Kendall Dinniene

My dissertation examines how American fiction variously affirms, complicates, and resists dominant notions of fatness, and demonstrating how these notions are intertwined with and produce ideas about race, gender, sexuality, health, (dis)ability, criminality, and national identity. I rely upon queer theory, crip theory, Black feminism, and fat studies scholarship alongside literary criticism to argue that how we understand literary representations of fatness is crucial to the way we understand (and make) our world.

In my classes, I ask students to think deeply about dominant narratives that constrain the way we engage with literature, institutions, and other people. I enjoy helping students cultivate a spirit of curiosity in a supportive environment that allows them to take intellectual risks. I have served as a graduate assistant at SMU’s Center for Teaching Excellence since February of 2023.

Publications

“’My Heart’s Fine as Long as My Stomach’s Not Empty’: Patriarchal Violence, Women’s Excess, and Fat Liberation in Criminally Insane.” Fat Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, 2024, pp. 22-35.

Book review of Sami Schalk’s Black Disability Politics. The Black Scholar, vol. 53, no. 3-4, 2023, pp. 133-136.

Book review of E. K. Daufin’s On Fat and Faith: Ending Weight Stigma in Yourself, Your Sanctuary, and Society. Excessive Bodies Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2023, pp. 259-264.

Selected Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

Summer Research and Writing Fellowship, Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, Southern Methodist University (2024)

Outstanding Graduate Student Instruction Award, Moody Graduate School, Southern Methodist University (2024)

Nina Schwartz Graduate Student Teaching Award, English Department, Southern Methodist University (2023)