comparative Literature in 2005 coincides with her research interests in Early Modern and 17th century dramatic literature, focusing on gender, class, and the theatre itself as a "revolutionary", cultural phenomenon, and a space (both textual and performative) in which questions of identity are both dramatized and localized. In addition to these research interests, Christina has taught drama and humanities courses, where she enjoys unfolding the intricacies of Shakespeare and other historical dramatists to her students.

Elena Shapiro

emshapiro@ucdavis.edu

B.A. in English & French from Stanford University, 2000 - M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from Mills College, 2006.

Languages

English - French - Spanish

Interests

The epistolary novel in 18th century France and England; representations of the workings of memory in narrative; DE in Critical Theory.

Fei Shi

fshi@ucdavis.edu

Zoya Stanchits Popova

stanchits@ucdavis.edu

Ph.D. from Saint Petersburg State University, 2005.

Languages

Russian - English - Chinese - some German - some Japanese

Interests

My dissertation from Saint Petersburg was written on Modern Chinese Writer Shen Congwen (1902-1978). I studied the 20th century Chinese literature and Influence of Russian Literature on Chinese writers. In 2005 I entered University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Comparative Literature and Humanities. In 2007, I transferred to UC Davis. Currently, I am studying the memories of Soviet Union in works by contemporary Chinese authors.

Natalie Strobach

nstrobach@ucdavis.edu

B.A. in English, Languages and Literature, and Women's Studies from New Mexico State University, 2006.
Undergraduate McNair Thesis: "Decomposed Theory: Cixous' Re-Pairing of the Aporia Between Idea and Theory."

Languages

French - English - German

Areas of teaching and research interest

Natalie's interests center around 20th century French, German, and U.S. Literature and Theory. This includes: The Frankfurt School, feminist theory, authorship, aesthetics, trauma studies, and the representation of the working-class in literature. In particular, she is interested in less traditional theoretical contributions or compositions and their relationship to the working class.

Christopher Tong

ckto@ucdavis.edu

B.S. in Mathematics, Stanford University, 2001. M.F.A. in Creative Writing, San Francisco State University, 2006.

Languages

English - Chinese - German - French

Interests

Chinese cinema; Hong Kong cinema; Asian cinema; European cinema; modern Chinese literature and performance; spatiality; urban and natural spaces; the interdisciplinary study of film and architecture; French Theory; critical theory; comparative philosophy

Joshua Waggoner

jnwaggoner@ucdavis.edu

BA Comparative Literature, UC Davis, 2000. MA Humanities and Social Thought, New York University, 2004.

Master's thesis

The connection of irony to trauma in Tasso, Woolf, and Barker.

Languages

Italian - Spanish

Interests

Renaissance Italian Literature and 20th Century British and American Literature emphasizing war literature and trauma theory. Irony and theories of the comic

Wendy Yamamoto

wayamamoto@ucdavis.edu

Brian Young

bpyoung@ucdavis.edu

B.A. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy, UC Davis, 2001

Interests

Brian focuses on contemporary American, Spanish, and French metafilms. He has taught COM 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and Intro to Film.