Curriculum Vitae
Marie Kruger
Business Address: Department of English
University of Iowa
370 English Philosophy Building
Iowa City 52242-1492
Phone: (319) 335-3121
E-mail:
PhD University of Wisconsin – Madison, African Languages and Literature, 2001.
MA University of Wisconsin – Madison, African Languages and Literature, 1995.
MA University of Cologne, Germany, Cultural Anthropology, English Literature, and African Studies, summa cum laude, 1991.
Professional Appointments
2011 – present Associate Professor, University of Iowa, Department of English.
2005 – 2011 Assistant Professor, University of Iowa, Department of English.
Professional Honors and Awards
2013 Career Development Award, Office of the Provost.
2010; 2011 Curriculum Development Grant, Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program of the U.S. Department of Education.
2009; 2012 Arts and Humanities Initiative, University of Iowa.
2007 Old Gold Summer Fellowship, University of Iowa.
2005 Curriculum Development Grant, University of Iowa.
2002/2003 Albert Markham Traveling Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin – Madison.
1999 University Fellow, University of Madison – Wisconsin.
1996 A.C. Jordan Prize for Best M.A. Thesis in African Studies for 1995-96, University of Wisconsin – Madison, African Studies Program.
1991 M.A. awarded summa cum laude, University of Cologne, Germany.
Refereed Scholarship
Books:
(In Progress) “Therapeutic Commodities: Apartheid, Trauma and Visual Culture in the New South Africa.”
** Co-editor, special issue of Research in African Literatures on “Memory/History, Violence and Reconciliation.” 43.1 (Spring 2012).
Women’s Literature in Kenya and Uganda: The Trouble with Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Articles:
“‘The Only Truth I Know is What I Felt With My Entire Body’: Traumatic Memory in Zulu Love Letter.” Research in African Literatures 43.1 (Spring 2012): 136 – 150.
“Blood, Meat and Teeth: The Politics of the Belly in Goretti Kyomuhendo’s Waiting.” Border-Crossings: Narrative and Demarcation in Postcolonial Literatures. Ed. Jennifer Wawrzinek, Russell West-Pavlov, and J.K.S. Makokha. Heidelberg: Winter, 2012. 67 – 83.
“History, Nation, Ghetto: Kenyan Women’s Literature and the Ethics of Responsibility.” Postcolonial Text 5.3 (2009): 1-17.
“‘The Sound of Metal and the Taste of Coffee’: Modernity, Race, and Gender in ‘The State of Tides.’” The Journal of the African Literature Association 3.2 (2009): 186 – 205.
“Narrative in the Time of AIDS: Confessions of an AIDS Victim (1993) and Chira (1997).” Research in African Literatures 35.1 (2004): 108 – 129.
“’Just a Brilliant Disguise’: Postcolonial Identities and the Performance of Gender in F.M. Genga-Idowu’s Lady in Chains.” Nairobi Journal of Literature 1.1 (2003): 23 – 33.
“Negotiating Gender Identity and Authority in the Plays of Penina Muhando and Ari Katini Mwachofi.” Swahili Forum 5 (1998): 53 – 71.
Book reviews:
Book Review, Versions and Subversions in African Literature. Tobias Klein et al., eds. The Journal of the African Literature Association 5.2 (Winter 2010/Spring 2011): 167 – 171.
Book Review, African Women and Representation: From Performance to Politics. Thérèse Migraine-George. The Journal of the African Literature Association 3.2 (2009): 262 – 267.
Book Review, I Laugh So I Won’t Cry: Kenya’s Women Tell the Stories of Their Lives. Helena Halperin. ALA Bulletin Vol. 31.2 (Spring 2006): 71 – 77.
Book Review, Kikuyu Gender Norms and Narratives. Inge Brinkman. African Studies Review 42.1 (April 1999): 170 – 171.
Book Review, Gendered Encounters. Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Hierarchies in Africa. Maria Grosz-Ngate and Omari Kokole, eds. African Studies Review 42.1 (April 1999): 198 – 200.
Book Review, African Feminism. The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gwendolyn Mikell, ed. African Studies Review 42.1 (April 1999): 197 – 198.
Invited Lectures and Conference Presentations:
Humboldt University, Berlin; Stellenbosch University, Cape Town; African Studies Association, Chicago and New York; African Literature Association, Tucson, AZ, Morgantown, WV, Columbus, OH and Lawrence, KS; Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English, Münster; University of Witwatersrand, Department of African Languages and Literatures; University of Nairobi, Department of African Languages and Literatures; University of Indiana at Bloomington, Department of Comparative Literature; University of Wisconsin – Madison, African Studies Program; Northern Illinois University, Black Studies Center; National Conference for Less Commonly Taught Languages, Madison, WI.
Teaching Areas/Characteristic Courses: I teach a variety of undergraduate and graduate classes designed to introduce students to African and African diasporic literature and film, as well as courses on postcolonial theory, cultural studies, feminist theory and gender studies.
008:098 The Power of Storytelling: Art, Trauma and Survival
008:031 Introduction to Postcolonial Studies
008:084 Gender and Sexuality in African Literature and Film
008:098 Honors Proseminar: Human Rights Narratives
008:157 Topics in African Cinema: Visualizing Human Rights
008:163 Literatures of Africa and the Caribbean
008:164 The Pleasure and Pain of Travel
008:084 Stories about HIV/AIDS
008:201 Introduction to Graduate Studies
008:223 Graduate Reading Course: Readings in Postcolonial Theory and Literature
008:226 Graduate Reading Course: Readings in African Literature
008:450 Graduate Seminar: Race, Gender and the Alternatively Modern
SERVICE (selection)
Departmental Executive Committee (Spring 2007; Fall 2013 – present); Crossing Borders Executive Committee (2006 – 2013); Ph.D. Admissions Committee (Spring 2006); African Studies Executive Committee (2006 - present); Faculty Advisor, General Education Program (Fall 2009; Fall 2010; Fall 2013); Internal Reviewer, CLAS Review, Department of Philosophy (Fall 2011); Reviewer, Arts and Humanities Initiative Grant Proposals (Spring 2011); Young Scholars’ Caucus/African Studies Association (2007 – present); External reviewer for New York State University Press (2006 – present); External reviewer for manuscripts submitted to Research in African Literatures; The Journal of Commonwealth Literature; Postcolonial Text; Journal for Culture, Health and Society.
Kruger, page 2