Critical Studies of the Americas encompasses a range of literary and historical fields, as well as disciplinary approaches, related to the study of the Americas. These include but are not limited to: African American and African Diaspora Studies; American Studies; Asian American Studies; Caribbean Studies; Critical Race and Ethnic Studies; Indigenous Studies; and Latin American and Latinx Studies and their accompanying literary focuses. The Critical Studies of the Americas stream emphasizes transnational, multilingual, and interdisciplinary approaches that intersect with the department’s concentrations in Empire Studies, Translation, Environmental Humanities, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The stream’s emphasis on “critical studies” evokes innovative theoretical paradigms that reimagine the political and economic realities of the Americas and that inform our variously shared pedagogical, scholarly, and creative practices. Critical Studies of the Americas courses will be attentive to issues of difference and power and will treat a range of geographical regions, ethnic/national traditions, and theoretical/methodological approaches.

Critical Studies of the Americas Faculty:

• Hosam Aboul-Ela
• Jason Berger
• Sarah Ehlers
• Amanda Ellis
• Maria Gonzalez
• Elizabeth Gregory
• Haylee Harrell
• Michael Snediker
• Kavita Singh
• Roberto Tejada
• Sunny Yang
• Lois Parkinson-Zamora

Recent Faculty Books:

• Amanda Ellis, Letras y Limpias: Decolonial Medicine and Holistic Healing in Mexican American Literture (University of Arizona Press, 2021)

• Essays in Honor of Lois Parkinson Zamora: From the Americas to the World, ed. John Ochoa and Monika Kaup (Lexington Books, 2021)

• Jason Berger, Xenocitizens: Illiberal Ontologies in Nineteenth-Century America (Fordham University Press, 2020)

• Hosam Aboul-Ela, Domestications: American Empire, Literary Culture, and the Postcolonial Lens (Northwestern University Press, 2018)

Featured Courses:

• Mexican American Literature (Dr. Amanda Ellis)

• Critical Studies of the America Theories and Methods: Ecologies/Dissent (Dr. Jason Berger)

• Houston GLBTQ Archives (Dr. Maria Gonzalez)