Resume

• 2019

  Abstract: This essay draws together political theory on immigration and theories of neoliberalism to examine their shared interest in the individual’s ability to have agency and be acted upon by the nation-state. Though both theoretical perspectives tend to separate these subject and object positions

  this essay argues that Ruth L. Ozeki’s novel My Year of Meats helpfully problematizes such a bracketed understanding by narrating the complex political and economic positionality known as cultural citizenship. Ozeki shows

  through the character of Japanese housewife Akiko Ueno

  how an immigrant’s subject and object positions cannot be separated from one another within the transnational work of neoliberalism. Individual agency and external control occur simultaneously until they are difficult to distinguish. Ozeki navigates various artistic

  economic

  and political conflicts to show that they cannot be separated into simple binaries. Instead

  the narrative foregrounds the simultaneity of these experiences to suggest opportunities for freedom and agency are both possible and impossible all at once. This essay contends that My Year of Meats envisions forms of substantive individual and communal resistance to neoliberal values while also identifying how socially-produced cultural citizenship still places immigrants within the purview of the neoliberal nation-state.\n\nFull citation: Shake

  Nelson. \"The Neoliberal Production of Cultural Citizenship in Ruth L. Ozeki's My Year of Meats.\" ARIEL

  vol. 50

  no. 1

  pp. 141-70.

  \"The Neoliberal Production of Cultural Citizenship in Ruth L. Ozeki's My Year of Meats\"

  Dissertation Committee: Drs. Emily Johansen (chair)

  Ira Dworkin

  Marian Eide

  and Cara Wallis\n\nSuccessfully defended: March 5

  2019\n\nAbstract: Despite the global spread of the latest form of capitalism called neoliberalism

  literary scholars widely privilege American and British texts when studying this economic ideology. This project

  however

  takes a transnational approach to a literary understanding of neoliberalism by turning primarily to the work of contemporary non-Western novelists to complicate certain assumptions about neoliberalism. Chief among those assumptions is the recent argument by political and literary theorists that neoliberalism forms a global economic totality that is impervious critique

  but the novelists considered in this project explore and demonstrate precisely how that work of critique is possible.\n\nThese novelists write stories that narrate the limits of the totalizing vision of neoliberal ideology and examine how its contradictions play out in different geographic and cultural locations. Different aspects of artistic work form the basis for these critiques—production

  performance

  and reception. Novelists considered here interrogate how literary production itself is a space to critique the violent of work of capitalism even as the artistic labor that goes into writing a novel is simultaneously supported by capitalist market economies. Other writers examine how neoliberal values produce unique performative pressures that affect the articulation and display of narrative arts. Finally

  some authors focus on the moment of a narrative’s reception to consider what it means to receive and interpret neoliberalism itself

  which these authors consider to be an act of writing in its own right. Taken together

  these novelists envision what it means to tell stories and produce effective critiques that neoliberal ideology cannot fully subsume

  all while acknowledging the immense challenge such work faces.

  Narrating Literary Transnationalism in Zadie Smith and Dave Eggers (MA Thesis)

  This project examines the curious tendency within some literary scholarship to approach transnational texts through a postcolonial theoretical lens. I argue for the need to devote greater attention to literary transnationalism in order to better understand contemporary globalized

  pluralistic

  and diasporic novels. I devote a chapter each to Zadie Smith's White Teeth and Dave Eggers' What Is the What to fully consider the implications of these arguments.

  Conference Liaison Pilot Program

  Participated in a pilot program that gives graduate students experience in creating a professional academic conference. Directed by Dr. Dustin Anderson

  I assisted with the 22nd annual British Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference in Savannah

  Georgia. In addition to helping delegates

  chairing panels

  managing logistics

  and networking with other professionals at the conference

  I also aided the after-action plan where we discussed changes for the future

  selected \nthe upcoming year's keynote speaker

  and constructed the next call for papers.

  Supplemental Instruction Pilot Program

  In spring 2012

  I led a pilot program of supplemental discussion for Dr. Brad Edwards' World Literature 1 course. At the time

  World Literature was the second-most-failed course at Georgia Southern University

  and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences was tasked with formulating a solution. I was chosen by my department's faculty to lead this SSI test run. I taught and guided discussion for 125 students once a week in a sort of World Lit \"lab\" for the goal of increasing student success in the course.

  Shake

  Nelson

  Shake

  Georgia Southern University

  Texas A&M University

  Savannah College of Art and Design

  Georgia Southern University

  Bryan/College Station

  Texas Area

  Designed and taught the following courses for the Texas A&M Department of English during my assistantship:\n- ENGL 104: Rhetoric and Composition (4 sections)\n- ENGL 203: Writing about Literature (4 sections)\n- ENGL 210: Business Technical Writing (2 face-to-face and 3 fully-online sections)\n- ENGL 376: The American Novel since 1900 (1 section)\n\nContributed and/or led three curriculum development projects (see \"Projects\" below for more).

  Graduate Assistant

  Texas A&M University

  Statesboro

  Georgia

  Designed and taught ENGL 2112: World Literature 2 (4 fully-online sections through Folio

  an online platform supported by Desire2Learn

  Instructor

  Georgia Southern University

  Statesboro

  Georgia

  Assistantship Duties:\n- Designed and taught ENGL 2111: World Literature 1 (4 sections in 2012-2013)\n- Teaching assistant for ENGL 2111: World Literature 1 (2 sections in 2011-2012)\n- Administrative assistant for the Center for Irish Studies (Fall 2011)\n\nProjects (more details in \"Projects\" below):\n- Led a supplemental instruction pilot program for World Literature 1 (Spring 2012)\n- Contributed to the department's conference liaison pilot program (Spring 2013)

  Graduate Assistant

  Georgia Southern University

  Bryan/College Station

  Texas Area

  Awarded one of 10 university-wide dissertation fellowships for the 2018-2019 academic year.

  Dissertation Fellow

  Texas A&M University

  Savannah

  Georgia Area

  Professor Of English

  Savannah College of Art and Design

• 2014

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

  English

  Texas A&M University

• 2011

  Master of Arts - MA

  English

  Georgia Southern University

  Summa Cum Laude

  World Literature 2 (fully-online)

  The American Novel since 1900

  Post-World War II Literature (designed

  not taught)

  World Literature 1

  Writing about Literature

  Rhetoric and Composition

  21st-Century Literature and Culture (designed

  not taught)

  Business Technical Writing (face-to-face and fully-online)

  Women's and Gender Studies Graduate Certificate

  Texas A&M University

• 2006

  Bachelor of Arts - BA

  Also earned a minor in Bible and Religion.

  English

  Omicron Delta Kappa

  Sigma Tau Delta

  American Studies Institute

  Alpha Chi National College Honor Scholarship Society.

  Harding University

  Summa Cum Laude

• 500

  English

  Spanish

  Summertime Advanced Research (STAR) Fellowship

  Summer 2017: $4

  Texas A&M University

  Department of English

  Research Travel Grants

  Spring 2015

  Summer 2017

  Spring 2018: $3

  500 total

  Texas A&M University

  Department of English

  Graduate Merit Award for University Fees

  Fall 2015

  Fall 2017: $800 total

  Texas A&M University

  Department of English

• 400

  2018-2019 Dissertation Fellowship

  $14

  Texas A&M University

  Office of Graduate and Professional Studies

  Research Travel Grants

  Fall 2012

  Spring 2013: $400 total

  Georgia Southern University

  Department of Literature

  1st Place

  Georgia Southern University 2013 Research Symposium

  Spring 2013: $300

  Georgia Southern University

  College of Graduate Studies

• 000

  Averitt Scholarship

  Fall 2012: $1

  Georgia Southern University

  College of Graduate Studies

  Graduate Student Travel Award

  Spring 2017: $100

  Texas A&M University

  Office of Graduate and Professional Studies

  Research Travel Grants

  Fall 2012

  Spring 2013

  Summer 2013: $865 total

  Georgia Southern University

  College of Graduate Studies

• Assisted incoming graduate students' acclimation to the university and department by meeting regularly to discuss their adjustment to coursework

  teaching

  grading

  and research.

  Texas A&M University

  Nonprofits

  Teaching

  Copy Editing

  Creative Writing

  Blogging

  Publishing

  Public Speaking

  Editing

  Storytelling

  Literature

  Stories

  Research

  Writing

  Microsoft Office

  Proofreading

  \"The Neoliberal Production of Cultural Citizenship in Ruth L. Ozeki's My Year of Meats\"