Faculty

Our faculty are dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and have been recognized for achievements in teaching and scholarship. They have received several fellowships and have been recognized with awards for outstanding publications. Further, members of our faculty have served on editorial or advising boards for many respected journals, series, and organizations.

Core Faculty

Name	Contact	Specialties
Melanie Abeygunawardana Assistant Professor of American Studies	207 Scott Hall abey@umn.edu	Contemporary Asian American and African American literature, critical race theory, affect studies, and queer theory
Aaron Alvarado Assistant Professor of American Studies	107 Scott Hall alvarado@umn.edu	Critical University Studies, Politics of Knowledge, Feminist Epistemologies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Agricultural History, Chicanx/Latinx Studies, Rural Queer Studies, Racial Capitalism, Critical Geography
Bianet Castellanos Professor of American Studies	206 Scott Hall 612-626-7266 mbc@umn.edu	Indigenous communities and cultures, migration, anthropology of work, Chicana/o studies, Latin America, transnationalism, gender studies, consumption
Brenda Child Professor of American Studies and American Indian Studies	209 Scott Hall 612-625-0895 child011@umn.edu	American Indian history, multiculturalism, native culture
Kale B. Fajardo Director of Undergraduate Studies Associate Professor of American Studies	208 Scott Hall 612-626-8515 kfajardo@umn.edu	Philippine Studies, Filipino/a American Studies, Asian/Asian American Studies, American Studies, masculinity studies, gender studies, feminist studies, queer studies, migration/immigration/ transnationalism/diasporas/ globalization, maritime studies, Pacific World, port cities
Elizabeth Sumida Huaman Department Chair Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, College of Education and Human Development	104 Scott Hall (Chair Office) 211C Burton Hall 612-626-5118 eshuaman@umn.edu	Indigenous knowledge systems and place-based education; Indigenous research methods/comparative Indigenous education research; Indigenous rights education/transformative human rights
David Karjanen Associate Professor of American Studies and Global Studies	211 Scott Hall 612-624-5581 karjanen@umn.edu	Political economy, labor markets, migration, urbanization, inequality, employer-employee relations
Jennifer Pierce Professor of American Studies	204 Scott Hall 612-624-0852 pierc012@umn.edu	Workplace and labor studies, gender, feminist theory, race relations, affirmative action, ethnography, social theory, sociology of emotions, research using personal narratives
Elliott Powell Director of Graduate Studies Associate Professor of American Studies	203 Scott Hall 612-626-8515 ehpowell@umn.edu	American popular music and culture, critical race theory and comparative ethnic studies, feminist and queer studies, African American and Asian American studies, music and politics, music and globalization, jazz, hip hop, sound studies

Affiliate Faculty

Name	Contact	Specialties
Aren Aizura Assistant Professor Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies	456 Ford Hall 612-626-9824 azaizura@umn.edu	Queer theory, transnational studies, transnationality and immigration, political economy, labor
Susanna Blumenthal Professor of Law & History	612-626-5694 blume047@umn.edu
Bruce Braun Professor Geography	478 Social Science 612-625-6349 braun038@umn.edu	Eco-politics, political ecology, geopolitics of biosecurity, social and political theory, green urbanism, biopolitics and the city, Anthropocene in social, political and ecological thought
Timothy Andres Brennan Professor Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature	204 Nicholson Hall 612-626-1638 brenn032@umn.edu	Continental literary and cultural theory, 19th and 20th-century comparative literature, postcolonial theory, music of the African diaspora, problems of world literature and globalization, intellectuals and the media
Rose M. Brewer Professor African American & African Studies	810 Social Sciences 612-624-9305 brewe001@umn.edu	African American women's studies, Black family life, class, gender, intersection of economy, race, racism, sociology, women's studies, critical theory, social transformation
Madelaine Cahuas Assistant Professor	612-625-5578 mcahuas@umn.edu
David A.Y.O. Chang Professor History	1143 Heller Hall 612-624-9045 dchang@umn.edu	American Indian history, Native Hawaiian history, race and nationalism, United States, 19th- and 20th-century history, comparative indigenous history, United States colonialism
Susan L. Craddock Professor Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies	425 Ford Hall 612-624-6006 craddock@umn.edu	AIDS, disease, health, tuberculosis, public-private networks for neglected disease vaccine and drug production
Karen Mary Davalos Professor Chicano and Latino Studies	19 Scott Hall 612-624-8031 kdavalos@umn.edu	Chicana/o art and culture; Latina/o spirituality; museum studies; midwestern Latino ethnography; oral history and the archive; feminist theory and editorial praxis; community-based learning and decolonial methods; arts organizations and artist collectives.
Christine Taitano DeLisle Associate Professor Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies	320 Scott Hall 612-625-3821 cdelisle@umn.edu	Native Pacific Islander histories, women's stories, public history, CHamoru studies
Jigna Desai Associate Professor Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies	425 Ford Hall 612-624-0363 desai003@umn.edu	Asian American literature and media, feminist theory, postcolonial studies, queer/sexuality studies, South Asian diasporas, critical disability studies, autism, neuronormativity
Tracy Ann Deutsch Associate Professor History	1045 Heller Hall 612-624-8547 tdeutsch@umn.edu	consumption and consumerism, women's and gender history, history of capitalism, food studies
Gail L. Dubrow Professor College of Design	32 McNeal Hall 612-624-7983 dubrow@umn.edu	US urban history, US women’s history, Asian American history, public history, historic preservation
Erin L. Durban Assistant Professor Anthropology	375 Hubert H. Humphrey Center edurban@umn.edu	queer and trans* studies, feminist studies, critical disability studies, transnational American studies, political anthropology, social movements, critical ecologies, Haiti/ Caribbean, US imperialism
Penny Edgell Professor Sociology	909 Social Sciences 612-624-9828 edgell@umn.edu	Culture, gender, religion
Nick Estes Assistant Professor	nestes@umn.edu
Michael Gallope Assistant Professor Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature	210 Nicholson Hall mgallope@umn.edu	Music and sound, continental philosophy and critical theory, peripheral modernisms, Black/African diaspora, popular culture
Vinay Gidwani Professor Geography	333 Social Sciences 612-625-1397 gidwa002@umn.edu	Post-socialism and justice, labor geographies, Marxism, identity politics and subaltern social movements, geographies of work, agroecological transformations, social theory, India
Teresa Gowan Associate Professor Sociology	1080 Social Sciences 612-626-1863 tgowan@umn.edu	Urban sociology, ethnography, poverty and marginality, consumption and branded labor, cultural micro-foundations of alternative economies
Sumanth Gopinath Associate Professor Music	100 Ferguson Hall 612-624-1829 sumanth@umn.edu	Music after WWII, avant-garde and experimental music, music and politics, musical hermeneutics, popular music, sound studies, music, and globalization
Ronald W. Greene Associate Professor Communication Studies	225 Ford Hall 612-624-2808 green179@umn.edu	Political communication, debates, civic education, legal and popular perspectives on free speech, film exhibition, educational uses of film/movies, history of debates on population control
Douglas Hartmann Associate Professor Sociology	1135 Social Sciences 612-624-0835 hartm021@umn.edu	American society, culture, ethnographic studies, field methods, mass media, Midnight Basketball outreach programs, popular culture, race, social change, social movements, social uses of recreational programming, sport culture, theory, poorly understood institution in the modern world
Katherine Hayes Associate Professor Anthropology	386 HHH kathayes@umn.edu	American Indian Studies
Karen Zouwen Ho Associate Professor Anthropology	395 Hubert H. Humphrey Center karenho@umn.edu	Cultural studies of finance capital; finance, globalization, and capitalism; ethnography; feminist studies; political economy; United States; comparative race and ethnicity
Miranda Joseph Professor Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies	429 Ford Hall 612-625-5047 josephm@umn.edu	feminism, marxism, postculturalist, queer theory, cultural studies methods, LGBT studies
Sally Kohlstedt Professor History of Science and Technology	204B Pillsbury Hall 612-624-9368 sgk@umn.edu	Science in American culture with an emphasis on contexts for scientific practice including museums, participation in science through education at every level and public engagement, institutional frameworks for science, women in the natural sciences
Scott Laderman Professor History - University of Minnesota - Duluth	265 A.B. Anderson Hall (Duluth Campus) 218-726-7207 laderman@d.umn.edu	Vietnam war and popular culture, US foreign policy, media studies
Erika Lee Professor History	311 Anderson Library 612-625-5573 erikalee@umn.edu	Migration, race, and ethnicity; Asian Americans; 20th-century United States; law and public policy
Josephine Lee Professor English Language and Literature	310D Lind Hall 612-625-9510 jolee@umn.edu	Dramatic literature, theater history, performance studies, Asian American studies
Richard Leppert Professor Emeritus Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature	226 Nicholson Hall 612-624-4354 leppe001@umn.edu	Art history, critical theory, cultural studies, discourse theory, Frankfurt School, musicology, post-structuralist sociology of popular and high culture, Theodor W. Adorno
Alex Lubet Professor School of Music	100 Ferguson Hall 612-624-7840 lubet001@umn.edu	Music composition; Jewish, American & Disability Studies; performance; popular culture; music, theatre, film
Jennifer Jane Marshall Assistant Professor Art History	372 Heller Hall 612-625-7120 marsh590@umn.edu	Art and visual/material culture of the United States
Keith A. Mayes Associate Professor African American & African Studies	827 Social Sciences 612-624-5202 mayes@umn.edu	African-American history, 19th and 20th century; Kwanzaa and Black holidays; civil rights and Black Power Movement; Black History and educational policy; African American public history
Patrick J. McNamara Associate Professor History	1212 Heller Hall 612-624-6531 pjm@umn.edu	History and memory in Mexico, comparative revolutions, Latin America, peasantries
Ellen Messer-Davidow Professor English Language & Literature	22 Lind Hall 612-625-2071 emd@umn.edu	Literary, cultural, and social theory; the “new knowledge studies“; modern/contemporary American social movements (Civil Rights, New Left, Feminist, and Conservative); certain areas of contemporary American public policy and law
Kevin Murphy Professor History	1047 Heller Hall 612-624-9021 kpmurphy@umn.edu	History of sexuality, public history, comparative history of women and gender, US history, cultural and intellectual history, urban history
Richa Nagar Professor Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies	425 Ford Hall 612-624-6006 nagar@umn.edu	Politics of development; feminisms, praxis, and people's movements; intersectionality, translations, and people's theater; blending/interrupting genres and languages in antidisciplinary research
Jean O'Brien-Kehoe Professor History	1041 Heller Hall 612-626-5330 obrie002@umn.edu	American Indian/indigenous studies, Native American representations, state and federal recognition, Indians of the northeast, ethnohistory, US colonial history
Yuichiro Onishi Associate Professor African American & African Studies	874 Social Sciences Building 612-625-0513 ohni0001@umn.edu	African American history, Asian American studies, African diaspora studies
Laurie J. Ouellette Associate Professor Communication Studies	254 Ford Hall 612-626-8517 ouell031@umn.edu	Television studies, documentary and reality TV, media and citizenship, media and consumer culture, media historiography, feminist media and cultural studies
Jimmy C. Patiño Jr. Assistant Professor Chicano & Latino Studies	210 Scott Hall 612-624-6005 jpatinoj@umn.edu	Race/class/gender; Chicano/a and Latino/a history, culture, and politics; immigration and the U.S.-Mexico Border; Latino/a civil rights and the Chicano/a Movement; African American and Latino/a relations
Daniel Philippon Associate Professor Writing Studies	21 Lind Hall 612-624-4209 danp@umn.edu	Environmental literature, history, and ethics; ideas of nature, culture, and place; human dimensions of conservation biology
Steven Ruggles Professor History	50 Willey Hall 612-624-4081 ruggl001@umn.edu	US census research, US social history, historical demography, history of the family
Jani Scandura Associate Professor English Language & Literature	210D Lind Hall 612-625-9017 jani@umn.edu	Cultural studies and critical theory, esp. theories of modernity, materiality, subjectivity; 20th-century North American literatures, film, visual and mass culture; European, American and (recently) Japanese modernisms; theories of space and place; stuff—theories of matter, objects, things, refuse, trash; sound and acoustic culture, memory; history of science, medicine and its intersections with philosophy; writing in cultures impacted by US imperialism (especially Cuba)
Robert Silberman Associate Professor Art History	310 Heller Hall 612-624-1672 silbe001@umn.edu	Film studies, history of photography, contemporary art
Katherine M. Solomonson Associate Professor Architecture & Landscape Architecture	151K Rapson Hall 612-624-5565 solom003@umn.edu	History of American and European architecture, ca. 1700–present; History of suburbia; American housing
Hoon Song Associate Professor Anthropology	395 Hubert H. Humphrey Center 612-624-8980 songx080@umn.edu	Ontology of power, the materiality of sovereignty; psychoanalysis; biopolitics; philosophical anthropology; animality; US/North Korea; early French anthropology
David Valentine Associate Professor Anthropology	364 Hubert H. Humphrey Center 612-626-8692 valen076@umn.edu	Cultural and linguistic anthropology, social justice movements, gender and sexuality, queer theory, the idea of the future, commercial space exploration
Barbara Welke Professor History	1039 Heller Hall 612-624-7017 welke004@umn.edu	American legal and constitutional history, US women's history, modern US history
Jessica Lopez Lyman Assistant Professor Chicano & Latino Studies	19 Scott Hall lyma0025@umn.edu	Midwest Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x Studies; gentrification & Latina/o/x urbanisms; performance and visual art; feminist, queer, and decolonial social movements
Teresa Swartz Associate Professor Director of Undergraduate Studies & Director of Asian American Studies Program	933 Social Sciences Building 612-626-1862 tswartz@umn.edu	Families; Intergenerational Relations; Social Inequality; Asian American Studies; Gender; Welfare State; Children, Youth and Young Adulthood.

Emeriti Faculty

Name	Contact	Specialties
Elaine Tyler May Professor Emerita	mayxx002@umn.edu	20th-century US history, women and family, women's social history, the cold war era, gender, sexuality, politics
Lary May Professor Emeritus	mayxx001@umn.edu	Film and popular culture, popular culture, post-WWII American history, Twentieth-century political and cultural history
Carol Miller Professor Emerita	mille004@umn.edu	American Indian women's narratives, American literature, intercultural studies, multicultural pedagogy
Riv-Ellen Prell Professor Emeritus	prell001@umn.edu	Anthropology of America, popular culture in the United States, gender and ethnicity in the United States, cultural studies of American Jews and Judaism