Department Name

Faculty::Christina Accomando

ca3@axe.humboldt.edu
(707)826-3479
(click here for Professor
Accomando's course descriptions)

EDUCATION

University of California, San Diego Ph.D., Literature, 1994; M.A., 1992. Areas of emphasis: African American literature and culture; pre-Civil War U.S. literature; multi-ethnic autobiography; Black feminist legal theory.
B.A., Literature, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1987.

DISSERTATION

Representing Truth and Rewriting Womanhood: Constructions of Race and Gender in Discourses of U.S. Slavery. In a nation founded upon articulations of liberty and equality, human enslavement has been justified with complex and contradictory rhetorical moves.The dissertation examines legal, political and literary discourses of slavery and resistance, all of which relied upon various constructions of race and gender.Laws governing racial identity, miscegenation, rape, reproduction, literacy and property defined African Americans in specific yet contradictory ways--as non-human, with dangerous sexuality and nonexistent subjectivity.Those constructions, which did not vanish with emancipation, were rewritten and resisted in multiple ways. Through examining 18th-century poet (and Middle Passage survivor) Phillis Wheatley, activists Sojourner Truth (an orator whose words come to us mainly through white framers) and Harriet Jacobs (a writer whose narrative broke ground on issues of race, gender, and genre), different tellings of slave law, and modern legal discourse, the dissertation exposes the rhetoric of framing and representation, analyzes intersections of race and gender, and traces historical legacies of racism and resistance.

SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

"Further Deponent Sayeth Not":Multiple Voices and Suppressed Narratives in Tellings of Slave Revolt. The Imagined Self: Re-visioning the African American Text. University of Alabama Press, 2000.
"Harriet Ann Jacobs." Women in World History.Yorkin Publications, forthcoming 1999.
"Madcap Misogyny and Romanticized Victim-Blaming: Discourses of Stalking in a Summer Blockbuster." With Kristin J. Anderson. Women and Language 22.1 (1999).
"Race, Writing and Resistance: 'An Uncultivated Barbarian' Writes Back." Points of Development. Humboldt State University English Department, 1999.
"'The laws were laid down to me anew': Harriet Jacobs and the Reframing of Legal Fictions." African American Review 32.2 (1998): 229-245.
Book review.The Coupling Convention (Ann duCille) and Nella Larsen (Thadious Davis), in Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers 15.1 (1998): 117-119.
"We Shall Overcome" and "William Attaway." Oxford Companion to African American Literature.Oxford University Press, 1997.

SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

"Toward the White Man's Burden: Race, Class, Gender and Nation in the 19th Century." Chair and Respondent. American Studies Association Meeting, Seattle, November 19, 1998.
"Further Deponent Sayeth Not":Multiple Voices and Suppressed Narratives in Tellings of Slave Revolt, American Literature Association Conference, San Diego, California, May 31, 1998.
"Reader, this narrative is no fiction": Rewriting Legal Fictions of Race and Gender. Modern Language Association Convention, Toronto, Canada, December 29, 1997
"Root and Branch Destroyed: Radical Politics and Multiple Voices in Sojourner Truth's Oratory." American Literature Association Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, May 23, 1997
"Still Crazy After All These Years: The Struggle in the '90s for Ethnic Studies and Multicultural Awareness at a Private University."
Intersections: An Interdisciplinary Conference, San Diego, California, May 18, 1997
"Harriet Jacobs, Slave Law and Legal Fictions." National Graduate Women's Studies Conference, San Diego, California, April 16, 1994
"Rx Norplant: Colonizing Women of Color," University of Pennsylvania Afro-American Studies Conference, November 12, 1993
"Representing (Sojourner) Truth: The Framing of an American Icon"
"Fertility on Trial: Contraception as a Penalty"
National Women's Studies Association Conference, Washington, D.C., June 19, 1993

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Assistant Professor, Humboldt State University, Department of English, Fall 1997 - present.
EN 105:"Introduction to Literature"
EN 232:"Survey of American Literature: American Voices in Dialogue"
EN 320:"Practical Criticism"
EN 330/Ethnic Studies 480:"Literature of Slavery and Resistance"
EN 330/ES480/Women's Studies 480:"American Literature by Women of Color"
EN 336:"American Ethnic Literature: African American Literary Traditions"
EN 336/ES 480:"American Ethnic Literature: Asian American Literatures"
EN 465:"Multicultural Issues in Language and Literature: Color Lines & Borderlands"
EN 481/681/682:Internships in Teaching Literature and Writing
EN 485/685/ES 480: "Colloquium: Law and Literature"
EN 490 and EN 492:Senior Project Seminar and Senior Project Tutorial
EN 690:Master's Project
ES 480:Diversity Conference: Asian American Literature Seminar
ES 480:Diversity Conference: Culture and Activism

University of California, San Diego, Department of Literature, Lecturer 1994 - 1997.
Literature/English 17: "Introduction to African American Literature"
Lit. 185/Ethnic Studies 172: "Literature of Slavery and Resistance"
Lit. 183/ES 172: "Race, Resistance & Self-Representation: Pre-Civil War Autobiography"
Lit 183/ES 172: "African American Autobiography: From Slave Narrative to the Present"

University of San Diego, Department of English, Lecturer 1994 - 1997.
English 25: "African American Literary Traditions"
English 25: "Multi-Ethnic Autobiography in the U.S."
English 21 "Literature and Composition."

San Diego State University, Department of English, Lecturer 1995. - 1997.
English 220: "Introduction to Literature"
English 520: "Tradition of African American Literature"

University of California, San Diego, Muir College Writing Program, Instructor 1987 - 1994.
Designing and teaching critical thinking composition courses.Mentoring instructors.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Humboldt State University Faculty Development Diversity Award, Spring 1999.
Humboldt State University Foundation, Small Grant Awards, Spring and Fall 1998.
Humboldt State University Women's Enrichment Fund, Small Grant Award, Spring 1998.
NEH Summer Institute on American Literature, Critical Theory Institute, Summer 1996.
Dissertation Fellowship, UCSD Department of Literature, Winter 1994.
UC President's Washington Scholarship (for research at Library of Congress, Howard University Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, and Bethune Archives), 1993.
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Summer Seminar, 1993.
Women's Research and Education Institute (WREI) Congressional Fellowship on Women and Public Policy, 1990-1991.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Curriculum Committee 1997 - present
English Department, Humboldt State University

Graduate Committee 1999 - present
English Department, Humboldt State University

Program Committee 1998 - present
Ethnic Studies Department, Humboldt State University

Diversity Conference Planning Committee 1998 - present
MultiCultural Center, Humboldt State University

Teacher Preparation Committee 1997 - 1999
English Department, Humboldt State University

Search Committee 1998 - 1999
Ethnic Studies Department, Humboldt State University

Curriculum Committee1997 - 1998
Women's Studies Program, Humboldt State University

Ethnic Studies Task Force 1995 - 1997
University of San Diego.

ACADEMIC, PUBLIC POLICY AND COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE

NEH Summer Institute on American Literature and Culture Summer 1996, UC Irvine Critical Theory Institute, Irvine, California.
Participating in seminars and intersegmental workshops with visiting critical theorists. Organizing subsequent workshop meetings with Southern California educators on theoretical and pedagogical issues in multi-ethnic 19th-century U.S. literature

WREI Congressional Fellow 1990 - 1991, U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, Washington, D.C.
Conducting research on legal discourse around gender, race and reproduction. Writing Op-Ed articles in chair's name, published in LA Times and New York Times

Member, Board of Directors 1982 - 1993, Center for Women's Studies and Services, San Diego, California. Preparing legislative briefings for board; writing articles for The Longest Revolution. Setting policies for programs including journalism project, legal clinic, and crisis hotline. .

Legislative Coordinator1980 - 1993, National Organization for Women, San Diego County Chapter. Writing monthly legislative analysis column and coordinating legislative actions. Speaking to news media and political and academic groups on feminist legal issues.

Course Descriptions, Spring 2000

ES 336 / EN 336. African American Literary Traditions (4 units)

We will examine poetry, oratory, fiction, drama and autobiography, as well as critical essays and historical documents. We begin during slavery (kidnapped Africans arrived in America a year before the Pilgrims), when laws banned slave literacy and testimony, and slaves produced literature anyway. We continue through ante-bellum America, Post-Reconstruction, Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement, Black Feminist Criticism, and contemporary literature. We address questions including slavery and resistance, literacy and freedom, constructions of race and gender, law and public policy, protest versus accommodation, masking, and the role of the artist. Fulfills DCG requirement.

ES 480 / EN 480. AFFIRMATIVE ACTS: June Jordan Workshop (1 unit)

This workshop offers Spring credit but begins this Fall when celebrated African American poet, essayist and activist June Jordan will be visiting our campus. Course requirements include attending Jordan's public reading on Wed., Nov. 3 (7pm, JVD), reading several of her poems and essays, viewing the film A Place of Rage (which features Jordan along with Angela Davis and Alice Walker), attending two sessions in the Spring (Feb. 9 & 23), and submitting short responses to Jordan's work. Jordan is a professor of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, where she also directs the popular "Poetry for the People" program. She is a columnist for The Progressive and the prize-winning author of 25 books, including her most recent works: Kissing God Goodbye (poetry) and Affirmative Acts: Political Essays. Dates: Wednesday, February 9 and 23, 5:30-7:50 p.m. For details, call 826-3479.