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2011 Woodman Lecture
The English Department is pleased to announce the 2011 Leonora Woodman Memorial Lecture. The lecture will be presented on Thursday, September 15, at 4:30 pm in the Krannert Auditorium. Reception before in Krannert Lobby from 3-4:15.
Our distinguished speaker is Robert D. Nixon, Rachel Carson Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Nixon received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is the author of London Calling. V. S. Naipaul, Postcolonial Mandarin (Oxford); Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood. South African Culture and the World Beyond (Routledge); Dreambirds: the Natural History of a Fantasy (Picador); and Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard).
Professor Nixon is a frequent contributor to the New York Times; his writing has also appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Village Voice, The Nation, The Guardian, Outside, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Independent, and Slate. His academic writing (primarily on postcolonial studies, environmental studies, and South African literature and culture) has been widely anthologized and has appeared in PMLA, Critical Inquiry, Modern Fiction Studies, Social Text, South Atlantic Quarterly, Transition, Cultural Critique, Contemporary Literature, Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, Ariel, New Formations, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire among other venues.
Dreambirds was selected as a Notable Book of 2000 by the New York Times Book Review and as one of the ten best books of the year by Esquire. It was also serialized as Book of the Week on BBC Radio Four and received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, and Choice. Nixon's book London Calling was named by Choice as one of the best academic books of the year.
Professor Nixon teaches environmental studies, postcolonial studies, creative nonfiction, African literature, world literature, and twentieth century British literature. He is a former director of the University of Wisconsin Border and Transcultural Studies Research Circle and is affiliated with the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, the Center for Cultures and Histories of the Environment, African Studies, and the Creative Writing Program.
Professor Nixon has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, a MacArthur Foundation Peace and Security Fellowship, and a National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Institute for the Humanities.
Contact information
Robert Marzec, Associate Professor of English
Email:
rmarzec@purdue.edu
