Entry Year: 2019
English
Contact
| Email: | kdinniene@smu.edu |
Educational Background
M.A., Southern Methodist University
B.A., Southern Oregon University
About
My dissertation examines how American fiction variously affirms, complicates, and resists dominant notions of fatness, and reveals 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. In 2023, I was honored to receive the Nina Schwartz Graduate Student Teaching award.
I am currently a graduate assistant at SMU’s Center for Teaching Excellence and host the New Books Network critical theory podcast channel. You can listen to my interviews with brilliant scholars from a variety of fields.
You can also find more information about me on my personal website: https://kedinniene.my.canva.site/.