The following are areas of particular strength and expertise with the ASU Department of English, involving collaborations and research agendas across disciplines. This is not an exhaustive or definitive list; faculty and students work in many other subspecialties not listed here.
Transdisciplinary Research Areas
Description: A focus on borderlands and immigration at ASU encompasses explorations of people, experiences, cultural products, and movements within, beyond, and across borders—real and imagined.
People: Gabriel Acevedo, Lee Bebout, Natalie Diaz, Lawrence Ellis, Ruben Espinosa, Peter Goggin, Brian Goodman, Elizabeth Horan, Elenore Long, Michelle Martinez, Susan Nguyen, Henry Quintero, Alberto Ríos, Claudia Sadowski-Smith, Safiya Sinclair, Doris Warriner
Read more: Center for Imagination in the Borderlands
Description: Critical theory is an advanced field of academic analysis with myriad applications and frameworks across industries and professions.
People: Brandi K. Adams, Lee Bebout, Ron Broglio, Melissa Free, David Hawkes, Kyle Jensen, Stacey Moran, Krista Ratcliffe, Bradley Ryner
Read more: Critical Theory (Graduate Certificate) | Applied Theory
Description: This ASU-centric area takes a humanistic approach to addressing issues in three critical domains: 1. culture—approaching equitable and diverse global citizenship through the study of culture and language; 2. environment—addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and environmental justice through the arts and humanities; and 3. technology—bringing humanities thinking to the human and ethical challenges of a world shaped by technology.
People: Joni Adamson | Karen Adams | Jonathan Bate | Sarah Florini | Peter Goggin | Julia Himberg | Stacey Moran | Claudia Sadowski-Smith
Read more: BA in Culture, Technology, and Environment
Description: The digital humanities are concerned with human questions through digital means, such as digital archives, tool and algorithm building, data set visualization, 3-D modeling of material objects, social media analysis, multimedia and multimodal exhibits, born-digital publications, narrative video games, and search and discovery digital tools.
People: Cajsa Baldini, Sarah Florini, Jacob Greene, Mark Hannah, Kathleen Hicks, Julia Himberg, Jeffrey Holmes, Jonathan Hope, Elizabeth Horan, Kyle Jensen, Bruce Matsunaga, Stacey Moran, Katherine Morrissey
Read more: Digital Humanities (Graduate Certificate) | Center for Philosophical Technologies
Description: The environmental humanities are disciplines within humanities studies that consider issues of place, sustainability, ecology, human infrastructure, and justice in relation to the natural world.
People: Joni Adamson, Jonathan Bate, Ron Broglio, Jeffrey Cohen, Peter Goggin, Jacob Greene, Elenore Long, Bruce Matsunaga, Stacey Moran, Gillian Osborne
Read more: Environmental Humanities, Certificate | Environmental Humanities Initiative | Humanities for the Environment (HfE) | Desert Humanities Initiative | Blue Humanities Initiative
Description: The health humanities are interdisciplinary research and practical collaborations—between scholars, community networks, and clinical partners—that address health as a cultural idea, value, and practice.
People: Jonathan Bate, Lisa Barksdale-Shaw, Cora Fox, Mark Hannah, Bradley Irish, Richard Newhauser, Matthew Prior
Read more: Health Humanities Initiative | Health Humanities: On Health and Wholeness (Accents on English 24) | Interdisciplinary Health Humanities, Certificate
Description: Indigenous studies at ASU brings together humanistic, scientific, artistic, and spiritual approaches to studying native peoples and cultures across the globe.
People: James Blasingame, Natalie Diaz, Lawrence Ellis, Joe Lockard, Elenore Long, Tyler Peterson, Henry Quintero, Madeline Sayet, Kyle Wilson
Read more: Red Ink Indigenous Initiative
Description: Language learning research at ASU encompasses the study of language acquisition, crossing boundaries between linguistics, education, and technology.
People: Mark James, Ruby Macksoud, Aya Matsuda, Paul Kei Matsuda, Matthew Prior, Bryan Smith, Doris Warriner
Read more: Computer-Assisted Language Learning (Graduate Certificate)
Description: LGBTQ and gender studies at ASU are informed by analyses of gender and sexuality in human culture.
People: Gabriel Acevedo, Brandi K. Adams, Karen Adams, Deborah Clarke, Aviva Dove-Viebahn, Melissa Free, Denise Hill, Julia Himberg, Elizabeth Horan, Heather Hoyt, Elenore Long, Devoney Looser, Michelle Martinez, Katherine Morrissey, Krista Ratcliffe, Joshua Vasquez, Patricia Webb
Read more: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, Certificate
Description: Medieval and Renaissance studies encompasses historical and speculative explorations of the past, from approximately the late fifth through the sixteenth centuries.
People: Brandi K. Adams, Cajsa Baldini, Jonathan Bate, Lisa Barksdale-Shaw, Robert Bjork, Jeffrey Cohen, Andrea Dickens, Ruben Espinosa, Valerie Fazel, Cora Fox, Mariam Galarrita, David Hawkes, Jonathan Hope, Bradley Irish, Heather Maring, Bradley Ryner, Madeline Sayet, Ayanna Thompson, Laura Turchi, Elly van Gelderen, Tara Williams
Read more: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies | Chaucer Celebration | RaceB4Race
Description: Prison education at ASU is both a practical and theoretical area that involves teaching and advocating for incarcerated individuals, helping stock prison libraries, and analyzing texts and artwork related to incarceration.
People: David Hawkes, Mitchell Jackson, Joe Lockard, Cornelia “Corri” Wells
Read more: Prison Education Programming | Teaching Milton in an Arizona Prison (Accents on English 24) | When I Did Time, I Was—Technically, Legally, Constitutionally—a Slave (Esquire)
Description: The public humanities are a broad framework that articulate and connect academic endeavor to the public good.
People: Jonathan Bate, Jeffrey Cohen, Aviva Dove-Viebahn, Sarah Duerden, Brian Goodman, Mitchell Jackson, Kyle Jensen, Elenore Long, Devoney Looser, Elisa New, Gillian Osborne, Sarah Viren
Read more: Center for Public Humanities | TomorrowTalks | Public Humanities: Sharing, Practicing, Translating Knowledge (Accents on English 23) | The Hows and Whys of Public Humanities (MLA Profession)
Description: The study of race and democracy at ASU combines fields of inquiry related to historical, rhetorical, literary, media, and systemic issues of race in America and beyond.
People: Brandi K. Adams, Lee Bebout, Lois Brown, Aviva Dove-Viebahn, Sarah Florini, Mariam Galarrita, Mitchell Jackson, Kenneth Ladenburg, Neal Lester, Joe Lockard, Elenore Long, Lynette Myles, Krista Ratcliffe, Safiya Sinclair, Ayanna Thompson
Read more: Center for the Study of Race and Democracy | Project Humanities
Description: Research on science and imagination at ASU busts the myth of the fact/fantasy boundary, marrying the arts and humanities with hard sciences. Areas of focus include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, worldbuilding, social justice, ethics of technology, futurism, scientific and medical history, scientific communication, climate change, and more.
People: Joni Adamson, Matt Bell, Ed Finn, Mariam Galarrita, Peter Goggin, Mark Hannah, Bradley Irish, Joe Lockard, Richard Newhauser, Nnedi Okorafor, Emily Zarka
Read more: Worldbuilding Initiative | Center for Science and the Imagination
Description: Translation studies at ASU invites intercultural and transdisciplinary approaches to exploring transmission and transformation between languages, cultures, and genres.
People: Robert Bjork, Elizabeth Horan, Joe Lockard, Richard Newhauser, Sarah Viren
Read more: Translation Studies (Graduate Certificate)
Description: Writing pedagogy research at ASU involves developing methods and best practices of teaching basic writing and language arts in settings from middle school to college to the workplace—and mentoring others to do the same.
People: Danielle Alfandre, Gabriel Acevedo, James Blasingame, Shersta Chabot, Andrea Dickens, Jessica Early, Jacob Greene, Mark Hannah, Denise Hill, Heather Hoyt, Mark James, Kyle Jensen, Aya Matsuda, Paul Kei Matsuda, Vincent Oliveri, Shirley Rose, Christina Saidy, Dana Tait, Patricia Webb, Cornelia “Corri” Wells, Kyle Wilson
Read more: Central Arizona Writing Project | Writing Programs | Young Adult Writing Program
Description: A focus on young adult literature at ASU—a specialized category of reading appealing to adolescents—involves analysis of methods, themes, and genres, while allowing for a creative, hands-on exploration of the literature with close mentorship.
People: Gabriel Acevedo, James Blasingame, Jessica Early,
Read more: Día De Los Niños, Día De Los Libros | Children's & Young Adult Literature Guide | Young Adult Writing Program