Denise Cruz

Assistant Professor
Department of American Studies
Department of English

Office: Ballantine Hall 442
Phone: (812) 855-7967
E-mail: cruzd indiana.edu

Education

Ph.D., English, UCLA, 2007
M.A., English, UCLA, 2003
B.A., English, UCLA, 1997

Research Interests

Filipina/o literature
Asian/American literature
Ethnic American literature
Late 19^th to 20^th century American literature
U.S. imperialism
Gender and sexuality studies

Personal Statement

In my research, I am primarily interested in questioning categorical boundaries of gender, sexuality, geography, and chronology that have determined the ways in which we study imperial intersections within Asian/American, ethnic American, and, more broadly, other U.S. literatures. As a scholar trained in literary studies, I am also fascinated by narrative strategies—in works of literature and in the critical narratives that we use to discuss them. Fusing these interests, my current project, Transpacific Femininities, offers the first book-length study of the making and remaking of the modern, transpacific Filipina. I document these cycles primarily in previously unstudied English literature produced by Filipina and Filipino writers from the early to mid-twentieth century, when defining the Filipina became a cultural obsession. Tying English literary production to the imagining of new Philippine identities and communities, I argue that throughout the first half of the twentieth century, these authors made and remade transpacific femininities in dialogue with models of Spanish, American, Japanese, and indigenous femininities. Constructions of the modern Filipina were linked to shifting definitions of what it meant to be Filipina/o during overlapping imperial regimes; to the elite's attempt to control definitions of middle-class, heterosexual identities; and to the marginalization of rural or working class Filipina/os and indigenous peoples. While Transpacific Femininities centers on Filipina and Filipino literature and culture, ultimately, the book tracks geopolitical transitions and presents a new way of thinking about gendered productions, space, and constructions of a feminized Asia.

Courses Recently Taught

The Fictions of Empire (ENG-E304 English Literature, 1900-Present)
Borders, Communities, Crossings (AMST-A200 Comparative American Identities)
Radical Narratives: From Postmodernism to the Electronic Novel (ENG-L359)
From Jackie Chan to FuMan Chu: Love and Fear in American Culture (AMST-A350)
Literary Reformations (ENG-L202, Ethnic American Studies section)

Publication Highlights

Books:

Transpacific Femininities: The Making of the Modern Filipina (under contract with Duke Univeristy Press).

The Crucible: An Autobiography of 'Colonel Yay.' Yay Panlilio. Scholarly edition of 1950 text with introduction and textual notes. Rutgers University Press (forthcoming November 2009).

Articles:

"'Pointing to the Heart': Transpacific Filipinas and the Question of Cold-War Philippine-US Relations," forth coming in American Quarterly, March 2011.

"Jose Garcia's Collection of Others: Irreconcilabilities of a Queer Transpacific Modernism." "Regional Modernisms," special issue of MFS: Modern Fiction Studies. 55.1 (Spring 2009): 11-41.

"Reconsidering McTeague’s 'Mark’ and 'Mac': The intersections of U.S. Naturalism, Imperial Masculinities, and Desire Between Men." American Literature 78.3(September 2006): 487-517.

Edited Works:

"A Sheaf of Early Filipino and Filipina Writers." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 6th edition (forthcoming).

"Bienvenido N. Santos." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 6th edition (forthcoming).

Selected Presentations:

"Queering Asian and American Transnationalisms: 'Gertrude Stein, love is not a bowl of quinces.' " Reforming Queer Asian / American Subjects: Transnational Negotiations, Literary Experiments. Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association. San Francisco. December 2008.

"The Intimacies of Queer Transnationalism in Monique Truong's The Book of Salt." Bodies Without Borders: Intimate Knowledges, Public Embodiments, and the Transglobal American Crossroads. American Studies Association Annual Meeting. Albuquerque, New Mexico. October 2008.

"Jose Garcia Villa's Collection of 'Others': Imagined Forms of Transregional Modernism." Asian America's Narratives of Discontent. International Conference on Narrative. University of Texas at Austin. May 2008.

"What's Asian America Got to do With It: Teaching and Program Building in the Heartland." Panel Organizer and Chair. Annual Asian American Studies Association Meeting. Chicago. April 2008.

"Cultures of the Filipino Diaspora: Literary and Cultural Criticism." Panel and Roundtable Participant. Philippine Palimpsests: Filipino Studies in the 21st Century. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. March 2008.

"Revising the Nationalist Mother: Transpacific Femininity and Yay Marking, Filipina American Guerilla." Theorizing the Transpacific: The Cross-cultural roots of Chicana and Filipina Identities. Annual American Studies Association Meeting, Philadelphia. Oct. 2007.

"Revising the Bataan Brotherhood: Filipina World War II Fiction." Gestural Crossings: Filipina/o Historical and Cultural Critiques of Filipino-American Relations. Annual Association of Asian American Studies Meeting. Atlanta. Mar. 2006.

"Filipino Rebel[s]: Filipino Literature and Modes of Resistance." The Filipino Imaginary in the Wake of U.S. Imperialism. Annual American Studies Association Meeting. Atlanta. Nov. 2004.

Selected Honors and Awards

Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship 2009-2010
New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Grant, 2010
College of Arts and Humanities Institute Research Grant, 2009
College of Arts and Humanities Institute, Indiana University, Research Travel Grant, 2008
Campus Writing Program, Indiana University, Summer Writing-Teaching Grant, 2008
UCLA International Institute Associate Global Fellow, 2006-2007
UCLA Distinguished Teaching Assistant, 2006
Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, 2003-2006