Professor English Department
(Ph.D., New York University, 2001)
tel.: (607) 777-2754
fax.: (607) 777-2408
e-mail: dfrancis@binghamton.edu
Areas of Interest
African American/African Diaspora Literatures
Caribbean Literature and Critical Theory
American Immigrant Literatures
Caribbean Intellectual History and Literary Movements
Sexuality and Citizenship in Postcolonial Literatures
Contemporary Black Women Writers
Current Projects
"Fictions of Citizenship: Rewriting Sexual Histories in Third Wave Caribbean Women's Literature."
My book length project studies what I am calling the "third wave"generation of Caribbean women writings. Distinguishable by its attention the impact of sexual and other forms of intimate violence committed against Caribbean women and girls, this emergent literature avails a consideration of the sexual nature of citizenship as it pertains to the everyday experiences of all women in the region and diaspora. Situated in the Caribbean and North America, third wave writers include Edwidge Danticat, Elizabeth Nunez, Nelly Rosario, Patricia Powell, Julia Alvarez, Angie Cruz, Shani Motoo, Dionne Brand, Oonya Kempadoo and Marlene Nourbese Phillip, among others. As such, I examine novels that represent the Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanophone Caribbean. This comparative study of differently raced, classed and nationalized sexualities asks how Caribbean women's experiences of citizenship has worked in relation to and often has been played against each other from the colonial past to the postcolonial and globalized present.
Books and Recent Articles
Lectures and Conferences, 2001-2005 Recent Courses Taught Graduate Class: Awards
"Uncovered Stories: Politicizing Sexual Histories in Third Wave Caribbean Women's Writings." Black Renaissance/ Renaissance Noire,Vol 6.1 (Fall 2004) 61-81.
"Silences Too Horrific to Disturb": Writing Sexual Histories in Edwidge Danticat's Breath,Eyes, Memory. " Research in African Literatures. Vol 35.2 (Summer 2004), 75-90.
"Paule Marshall: New Accents on Immigrant America." The Black Scholar 30.2, (Summer 2000), 20-25.
"Unsilencing the Past in Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones." Small Axe: A Journal of Criticism No. 5, (March 1999),
"Traveling Miles: Jazz in the Making of a West Indian Intellectual" in Caribbean Culture: Essays in Honour of Kamau Brathwaite. University of the West Indies Press, 2005.
"New Caribbean North American Writers." Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History. Macmillan Reference USA, Farmington Hills, MI (in press)
"The Time to Tell: Narrating Sexual Violence and the Postcolonial Nation in Elizabeth Nunez' Bruised Hibiscus," International Narrative Conference, University of Louisville, Kentucky, April 8-10, 2005
"The Boundaries of Sexual Citizenship in Contemporary Caribbean Women's Writings" Language, Communication and Culture Conference, Evora, Portugal, November 28, 2002.
"America, Authorship, and Audience: The Limits of Diaspora in the Novels of Colin Channer." Beyond the Boundary: Caribbean Culture in the Global Marketplace,Panel. American Studies Association Meeting, Houston, TX, November 15, 2002
"‘Silences Too Horrific to Disturb': Rewriting Sexual Histories in Edwidge Danticat's Breath,Eyes, Memory" 8th International Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars Conference, Martinique, W.I., April 2-7, 2002
"‘Travelling Miles': Jazz in the Making of a West Indian Intellectual" University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, January 9-12, 2002
"The Jazz Poetics of Kamau Brathwaite" (Re) Thinking Caribbean Culture Conference. University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, W.I. June 4-7, 2001
"A Dance of Doubt" Internationalizing New Works Ford Foundation Convening, Los Angeles, CA. June 9th, 2001
"Secrets, Lies and Depression in Angie Cruz' Soleded." Brandeis University, April 20, 2005.
"Swimming Against the Tide of Globalization" -Sponsored by the Department of English, University of Miami, April 22-24th 2004.
"Making Meaning of America, Authorship and Audience in the novels of Colin Channer" Borders, Boundaries and the "Global" in Caribbean Studies, Emerging Voices New Directions in the Field Ford Foundation Grant. Bowdoin College April 2003
"On the Road with Paule Marshall" Caribbean Voices Series, Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY, December 14, 2002
"Kamau Brathwaite's Trench Town Rock: Narrating Hypervisible Violence in Contemporary Global Cultures." Bowdoin College, Brunswick Maine, December 9, 2002
Panelist, "New Jamaican Writing" Harlem Book Festival, New York, July 20, 2002
Invited Conference Participant, Caribbean Feminism Workshop, Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies, June 17-18, 2002
Undergraduate Classes:
Feminism and Globalization
African American Literature: Comparative U.S. and Caribbean
Slave Narratives
Caribbean Literature Survey
Honor's Research Seminar
African/Diasporic Women Writers
American Immigrant Literature
New Immigrants Writing New York
Feminism and Globalization
African Diasporic Literary Movements
Black Feminist Criticism
Caribbean Critical Theory
Dr. Nuala G. Drescher Award, State University of New York/ UUP, Academic Year 2005-06
Dean's Semester, Harpur College, Binghamton University Fall 2003
Ford Foundation Emerging Voices, New Directions Summer Research Fellowship, Summer 2003
Ford Foundation Gender/Area Studies Research Grant
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Research Grant, New York University
Master Teaching Assistant Award, Expository Writing Program, New York University
