Graduate Student Biographies
Belén Bistué
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 (Reseña bibliográfica). Anales del Instituto de Linguística 18-21 (1999): 253-255.
Rune Christensen
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
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
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.
Haomin Gong
B.A. and M.A. in English Language Literature in Beijing Foreign Studies University
Areas of teaching and research interest
Haomin is specializing in the study of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and film. He is also interested in critical theory, especially Marxism. He has taught in Comparative Literature and Chinese as well as Film Studies programs. Haomin is working on his dissertation entitled "Uneven Modernities in China: A Study of Contemporary Chinese Literature and Film."
Michael Graziano
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.
Elisabeth Lore
Elisabeth holds a B.A. in Liberal studies and an M.A. in Comparative Literature (emphasis in French and Caribbean Literatures) from San Francisco State University. She also pursued a specialization in Linguistics, emphasizing Sociolinguistics.
Areas of teaching and research interest
Elizabeth is specializing in French, British and Caribbean Literature. Her interests lie particularly in bilingualism and multilingualism in literature, post-colonialism, and sociolinguistic theory. In addition, her curiosity expands to how the arts and literature reflect one another through the literary and aesthetic movements of the 20th Century. Over the years, she has enjoyed teaching in preschools and elementary schools, directing an after-school program, as well as teaching first semester French at SFSU. Her Masters thesis explored the interplay of Creole and standard languages in Patrick Chamoiseau's Chronique des sept misères and Merle Collins' The Colour of Forgetting. Her current languages are French, Spanish and a smidgen of French Creole. She intends to pursue a designated emphasis in Critical Theory and in Second Language Acquisition.
Jing Nie
BA in English from Beijing Language and Culture University - MA in Film from Ohio University.
Languages
English - Italian - French - Latin.
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
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.
Anne Salo
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
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
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
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.
Natalie Strobach
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
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
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
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.