Mulberiddlesex,
2018
York University
Mulberiddlesex, Catriona Sandilands
The Goose
Through a careful tracing of the botanical presence of mulberry trees in Middlesex, Sandilands argues for a reading practice that takes plants seriously. Thinking with plants interrupts the tendency to consider literary plants primarily as motifs, metaphors or agents of crude naturalization. Sandilands insists on involving plants in reading Middlesex in order to take the novel in less anthropocentric directions: even as Cal enlists mulberries to signal inevitability, their own stories overflow the novel’s deterministic views of race, species, territory, and gender identity.
Dehumanism And Disposability,
2018
University of Richmond
Dehumanism And Disposability, Julietta Singh
The Goose
Singh draws our attention to the “mute objects” of Middlesex, particularly The Obscure Object’s silent Black maid, Beulah, who quietly supports the unfolding romance between Cal and The Object. Through careful attention to histories of people silenced by slavery, dehumanization, and violence, Singh demands that we consider where and through what means some get to be fully human while others are made and sustained as objects for their comfort and play.
“This Is The Way I Was”: Urban Ethics, Temporal Logics, And The Politics Of Cure,
2018
York University
“This Is The Way I Was”: Urban Ethics, Temporal Logics, And The Politics Of Cure, David R. Anderson
The Goose
This article employs Eli Clare's concept of the "politics of cure" in order to discuss issues of disability, temporality, and ethical relations to rehabilitation, restoration, and cure in the Sex and the (Motor) City: Ecologies of Middlesex special cluster.
Ecological Crisis, Or “Intersex Panic,” As Answer Of The Real?,
2018
Pace University
Ecological Crisis, Or “Intersex Panic,” As Answer Of The Real?, Stephanie Hsu
The Goose
Drawing upon Cal’s eventual metamorphosis into “The [white] Man” in Middlesex, and an examination of the Real of ecological crisis, Hsu explores the intersection of environmental racism, climate change denial, and intersex discrimination in order to advocate for a renewed awareness of ecological interdependency and the need for self-determination of people of colour in ecological and environmental justice discourses.
Trans-Pacific Imaginaries And Queer Intimacies In The Ruins Of Middlesex,
2018
Wilfrid Laurier University
Trans-Pacific Imaginaries And Queer Intimacies In The Ruins Of Middlesex, Dai Kojima
The Goose
Taking up Roland Barthes’s concept of the “third meaning,” Kojima analyzes the character of Julie Kikuchi, the Japanese American love interest of the grown-up Cal. Taking Julie seriously as a character beyond mere plot contrivance and cultural reference, Kojima invites us to consider the intertwined histories of economic rise and fall, trans-Pacific wars, and other intimacies that Middlesex remains entangled in yet fails to fully acknowledge.
Border Crossings, Watery Spaces, And The (Un)Verified Self In Middlesex,
2018
Wilfrid Laurier University
Border Crossings, Watery Spaces, And The (Un)Verified Self In Middlesex, Jenny Kerber
The Goose
Kerber traces the ways in which water liberates and transforms various characters in Middlesex in order to critique and complicate water’s taken-for-granted liberatory powers. Kerber invites us to consider the majority of those for whom water is as deadly as it is (possibly) emancipating, especially those most vulnerable to climate change and other ecological and violent upheavals.
Beyond The Biography Of A Gene,
2018
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Beyond The Biography Of A Gene, Laura J. Collins
The Goose
Collins approaches the ethical nuances of Cal’s intersex narrative in Middlesex, drawing comparisons with current debates in North Carolina concerning gender-normative bathroom use and trans rights, in order to advocate for more ethical practices of relation and responsibility outside of mere knowledge creation and policy.
Middlesex And The Biopolitics Of Modernist Architecture,
2018
California State University, Fullerton
Middlesex And The Biopolitics Of Modernist Architecture, Nicole Seymour
The Goose
Highlighting the architecture of the Middlesex house of Eugenides’ novel as a major technology of modernity, Seymour argues for the biopolitical understanding of such modernist architecture and for the ways in which it often works against the exploitative effects of automation and sexology, yet constitutes a complex and even contradictory force in processes of modernization, and in the novel itself.
Materialism’S Affective Appeal,
2018
University at Buffalo, SUNY
Materialism’S Affective Appeal, Elizabeth Mazzolini
The Goose
Citing the pronounced lack of academic engagement with Middlesex since its publication and riffing on the novel’s recounting of the demise of the auto industry in Detroit, Mazzolini examines how cycles of obsolescence and currency work within academic discourse and ultimately advocates for the novel’s potential for examining the material and affective nature of relevance itself.
From Rusty Genetics To Octopussy’S Garden,
2018
University of Texas at Arlington
From Rusty Genetics To Octopussy’S Garden, Stacy Alaimo
The Goose
Alaimo critiques the “rusty” understanding of genetics, gender, and sex in Middlesex, advocating instead for queer ecological futurism.
On Being Intimate With Ruin: Reading Decay In Middlesex,
2018
McMaster University
On Being Intimate With Ruin: Reading Decay In Middlesex, Kaitlin Blanchard
The Goose
Blanchard argues for an intimate attention to the ruin in Middlesex and Detroit as a means of exploring the geo-bio-politics of decay as a problem of our socio-ecological present.
Introduction: Sex And The (Motor) City: Ecologies Of Middlesex,
2018
McMaster University
Introduction: Sex And The (Motor) City: Ecologies Of Middlesex, Kaitlin Blanchard, Catriona Sandilands
The Goose
This special cluster consists of twelve short essays, originally presented in two linked roundtables at the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) conference in Detroit in June 2017, examining Jeffrey Eugenides' 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Middlesex. Through the novel, these papers explore the historical, intersectional, and ecological understandings of Detroit, exposing an exceptional—indeed, epic—range of social ecologies, concerned with everything from intersex and multispecies bio/geopolitics to transnational economies, to the aesthetics of architecture and decay. Focused on a very particular novel, written about a very particular city and experience of it, these papers bring to light and …
Where The Weather Comes From,
2018
University of Calgary
Where The Weather Comes From, Morgan Vanek
The Goose
When Andreas Malm observed that “not even the weather belongs fully to the moment,” he was looking forward from 2016, considering the cumulative impact of present emissions on “generations not yet born.” The reverse is also true: present storms have their origins in past consumption. Up to this point, though, analysis of how human activity will intensify future weather has focused on change in a limited set of quantifiable conditions, like precipitation and temperature – and in this respect, too, the weather of the present is the weather of the past. Both this set of variables and its status as …
Embodied Ecologies And Metafictional Musings: The Limits Of Writing Intersex In Middlesex,
2018
Illinois State University
Embodied Ecologies And Metafictional Musings: The Limits Of Writing Intersex In Middlesex, Christopher Breu
The Goose
Breu critiques the limits of the intersex narrative of Middlesex and advocates for a non-reductive, materialist, and “muddled” approach to understanding sex and gender.
Sea Squad,
2018
Goldsmiths, University of London
Sea Squad, Liam Geary Baulch
The Goose
The Sea Squad is a band of cheerleaders against climate change. Taking action as a team in formation, they gather momentum, inviting all people to cheer with them, mimicking the infinitely expandable nature of the seas' molecular structure. The work was developed and performed as a bilingual project at Est-Nord-Est in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, Canada, and has since been performed and exhibited internationally. The following poems are some of the chants that Sea Squad use to get a crowd cheering together against climate change.
Poems From The Arctic Circle,
2018
Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar
Four Poems,
2018
Wilfrid Laurier University
Julia Randall Papers,
2018
Hollins University
Julia Randall Papers, Beth S. Harris, Megan Stolz
Finding Aids: Guides to the Collections
This collection has manuscripts, teaching papers, and correspondence of poet Julia Randall. The correspondence include letters to or from colleagues, alumnae, and friends.
Literary Analysis Paper [Composition],
2018
CUNY La Guardia Community College
Literary Analysis Paper [Composition], Lauren Navarro
Open Educational Resources
This ENG 102 assignment was developed in the context of CTL sponsored Learning Matters Mini-grant awarded to the English Department. The primary purpose was to assist full-time and part-time faculty in the Department with revising ENG 102 course materials to align with the Inquiry and Problem Solving (IPS) Core Competency and Written Communication Ability. This goal was achieved through several workshops, a programmatic benchmark reading, and a two-phase departmental review process that prepared assignments to be submitted to the Learning Matters Assignment Library. The mini-grant has been invaluable in helping to bring both full-time and adjunct faculty into departmental conversations …
Resonant Texts: The Politics Of Nineteenth-Century African American Music And Print Culture,
2018
CUNY Graduate Center
Resonant Texts: The Politics Of Nineteenth-Century African American Music And Print Culture, Paul Fess
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Resonant Texts: the Politics of Nineteenth-Century African American Music and Print Culture, investigates musical sound as a discursive tool African American writers and activists deployed to contest enslavement before the Civil War and claim citizenship after Emancipation. Traditionally, scholars have debated the degree to which nineteenth-century African American music constituted evidence of black culture and marked a persistent African orality that still abides within African American textual production. While these trends inform this project, my inquiry focuses on the ways that writers placed elements of musical sound—such as rhythm, melody, choral singing, and harmony—at the center of their …
