Lisa Guerrero
Associate Professor
Graduate Director, Program in American Studies
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz
Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.
Mark Twain
Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can effect change; it can not only move us, it makes us move.
Ossie Davis
Dr. Guerrero has taught at WSU since 2004. She was educated near two of the most beautiful beaches in the world, earning her B.A. in English and Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and earning her Ph.D. in American literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Her central research and teaching interests include African American literature, Black masculinity, African American satire and humor, critical popular culture studies, race and commodity culture, and Cultural Studies.
When she's in Pullman not teaching or writing, or thinking about teaching or writing, she spends a lot of energy staying out of the snow; otherwise she spends much of her time off back in her home state of California with her friends and family in the temperate climate of the Bay Area. Her favorite things include Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty, watching basketball and golf, "Law & Order" reruns, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and Prince, Hello Kitty, Bratz dolls, the color pink, her grandmother's fried chicken, her mom's laughter. Her least favorite things include bad drivers, bad grammar, narrow-mindedness, lack of imagination, reality television, bad coffee, and the Los Angeles Lakers...oh, and answering the question "Did I miss anything important in class?
Selection Publications
Books
- Teaching Race in the 21st Century: College Professors Talk About Their Fears, Risks, and Rewards, editor. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Articles and Book Chapters
- “(M)Other-In-Chief: Michelle Obama and the Ideal of Republican Womanhood” in New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neolibralism and Identity, Rosalind Gill and Christina Scharff, eds. 2011
- "One Nation Under a Hoop: Race, Meritocracy, and Messiahs in the NBA" inThugs and Dollars Signs: New Racism and the Imagined Black Athlete, David J. Leonard and C. Richard King, eds. 2009.
- "Fear and Negation in the American Racial Imaginary: Black Bodies in the Wars on Terror and Same-Sex Marriage," in A New Kind of Containment: "The War on Terror," Sexualtiy, and Race, Mary Bloodsworth-Lugo and Carmen Lugo-Lugo, eds., 2009.
- "Can the Subaltern Shop?: The Commodification of Difference in the Bratz Dolls" in Critical Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, Special Isssue on Race and Kids' Pop Culture, 2008.
Public Writing
- “Playing Dead: The Trayvoning Meme and The Mocking of Black Death” with David J. Leonard. 2012 http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2012/05/playing-dead-trayvoning-meme-mocking-of.html
- “And the Beat Goes On: Chris Brown, Too $hort, and the Disposable Conscience of Consumer Society.” 2012 http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2012/02/and-beat-goes-on-chris-brown-too-hort.html
- “Permanent Markers: Race and The Cultural Politics of Tattoos” with David J. Leonard. 2011 http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2011/11/permanent-markers-race-cultural.html
- “A Prayer for the Dying.” 2011 http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2011/09/prayer-for-dying.html
Current Projects
- Satiric Subjectivities: Double Conscious Satire in Contemporary Black Popular Culture forthcoming from Temple University Press
- African Americans on Television: Race-ing for Ratings with David J. Leonard forthcoming from Prager Publishing
Research Interests
- African American masculinity
- African American satire and humor traditions
- African American literary traditions
- Race and American popular culture
- Cultural Studies
- Commodification of racial identities/representations
- Gender and sexuality
Dr. Guerrero is especially interested in the commodification of racialized and gendered identities, the ideological space of black manhood in the American imagination, and the uses of satire and irony in African American literature and popular culture.
Teaching Interests
- African American literary movements
- Critical black masculinities
- Racial representations and responses in American pop culture
- Ethnic Studies
- Intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in social identity formation
- Cultural studies
Contact Dr. Guerrero
laguerre@wsu.edu
509-335-4182
Wilson-Short 121
Office Hours
Only by appointment
Course Materials
Fall 2013
- CES 101.2
- CES 201
Summer 2013
- CES/WST/SOC 300 (Session 1)
Past Courses
- Am St 505
- Am St 590
- Am St 596
- CES 101
- CES 220
- CES/W St 300
- CES 300 (FA12)
- CES 331
- CES 331 (SP13)
- CES 332
- CES 336
- CES 405
- CES 405 (FA12)
- 405/410 Slides 1
- 405/410 Slides 2
- 405/410 Slides 3
- 405/410 Slides 4
- 405/410 Slides 5
- 405/410 Slides 6
- 405/410 Slides 7
- 405/410 Slides 8
- CES 436
- CES 491
- CES 493 (now 494)