B.A., Individualized Major, University of Delaware
Ph.D., American Studies, 1989, Yale University
Office: UW2-347
Phone: 425.352.3399
Email: lwatts@uwb.edu
Mailing: Box 358511, 11136 NE 180th Street, Bothell, WA 98011-1713
My preparation and principles cause me to seek holistic approaches to the study of culture; to pursue interdisciplinary forms of inquiry; to engage contextual issues of inequality, injustice, and silence; and to view teaching, scholarship, and service as (in part) potential agents of cultural intervention and change. Whatever subject matter I might be teaching, however, I am most concerned to encourage students toward independent thought, engaged dialogue, and considered action.
BCUSP 190: Contemporary Literature--Reading/Writing Magical Realism
BCUSP 191 Art and Public Space
BIS 300 Interdisciplinary Inquiry
BIS 351 Photo Criticism
BIS 361 Texts and Contexts
BIS 364 Public Memory and Dissent
BIS 464 Alfred Hitchcock and Reception Theory
BIS 493 Children's Literature and Reader-Response Criticism
BIS 490 Public Art and Controversy
My research interests include American studies; 19th- and 20th-century United States literature and culture; visual art practice, production, and exhibition; women's studies; multicultural education and curriculum revision; HIV/AIDS education; critical and alternative pedagogy; institutional change and educational leadership.
My work has appeared in such publications as "Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion," "Women and Language," "Transformations: A Resource for Curriculum Transformation and Scholarship," "NCTE's English Journal," "College Art Association Reviews," "Radical Teacher: A Socialist and Feminist Journal on the Theory and Practice of Teaching," "Radical History Review," "Material Culture," "Urban Geography," "Feminist Teacher," "Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities," "Journal for the Study of Radicalism," and "Journal of Social History."
I contribute to edited collections ( most recently, "The World Is Our Home: Society and Culture in Contemporary Southern Writing" and "Memorial Boxes and Guarded Interiors: Edith Wharton and Material Culture"), online journals (popmatters.com) and reference works ( "Encyclopedia of Women¹s Folklore and Folklife," "Encyclopedia of America Social Movements," "Dictionary of Literary Biography," "LGBTQ America Today," "Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences," "Great Lives from History," "Encyclopedia of African American Literature," "Encyclopedia of Women¹s Autobiography," "Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century," "Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime," and "Postwar America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History"). I also write and publish poetry.
At present, I have work underway on several research projects, including serving as the point person for a jointly-authored encyclopedia of American social history during the 1920s.
Encyclopedia of American Folklore (2006)
Gertrude Stein: A Study of the Short Fiction (1999)
Rapture Untold: Gender, Mysticism, and The 'Moment of Recognition' in the Writings of Gertrude Stein (1996)
