Degrees

B.A., English Language and Literature, Reed College, Portland, OR, 2003
M.A., English, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 2005
PhD., English, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 2009

Research Area

Postcolonial literature and theory, regionalism and globalization, modernisms of the Americas, modern and postmodern poetry, trans-Caribbean and hemispheric studies, literary theory, ecocriticism, digital writing, southern literature, Arctic literature.

Current Research

"The Wandering Eye: Dreaming the Globe in Faulkner and Walcott" currently undergoing review.
Also working on "For my own Race / And the Reality: Walcott's Narratives of Normative Regionalism" for publication soon.

Current Courses

ENG 100 01: Writing in the Digital Age
ENG 116-W 06 & 10: Poems About Poems

Current Positions

Lecturer in English, Vanderbilt
(see CV link on the upper right of this page for full list of credentials)

Previous Positions

Fellow, Center for the Americas, Vanderbilt
Secretary, English Graduate Student Association
Academic Committee, English Graduate Student Association
Nuclear Reactor Operator, Reed Reactor Facility
Reporter, The Frontiersman, Wasilla, AK

Professional Societies

Modern Language Association
Modernist Studies Association
College English Association
Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment

Professional Honors

Rose Alley Press Club Achievement Award
Center for the Americas Dissertation Fellowship
Center for the Americas Summer Research Grant
Fulbright Grant, State University of St. Petersburg (alternate)

Publications

"The House That Time Built: Structuring History in Faulkner and Yeats." The European Journal of American Studies, Fall 2007.
"Critical Mass: Post-Trinity Representation." FORUM: The University of Edinburgh Post-Graduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, Fall 2007.
"Five Theses on Regionalism and Two Types of Regional Transformation." Border Crossings, 2009.
"Totalitarian Faulkner" forthcoming in ELH (publication date pending).
Settlers, Creoles, and Historical Re-enactment, assistant editor. Forthcoming from Palgrave.

Biography

Daniel Spoth comes to Vanderbilt from Alaska's Mat-Su Valley, famous for producing giant cabbages and vice-presidential hopefuls, and he still occasionally mistakes ultimate frisbee enthusiasts on Alumni Lawn for herds of caribou. The alluring combination of a liberal arts education and months of delicious, delicious rain drew him to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and the ensuing promise of the study of American literature and all of the country ham he could eat brought him to Vanderbilt. His research and teaching interests span roughly 125 degrees of latitude, and once he finally manages to work The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym or The Worst Journey in the World onto one of his syllabi, the journey will be complete.