Academic Lives: Memoir, Cultural Theory, and the University Today PDF
Preview Academic Lives: Memoir, Cultural Theory, and the University Today
AcAdemic Lives This page intentionally left blank AcAdemic Lives Memoir, Cultural Theory, and the University Today cynthia g. franklin the university of georgia press athens & london © 2009 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602 www.ugapress.org All rights reserved Set in New Caledonia by BookComp, Inc. Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Printed in the United States of America 13 12 11 10 09 c 5 4 3 2 1 13 12 11 10 09 p 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Franklin, Cynthia G. Academic lives : memoir, cultural theory, and the university today / Cynthia G. Franklin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-8203-3342-7 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-13: 0-8203-3342-5 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: 978-0-8203-3343-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-8203-3343-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. College teachers—United States—Biography. 2. College teachers as authors—United States. 3. Autobiography—Authorship. I. Title. lb1778.2.f73 2009 378.0092'2—dc22 2008049647 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8203-3587-2 For Jesse This page intentionally left blank contents Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1. The Academic Memoir Movement 1 Chapter 2. Whiteness Studies and Institutional Autobiography 28 Chapter 3. Postcolonial Studies and Memoirs of Travel, Diaspora, and Exile 77 Chapter 4. Feminist Studies and the Academic Star System 140 Chapter 5. Disability Studies and Institutional Interventions 213 Conclusion. Memoir and the Post–September 11 Academy 275 Notes 281 Bibliography 309 Index 331 This page intentionally left blank AcknowLedgments If in this book on academic memoir there is any place where I most di- rectly write my own, it is here, in this space set aside to acknowledge my own institutional location and the experiences and the deep attachments without which this book would not exist. My dean, Joe O’Mealy, has been the source not only of a superb wit but also of funding, and I thank him for supporting me with research and travel money. This project has been strengthened by responses from au- diences at the following conferences: the American Studies Association (ASA), the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS), the Interna- tional Narrative Conference, the Modern Language Association (MLA), the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature (MELUS), the Pa- cifc Rim Conference on Disabilities, and by audiences at the University of Hawai‘i (in particular the International Cultural Studies Certifcate Program and the Women’s Studies Colloquium Series). So, too, students in graduate courses in American studies, cultural studies, and in my grad- uate and upper-division courses on memoir have helped me formulate ideas that appear in this book; I’d particularly like to thank Carlo Arreglo, Donna Tanigawa, and Allison Yap. This project has spanned the life of two writing groups whose contri- butions have been immeasurable. Andrea Feeser, Laura Lyons, and Beth Tobin provided crucial guidance and encouragement through the begin- ning stages of this project, and Andrea and Beth have continued to be wonderful—and sorely missed and much loved—long-distance friends and colleagues. It is ftting that I was able to spend time with Beth and Joe Tobin in New York City while completing the fnal revisions to this book, where an unexpected gift of that visit was their expert editorial advice. The later stages of this project owe much to the collective and in- dividual energies and insights of Monisha Das Gupta, Linda Lierheimer, Laura Lyons, Kieko Matteson, Naoko Shibusawa (frst in her embodied presence and then, when calling from Providence, as an intrepid voice emanating from the speaker phone, surrounded by strawberries), and Mari Yoshihara. That the intellectual pleasure of these groups has been
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