Kimberly Kay Lamm
Associate Professor in the Program of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
My research fields include contemporary feminist art, contemporary poetry, feminist theory, and 19th- and 20th-century US Literature. I recently completed Addressing the Other Woman: Textual Correspondences in Feminist Art and Writing
(Manchester University Press), an interdisciplinary project that brings the work of artists (Adrian Piper, Nancy Spero, and Mary Kelly) and writers (Angela Davis, Valerie Solanas, and Laura Mulvey) together to argue that text and writing are crucial parts of women's art practices from the 1960s and 1970s.
I am currently working on a new book tentatively titled "Inheriting Letters of Exile." This project examines the artwork of Mona Hatoum, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Lorna Simpson produced in the 1980s and 1990s in relationship to the work of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and the reading practices she sets forth in "Can the Subaltern Speak?"
I have a long-standing research interest in the relations between contemporary poetry and feminist thought and am developing a book project that analyzes the work of five poets—Barbara Guest, Susan Howe, Ann Lauterbach, Rosemarie Waldrop, and Claudia Rankine—who have contributed substantially to the field of contemporary poetry and women’s place within it. This book, tentatively titled "A Sense of Arrangement" traces how these poets' engagement with the excesses of vision and sound aligns with current feminist scholarship on sound, affect, and sensation.
I am also interested in the place of clothing and fashion in African American cultural production. I recently published essays on the "soundsuits" of contemporary artist and choreographer Nick Cave; the attention to women's clothing in the documentary photography of Gordon Parks; and the "written garments" that appear in the fiction of Jessie Fauset.
My research is drawn to the styles, objects, and practices that can be identified by through the term "femininity," which has led to my interest in girl cultures and fashion. I am a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program, and have published art criticism in The Brooklyn Rail, curated exhibitions of contemporary art (most notably, "Imaginary Arsenals" for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) and written catalog essays for a number of contemporary artists.
I am currently working on a new book tentatively titled "Inheriting Letters of Exile." This project examines the artwork of Mona Hatoum, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Lorna Simpson produced in the 1980s and 1990s in relationship to the work of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and the reading practices she sets forth in "Can the Subaltern Speak?"
I have a long-standing research interest in the relations between contemporary poetry and feminist thought and am developing a book project that analyzes the work of five poets—Barbara Guest, Susan Howe, Ann Lauterbach, Rosemarie Waldrop, and Claudia Rankine—who have contributed substantially to the field of contemporary poetry and women’s place within it. This book, tentatively titled "A Sense of Arrangement" traces how these poets' engagement with the excesses of vision and sound aligns with current feminist scholarship on sound, affect, and sensation.
I am also interested in the place of clothing and fashion in African American cultural production. I recently published essays on the "soundsuits" of contemporary artist and choreographer Nick Cave; the attention to women's clothing in the documentary photography of Gordon Parks; and the "written garments" that appear in the fiction of Jessie Fauset.
My research is drawn to the styles, objects, and practices that can be identified by through the term "femininity," which has led to my interest in girl cultures and fashion. I am a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program, and have published art criticism in The Brooklyn Rail, curated exhibitions of contemporary art (most notably, "Imaginary Arsenals" for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) and written catalog essays for a number of contemporary artists.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Associate Professor in the Program of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2017
Contact Information
- 112 East Duke Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
- Box 90760, Durham, NC 27708-0760
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kkl9@duke.edu
(919) 684-9661
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Current CV
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Washington 2007
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Assistant Professor in Women's Studies, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2010 - 2017
- Director of Undergraduate Studies in Women, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2012 - 2013
- Recognition
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Awards & Honors
- Edith and Richard French Visiting Research Fellowship, Yale University’s Beinecke Library, 2013-2014. Yale University’s Beinecke Library. 2013
- Faculty Manuscript Workshop, Mellon-Frankin Humanities Institute. Unknown. 2012
- Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Women's Studies, Duke University. Women's Studies, Duke University. 2009
- Junior Fellow: Women of Color in Popular Culture. University of Iowa, Center of Ethnic Studies and the Arts. January 2008
- Winterthur Library Research Fellowship. Unknown. 2008
- Expertise
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Subject Headings
- Research
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Selected Grants
- "Fabricating Truths: Sartorial Self Fashioning and the Legacies of Slavery" awarded by Cornell University 2020 - 2021
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
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Lamm, K. K. Addressing the Other Woman: Textual Correspondences in Feminist Art and Writing. Manchester University Press, 2018.
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Academic Articles
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Lamm, K. “Reading hieroglyphs behind glass: A glimpse of reparative feminism in Riddles of the Sphinx (1977).” Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 27, no. 1 (March 1, 2022): 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-022-00289-x.Full Text
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Lamm, K. K. “Mouth Work: Writing the Voice of the Mother Tongue in the Art of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha.” Oxford Art Journal 43, no. 2 (August 1, 2020): 171–93. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxartj/kcaa011.Full Text
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Lamm, K. “‘I Want to Wear It’: Fashioning Black Feminism in Mahogany (1975).” Australian Feminist Studies 33, no. 98 (October 2, 2018): 428–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2019.1567257.Full Text
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Lamm, Kimberly. “The Tender Buttons of Avant-Garde Self-Assertion: Teaching Gertrude Stein's Feminism.” Edited by Deborah Mix and Logan Esdale, January 1, 2018.Link to Item
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Lamm, Kimberly. “The Tender Buttons of Avant-Garde Self-Assertion: Teaching Gertrude Stein's Feminism.” Edited by Deborah Mix and Logan Esdale, January 1, 2018.Link to Item
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Lamm, K. ““The Will to Adorn”: Nick Cave’s Soundsuits and the Queer Reframing of Black Masculinity.” Critical Arts 31, no. 3 (May 4, 2017): 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2017.1383494.Full Text
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Lamm, K. “Between the open and the hidden: Clothing, segregation, and the feminine counter-archive in the photographs of Gordon Parks.” Critical Arts 29 (December 4, 2015): 134–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2015.1102266.Full Text
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Lamm, K. “Texting girls: Images, sounds, and words in neoliberal cultures of femininity.” Women and Performance 25, no. 2 (May 4, 2015): 111–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/0740770X.2015.1057016.Full Text
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Lamm, K. “Modern spectacle and American feminism's disappointing daughters: Writing fantasy echoes in The Portrait of a Lady.” Feminist Theory 15, no. 2 (January 1, 2014): 179–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700114528771.Full Text
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Lamm, Kimberly. “Poetry's Afterlife: Verse in the Digital Age.” American Literature 84, no. 1 (March 1, 2012): 212–15. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-1541076.Full Text
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Lamm, K. K. “Out of the Garbage, the Collage of Me: Alice Notley's Culture of One.” Golden Handcuffs 1, no. 15 (2012).
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Lamm, K. K. “Ready-Made Baroness: The Gendered Language of Dadaist Dress.” Jacket 2, July 2011.
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Lamm, K. K. “At the Pivot of the Biopolitical: Seeing Sex and Racism in Lorna Simpson’s "You’re Fine.".” Edited by Katy Deepwell. N.Paradoxa: International Feminist Art Journal 28 (2011): 88–93.
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Lamm, K. K. “A Future for Isabel Archer: Jamesian Feminism, Leo Bersani, and Aesthetic Subjectivity.” The Henry James Review 32 (2011): 249–58.
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Lamm, K. K. “Reflecting on the Lady in the Looking-Glass: Virginia Woolf’s Feminism and the Maternalization of Photography.” Virginia Woolf Miscellany, 2009, 11–13.
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Lamm, K. K. “SEEING FEMINISM IN EXILE: THE IMAGINARY MAPS OF MONA HATOUM.” Michigan Feminist Studies, no. 18 (2004): 1–34.Link to Item
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Lamm, K. “Visuality and black masculinity in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Romare Bearden's photomontages.” Callaloo 26, no. 3 (January 1, 2003): 813–35. https://doi.org/10.1353/cal.2003.0094.Full Text
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Lamm, K. “Within hearing distance of philosophy: Susan Howe's textual portrait of Charles S. Peirce.” International Studies in Philosophy 34, no. 2 (December 1, 2002).
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Lamm, K. K. “"Pussy in a Can": Containing Feminization and Disposability in The Wire.” Cultural Critique, n.d.
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Lamm, Kimberly. “Gestures of Inclusion, Bodily Damage, and the Hauntings of Exploitation in Global Feminisms (2007).” Edited by Lara Perry and Victoria Horne, n.d.Link to Item
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Lamm, Kimberly. “Gestures of Inclusion, Bodily Damage, and the Hauntings of Exploitation in Global Feminisms (2007).” Edited by Lara Perry and Victoria Horne, n.d.Link to Item
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Book Sections
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Lamm, K. K. “Gestures of Inclusion, Bodily Damage, and the Hauntings of Exploitation in Global Feminisms (2007).” In Feminist Art History Now: Radical Critiques of Theory and Practice, edited by Lara Perry and Victoria Horne. England: I.B. Tauris, 2017.Link to Item
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Lamm, K. K. “The Midwife’s Clothing: Jessie Fauset In and Out of Fashion (In preparation).” In Crossings in Text and Textile, edited by K. Joslin and D. Wardrop. Lebanon, NH: University of New Hampshire Press, 2015.
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Lamm, K. K. “Girly Men Ballads: (Il)legible Identities in Charles Bernstein and Gertrude Stein.” In The Salt Companion to Charles Bernstein, edited by William Allegrezza, 57–84. Salt Publishing, 2013.
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Lamm, K. K. “Fair Realism: The Aesthetics of Restraint in Barbara Guest’s Collaborations.” In Collaborations in New York School Poetry: The Color of Vowels, edited by Mark Silverberg, 113–40. Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.
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Lamm, K. K. “Ceci N’est Pas Keith/ Ceci N’est Pas Rosmarie: Writing Another Language for Feminist Poetics.” In Another Language: Contemporary American Poetic Experiment in a Changing World, edited by Kornelia Freitag and Katerina Vester, 259–69. LIT Verlag, 2009.
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Lamm, K. “Portraits of the past, imagined now: Reading the work of Carrie Mae Weems and Lorna Simpson.” In Unmaking Race, Remaking Soul: Transformative Aesthetics and the Practice of Freedom, 103–40, 2007.
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Lamm, K. K. “Portraits of the Past, Imagined Now: Reading the Work of Lorna Simpson and Carrie Mae Weems.” In (Un)Making Race, Re-Making Soul: Transformative Aesthetics and the Practice of Freedom, edited by Angela Cotton and Christa Acampora. SUNY Press, 2007.
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Lamm, K. K. “All Together/Now: Writing the Space of Collectivities in the Poetry of Juliana Spahr.” In American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics, 133–56. Wesleyan University Press, 2007.
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Lamm, K. K. “Portraiture.” In Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, edited by Lynne Warren, 1062–64. Routledge, 2006.
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Lamm, K. K. “Modernism.” In Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, edited by Lynne Warren, 1288–92. Routledge, 2006.
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Lamm, K. K. “Hambone.” In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature: O-T, edited by Hans A. Ostrom and J David Macey, 699–700, 2005.
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Lamm, K. K. “Hambone.” In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature: O-T, edited by Hans A. Ostrom and J David Macey, 699–700, 2005.
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Lamm, K. K. ““Langston Hughes,” “Barbara Guest,” “James Weldon Johnson,” “David Shapiro,” and “Keith Waldrop.”.” In The Facts on File Companion to 20th-Century American Poetry. New York, 2005.
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Lamm, K. K. “Getting Close to the Screen of Exile: Evoking and Resisting the National ‘Mother Tongue’ in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée.” In Transnational, National, and Personal Voices: New Perspectives on Asian American and Asian Diasporic Women Writers, edited by E. Marino and B. Simal, 43–65. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2004.
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Lamm, K. K. “A Man in the Crowd.” In “A” Man of the Crowd - Matthew Buckingham, 2003.
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Lamm, K. K. “A Man in the Crowd.” In “A” Man of the Crowd - Matthew Buckingham, 2003.
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Lamm, K. K. “Like Going Under Water.” In Ruta and the Monument, 2002.
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Lamm, K. K. “Translating the Question of Feminism: Cambio du Lugar/ Change of Place.” In “Special Projects” Exhibit by Video Artists Andrea Geyerand Sharon Hayes, 2001.
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Lamm, K. K. “Williamsburg.” In Encyclopedia of American Studies, edited by J. Butler, R. A. Gross, and M. Orvell, 344–45. Connecticut: Grolier, 2001.
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Lamm, K. K. “"Fanny Howe," "Ann Lauterbach," and "Alice Notley.".” In Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, edited by E. L. Haralson. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001.
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Lamm, K. K. “Write the Unwritten, Paint the Undepicted?” In Catalogue Essay for the Exhibition: “Talk About Complications: Re-Presenting Women, Questioning Gender.,” 2000.
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Lamm, K. K. “Resisting Definition.” In Definition, n.d.
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Other Articles
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Lamm, K. K. “’Pussy in a Can’: Sexual Trafficking, Feminization, and Neoliberalism in The Wire,” 2013.
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Lamm, K. K. “The Sense of Arrangement: Feminist Aesthetics in Contemporary Poetry,” 2011.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Picasso and the Allure of Language".” The Brooklyn Rail, December 2010.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Mickalene Thomas: She’s Come Undone".” The Brooklyn Rail, May 2009.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection".” The Brooklyn Rail, April 2009.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Reflecting on the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video".” The Brooklyn Rail, 2009.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Whitfield Lovell: Kith and Kin".” The Brooklyn Rail, November 2008.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Ghada Amer: Love Has No End".” The Brooklyn Rail, September 2008.
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Lamm, K. K. “Gender in a Minor Key: Rosmarie Waldrop’s A Key into the Language of America.” How2, 2008.
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Lamm, K. K. “The Clarity of Fanny Howe’s Doubt.” How2, 2008.Link to Item
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Lamm, K. K. “"Cutting Realities: Gender Strategies in Eastern European Art." Austrian Cultural Forum Sept. 23.-Nov. 29, 2008.” Brooklyn Rail, 2008.
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Lamm, K. K. “Like Going Underwater,” 2008.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Cutting Realities: Gender Strategies in Eastern European Art".” The Brooklyn Rail, 2008.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Gego, Between Transparency and the Invisible".” The Brooklyn Rail, September 2007.
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Lamm, K. K. “Reinventing Empire, Celebrating Commerce: Two Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Exhibitions.” American Quarterly, 2006.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Ed Ruscha’s The Course of Empire".” Artus, 2006.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson.".” Artus, 2006.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of "Candida Hofer: Architecture of Absence".” Artus, 2006.
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Lamm, K. K. ““One Lighting the Other, Seductively”: James Schuyler, Eileen Myles, and the Sexuality of Literary Influence.” How2, 2002.Link to Item
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Lamm, K. K. “Interview with Eileen Myles.” How2, 2002.Link to Item
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Lamm, K. K. “Inquiries: A Conversation About, Across, Within, and Inspired by Lyn Hejinian's The Language of Inquiry.” How2, 2001.Link to Item
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Book Reviews
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Lamm, K. K. “The Poetics of Black Aesthetics.” Contemporary Literature, 2014.Link to Item
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of Kevin Stein’s Poetry’s Afterlife: Verse in the Digitial Age; Andrew Mossin’s Male Subjectivity and Poetic Form in ‘New American’ Poetry; Timothy Gray’s Urban Pastoral: Natural Currents in the New York School; Peggy Samuels’ Deep Skin: Elizabeth Bishop and Visual Art.” American Literature, March 2012.
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Lamm, K. K. “Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture.” Cultural Critique, 2012.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of Daneen Wardrop’s Emily Dickinson and the Labor of Clothing and Katherine Joslin’s Edith Wharton and the Making of Fashion.” American Literature, March 2011.
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Lamm, K. K. “On Barbara Guest.” Edited by Ed Foster. Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, October 2010.
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of Alice Notley’s In the Pines.” Edited by Ed Foster. Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, 2008.
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Lamm, K. K. ““Ghosts of Kingdom Come.” Review Essay of Kate Meads’ Quizzing the Dead and Ingrid Wendt’s Blow the Candle Out.” Cold Mountain Review. Appalachian State, 2004.
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Lamm, K. K. “Then and Now: Reading the Texts of Race.” College Literature, 2002.Link to Item
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of Tim Dean’s Beyond Sexuality.” Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society., 2002.
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Lamm, K. K. “The Question of Race in the American Avant-Garde.” Contemporary Literature, n.d.
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Digital Publications
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Lamm, K. K. “Review of Voyages.” Nottingham University, Department of Culture, Film and Media and Institute for Screen Industries Research, November 2001.
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Conference Papers
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Lamm, K. K. “Modernist Clothes Made New: The Visible Presence of Gertrude Stein and Zora Neale Hurston in Harryette Mullen's Trimmings.” In Part Ii: Contemporary Women Poets Seminar, n.d.Link to Item
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- AAAS 265S: Representing Breast Cancer: Feminist Literature, Art, and Film 2023
- AAAS 355S: Black Feminism and Fashion 2023
- ARTHIST 390S: Special Topics in Art History 2023
- ARTSVIS 263S: Representing Breast Cancer: Feminist Literature, Art, and Film 2023
- ARTSVIS 353S: Black Feminism and Fashion 2023
- ENGLISH 353S: Black Feminism and Fashion 2023
- GSF 101S: Gateway Seminar: Gender and Everyday Life 2023
- GSF 263S: Representing Breast Cancer: Feminist Literature, Art, and Film 2023
- GSF 355S: Black Feminism and Fashion 2023
- GSF 390S: Special Topics in Women's Studies 2023
- GSF 494: Honors Independent Study 2023
- GSF 890S: Advanced Topics in Feminist Studies 2023
- LIT 260S: Representing Breast Cancer: Feminist Literature, Art, and Film 2023
- LIT 355S: Black Feminism and Fashion 2023
- LIT 390S: Special Topics in Literature 2023
- VMS 390S: Special Topics in Visual and Media Studies 2023
- ARTHIST 390S: Special Topics in Art History 2022
- ENGLISH 390S-7: Special Topics in Language and Literature 2022
- GSF 101S: Gateway Seminar: Gender and Everyday Life 2022
- GSF 199S: Thinking Gender: An Introduction to Feminist Theory 2022
- GSF 390S: Special Topics in Women's Studies 2022
- GSF 493: Honors Independent Study 2022
- LIT 390S: Special Topics in Literature 2022
- VMS 390S: Special Topics in Visual and Media Studies 2022
- ARTHIST 390S: Special Topics in Art History 2021
- ENGLISH 390S-7: Special Topics in Language and Literature 2021
- GSF 199S: Thinking Gender: An Introduction to Feminist Theory 2021
- GSF 390S: Special Topics in Women's Studies 2021
- LIT 390S: Special Topics in Literature 2021
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Presentations & Appearances
- Feminist Hieroglyphs: Rewriting the Feminine in Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document (1973-79) and Laura Mulvey's Riddles of the Sphinx (1977). December 5, 2012 2012
- 'O Where I Lay': Inscribing the Field of Immanence in the Work of Hilda Morley. November 12, 2011 2011
- The Deconstructive Impulse: Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power 1973-1992. September 22, 2011 2011
- Carrie Mae Weems, In Conversation. February 3, 2011 2011
- Feminist Memories/Memories of Feminism. November 12, 2008 2008
- Gertrude Stein as Modernist Icon. April 1, 2008 2008
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Service to the Profession
- Exposing the Gaze: Gender and Sexuality in Art.. January 17, 2013 2013
- Who Needs Feminism? Reflecting and Continuing. October 2012 2012
- Unzipped and In Print. September 2012 2012
- Journal Referee, Contemporary Literature. August 2012 2012
- Journal Referee, Studies in the Novel. June 2012 2012
- Journal Referee, Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. November 2011 2011
- Journal Referee, Cultural Anthropology. August 2011 2011
- Journal Referee, PMLA. August 2010 2010
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