English Department Faculty

Andrew Opitz

Assistant Professor of English


Education:

Ph.D., Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, 2007.

B.A., English, Saint John's University, 1998.

Courses Taught:

WRI 1100: Analyzing and Writing Arguments

WRI 1200: Research, Argument and Writing

ENG 2201: Literary Utopias and Dystopias

ENG 2301: World Film Studies

ENG 3145: Nonfiction Film

ENG 3150: Television Studies

ENG 3310: Reading Everyday Life

Publications

Articles in Journals

"Kierkegaard, Gramsci and the Politics of Irony and Sarcasm"  Comparative Literature 64.3. (Summer 2012): 270-285.

“Voyage of the Black Joke: The Politics of Piracy and Gallows Humor in an Era of Primitive Accumulation."  Darkmatter: In the Ruins of Imperial Culture.  Volume 5.  (December 2009):  68-79. <darkmatter101.org/site/>


Editorials and Review Articles

"Agents of Chaos and Unlawful Combatants: Pirates in Philosophy and Law."Cultural Politics 7.1.  (March 2011):57-60.  <culturalpolitics.dukejournals.org/content/7/1/157.extract>

"Liberty and Slavery in the Francophone Atlantic: Christopher L. Miller's The French Atlantic Triangle.” Reviewed for the journal African American Review 43.2-3 (Fall 2009): 503-505. <findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_2-3_43/ai_n57258911/>

"Editorial Notes: Pirates and Piracy--Material Realities and Cultural Myths."  Darkmatter 5 (Winter 2009): 1-3. 

<darkmatter101.org/site/2009/12/20/editorial-notes-pirates-and-piracy-material-realities-and-cultural-myths/>

Recent Conference Presentations

“Atlantic Modernity and the Wreckage of History: Ian Baucom’s Specters of the Atlantic and Elizabeth Kowaleski Wallace’s The British Slave Trade and Public Memory.  Reviewed for the journal Cultural Critique 68 (Winter 2008): 251-254.

"Rethinking Ruins: Walter Benjamin, C.F. Volney, Hurricane Katrina and the Angel(s) of History.  American Comparative Literature Association Conference: Collapse/Catastrophe/Change, Brown University, Providence, RI, March 29-April 1, 2012.

 "The Monster's Reading List." American Comparative Literature Association Conference: Global Languages, Local Cultures, Harvard University, Cambridge, March 26-29, 2009.

 “From Ingénu to Revolutionary: Outsider Satire and Anti-colonial Rebellion in the Novels of José Rizal.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference: Arrivals and Departures, California State University, Long Beach, April 24-27, 2008.

Current Committee Assignments

Viewpoints Film Series Committee

Faculty Promotion and Review Committee, 2012-2014

English Department Events Committee