Gibette Encarnación
Assistant Professor of English
Office: LA 232
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy in English, University of Kansas, 2022
Master of Arts in English, Andrews University, 2013
Bachelor of Arts in English, Walla Walla University, 2010
My work centers on contemporary American literature, particularly that by Latinx and Afro-Latinx writers. My major research concern is in exploring transnational connections forged by immigrant communities between the United States and their nations of origin. I seek to place the U.S. in a larger global context and trace worldwide cultural and literary influences on American identity.
My current research project connects Dominican diasporic literature written in the U.S. to the literature and history of the Dominican Republic. I examine how major tragedies in the nation’s past have shaped the history of the nation and how in turn that history has shaped modern culture and particularly the racial identity of Dominican citizens at home and abroad. I argue that tragedies are only memorialized in the collective psyche when they affect the nation’s White-identifying population, which serves to further marginalize Blackness from group identification and belonging.
My teaching objectives are to expand the definition of what is considered literature and question who can speak to the canon of American cultural character. I seek to give every student in the classroom texts where they can see themselves and their genuine struggles reflected. In my classes we are all equally tasked with taking on the authority to speak back to the field of literary and cultural studies and argue for the changes that we want to see.
Courses Taught
2210: American Cultural Studies
1102: Writing and Rhetoric II