The Department of American Studies

Department Faculty

Cynthia Wu
Assistant Professor of American Studies
Office: Clemens 1009
Phone: (716) 645-0825
Email: cw229@buffalo.edu

Fall 2009: On Leave

Ph.D. in American Culture, University of Michigan (2004)

M.A. in English, University of Michigan (1997)

A.B. in English, Bryn Mawr College (1995)

 

Areas of Specialization

Asian American and comparative ethnic studies, disability studies, U.S. literatures from 1865 to the present, American literary regionalisms, queer of color analysis

 

Recent Publications

"The Siamese Twins in Late-Nineteenth-Century Narratives of Conflict and Reconciliation.” American Literature 80.1 (March 2008): 29-55.

Jennifer C. James and Cynthia Wu, ed. and intro.  “Race, Ethnicity, Disability, and Literature: Intersections and Interventions.” MELUS 31.3 (Fall 2006).

“Marked Bodies, Marking Time: Reclaiming the Warrior in Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals.”  a/b: Auto/biography Studies 17.2 (Winter 2002): 245-61.

“Expanding Southern Whiteness: Reconceptualizing Ethnic Difference in the Short Fiction of Carson McCullers.”  The Southern Literary Journal 34.1 (Fall 2001): 44-55.

 

Current Research

Book manuscript in-progress: "Conjoining the Republic: The Siamese Twins in American Literature and Culture"

 

Frequently Taught Courses

Undergraduate

American Pluralism

Cross-Racial Encounters in Asian America

Graduate

Comparative Ethnic Critiques in Asian American Studies

Thinking Post-/Transnationally in Queer Theory

 

Professional Activities

National

Program Committee, Society for Disability Studies (2007-2009)

Editorial Board, Text and Performance Quarterly (2006-)

Committee on Disability Issues, Modern Language Association (2001-2004)

University at Buffalo

American Studies Graduate Committee (2008-)

Center for the Study of Disability Advisory Council (2008-)

Asian Studies Advisory Council (2008-)

Queer Theory Graduate Group Faculty Advisor (2008-)

 

Awards and Grants

Archie Davis Fellowship, The North Caroliniana Society (2008)

The Future of Minority Studies Project Summer Institute (2005)

Michael Erik Myatt Distinguished Dissertation Award in Disability Studies at the University of Michigan (2005)

Consortium for Faculty Diversity at Liberal Arts Colleges Predoctoral Fellowship (2002-2003)

Student Academic Multicultural Initiatives Grant at the University of Michigan (2002, 2003)

Dean’s Candidacy Fellowship at the University of Michigan (2000)

Daniel Walden Graduate Student Paper Award, Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (1999)

Rackham Merit Fellowship at the University of Michigan (1996-2004)