Dr. Lisa Guerrero
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
Biography
Lisa Guerrero is an Assistant Professor in the department of Comparative Ethnic Studies at Washington State University where she has taught 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, in 1993, and earning her Ph.D. in American Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2001.
Her central research and teaching interests include African American literature, black masculinity, African American popular culture, satire and African American humor, and race and commodity culture.
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 her time off back in her home state of California with her friends and family in the temperate climate of the Bay Area. She spends hours listening to music, haunting bookstores, (and shoe stores!), and arguing politics and basketball with her boyfriend. To relax, she does pilates, eats chocolate, and reads tons of blogs. Her favorite things include: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty, watching basketball, "Law & Order" reruns, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and Prince, "Undercover Brother," all things Harry Potter, Bratz dolls, her grandmother's fried chicken, her mom's laughter, and her boyfriend's grace under pressure. Her least favorite things include: bad drivers, narrow-mindedness, lack of imagination, reality television, cold weather, bad coffee, and the Los Angeles Lakers...oh, and answering the question: "Did I miss anything important in class?"
Publications
- "Racial Representation and the Ironic Response in African American Popular Culture" in Racial Crossroads: A Comparative Ethnic Studies Reader, eds., Yolanda Flores-Niemann, Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo, et. al. Kendall-Hunt Publishers, 2005.
- "'Sistas Are Doin' It For Themselves': Chick Lit in Black and White" in Chick Lit: The New Woman's Fiction, eds. Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young, Routeledge, 2005.
Forthcoming
- "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, 2007.
- "One Nation Under a Hoop: Race, Meritocracy, and Messiahs in the NBA" in Thugs and Dollars: New Racism and the Imagined Black Athlete, David J. Leonard, ed. 2008.
- "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.
- African Americans in Television, co-authored with David J. Leonard. Praeger Publishing, 2008.
Current Projects
- Satiric Subjectivities: The Commodification of Black Masculinity in Contemporary American Popular Culture
- The Problem of the Colorblind: College Professors Talk About the Fears, Risks, and Rewards of Teaching Race in the 21st Century America, edited collection
Research Interests
- African American literary traditions
- African American masculinity
- African American cultural movements
- race and popular culture
- commodification of racial identities/representations
- gender and sexuality
She is especially intersted in the performative nature of racial, national, and gender 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
- topics in American and African American literature
- critical black masculinites
- racial representations and responses in American pop culture
- racial identity formations in the United States
- cultural studies
