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Associate Professor
PDL B-408
543-7797 (voice mail)
Email: alysw@u.washington.edu
B.A., Brown University, 1989
M.A., Sussex University, 1990
Ph.D., Columbia University, 1998
Modern and contemporary Trans-Atlantic Literature and Culture, Critical Theory, Feminism, Critical Race Studies, American Studies, Transnational Cultural Studies.
My current book project, The New Biologic, focuses on transformations in contemporary cultural production that reflect and refract the emergence of new biotechnologies, the mapping of the human genome and the creation of global markets in body parts, genetic materials, and new forms of human labor power. The book contributes to feminist, Marxist, and critical race theory; it also engages science studies, science fiction studies, and debates about imperialism and globalization. The New Biologic is a companion volume to Wayward Reproductions, my earlier study of the intersection of ideas about human reproduction, race, and racial nationalism expressed in major nineteenth and early twentieth century thought-systems including first wave feminism, classical Marxism, Freudian psychoanalysis, and Darwinian evolutionary theory. I regularly teach a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses on theories of biopower, racial formation, nationalism, Marxism, and feminism. My courses combine literary and cultural studies approaches with theory and emphasize close reading of texts and politics. Other recent projects include, Next to the Color Line (2007) a collection of essay on the intersection of W. E. B. Du Bois studies, critical race studies, feminism and queer studies, and, The Modern Girl Around the World (2008), a transnational feminist research collaboration on the construction of new forms of racialized femininity that appeared around the globe in the early part of the twentieth century--here the focus is on flappers, garçonnes, moga, modeng xiaojie, and neue Frauen among others.
