Speaking

Recent Presentations

“The Bard of Avon Meets the Bard of Compton: Notes on Teaching William Shakespeare and Kendrick Lamar.” The Association for Core Texts and Courses. Memphis, TN. April 2024.

“The Self-Confrontation of Prayer: The Christian Right in James Baldwin’s Later Essays.” Modern Language Association. Philadelphia, PA. January 2024.

“Between Presentism and Relativism: Why Pair Frederick Douglass with Octavia E. Butler in a Core Course.” The Association for Core Texts and Courses. Dallas, TX. April 2023.

“Why Read Shakespeare, According to James Baldwin.” The Association for Core Texts and Courses. University of Notre Dame. April 2022.

“The Literary Enigma of Black Conservatism in Edward P. Jones.” Modern Language Association. Washington, D.C. January 2022

“Postwar American Fiction and the Rise of Modern Conservatism: The Meaning of Ralph Ellison’s (Near) Invisibility on the Right.” West Texas A&M University’s “Distinguished Lecture Series.” Invited Lecture. March 2021.

“Forgetting American Fascism: Post-Fascist Amnesia in Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America.” Modern Language Association. Remote Conference. January 2021. (Presentation featured in brief article by Ron Charles at The Washington Post)

“To Own the End of the World: Apocalyptic Liberalism and the Ethnic Ache in Don DeLillo’s Zero K.” Invited Lecture. Italian American Studies Association. Monthly Webinar. December 2020.

“Dietrologia: Don DeLillo’s Underworld and Italian-American Heritage.” Modern Language Association. Seattle, WA. January 2020.

“Fascism for Freedom: Notes Toward a Pynchonian Genealogy of Fascism and Postwar American Conservatism.” International Pynchon Week. Rome, Italy. June 2019.

“The (Liberal Arts) Education of Ta-Nehisi Coates” The Association for Core Texts and Courses. Santa Fe, NM. April 2019.

“The Conservative Movement’s Foundational Fictions: Flannery O’Connor, Ayn Rand, and the Fight to Define Postwar Conservatism in the United States, 1950—1964.” Modern Language Association. Chicago, IL. January 2019.

“The Reagan Revolution & the Politics of the American Novel: The Ascent of Toni Morrison in the Age of Conservative Pop Fiction.” American Comparative Literature Association. Los Angeles, CA. May 2018.