Comparative Literature
Graduate Group

Kristen Bergman

krbergman@ucdavis.eduu

Masha Boston

myboston@ucdavis.edu

M.A. in Russian Literature and Linguistics from Moscow State University, 2002.

Languages

Russian - English - French

Areas of teaching and research interest

Film studies, particularly American and Russian silent cinema, connections between modernist film and literature, modernist studies. Courses taught: COM 3,4,5,6,7; Russian 3-5, 101 (B,C); Russian Composition 102.

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.

D Dayton

dzdayton@ucdavis.edu

B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies, Friends World Program - Long Island University, 2001.

M.A. in Chinese Studies, University of Sydney, Australia, 2006.

Master's Thesis: Chinese Ethnic Minority Poetry in China's Southwest.

Interests

Ethnic Minority / Native literatures in world languages; translation; modern / contemporary Chinese literature; Native American literature in English; 20th century Russian literature; Marxism and Postcolonial theory; the intersection of ethno-poetics and ethno-politics in the Third and Fourth Worlds.

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.

Ted Geier

tegeier@ucdavis.edu

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

Elisabeth Lore holds a B.A. in Liberal Studies and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University.

Areas of teaching and research interest

Here at UC Davis, she is currently working on a double PhD in Comparative Literature and French, specializing in French, Caribbean and Multilingual Literatures. Her current Comparative Literature research project explores the role language, literature and music play in racial reconciliation between descendants of those involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Her French Department research project attempts to trace the process in which information about the Atlantic Slave Trade was disseminated among the French population between the 18th and 19th centuries and how that process is reflected in the literature of those times.

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.

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 Keane

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 also 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 Italian and English literature, especially the novella, the development of the novel and translation.

Nick Sanchez

ngsanchez@ucdavis.edu

BA in Literature, Claremont Mckenna College, 2001.

Interests

Literature of the Southern Cone; 20th Century US literature; essay and intellectual traditions in the Americas; Marxism in Latin America; the convergence of science, literature, and liberation during the Popular Unity period in Chile.

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 Romantic novel, depictions of the ineffable, secrecy, apophasis, translation. DE in Critical Theory. Courses taught: COM 2, 3, 4

Publications

Her novel, 13 Rue Thérèse, is forthcoming from Little, Brown.

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.

Chris Tong

ckto@ucdavis.edu

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

Languages

Chinese - German - French - English - Beginning Japanese

Interests

Film and architecture in China; poetry and the environment; spatial theory; critical theory; comparative philosophy.
Co-founded the Research Cluster on Space and Spatiality at the Davis Humanities Institute.

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

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.