Faculty

American Studies at the University of Minnesota is internationally recognized as one of the oldest and most distinguished departments in the discipline. Our faculty are dedicated to academic development and are recognized for their distinctive strengths in teaching, scholarship, and community engagement. They are scholars committed to students and communities with whom they collaborate and are recognized for excellence in scholarly research and service, woven into their contributions on editorial boards, organizations, and throughout academia. 

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
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
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
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

Visiting Faculty

Name Contact Specialties
Molly Ball
Assistant Professor of American Studies
307 Scott Hall
mball@umn.edu
18th- and 19th-century transnational American literature, early African American literature, US imperialism, temporality 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
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
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
Associate 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
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