Karen Walker

Schedule

• Monday
     10:30 - 12:00 Engl 5 1626 Emeritus
     12:00 - 1:00 Office Hour 1644 Emeritus
     2:00 - 4:30 Engl 305 1601/1614 Emeritus
     5:00 - 6:00 Office Hour 1644 Emeritus
     6:00 - 9:00 Engl 12 Children's Lit 1620 Emeritus
  
  
• Tuesday
     10:30 - 1:00 Engl 305 1624/1601 Emeritus
     1:00 - 2:00 Office Hour 1644 Emeritus
  
  
• Wednesday
     10:30 - 12:00 Engl 5 1626 Emeritus
     1:00 - 2:00 Office Hour 1644 Emeritus
     2:00 - 4:30 Engl 305 1601/1614 Emeritus
  
  
• Thursday
     10:30 - 1:00 Engl 305 1624/1601 Emeritus
     1:00 - 2:00 Office Hour 1644 Emeritus
  

Biography

Growing up in L.A. and the San Fernando Valley shaped my sci fi, Blade Runner imagination--an event, it turns out, that would influence the rest of my life. That is, despite having had a baby at eighteen years old, which kept me rather busy, the haunt of L.A. would eventually lead me to my career: a life long study of modernity. And it has been marvelous.

Education

Exhausted and brain-dead after ten years of waiting tables full time, I started my career right here at SRJC. Then, though I was a single working-mom and it was tough, I managed to transfer to Sonoma State University, eventually graduating with a B.A. in psychology: mostly Humanistic, lots of Jung, mythology, ecopsychology, and existentialism. Whereas the field of psychology focused mainly on family systems, I was more interested in societal systems and wondered how culture--in particular our "modern" one--shapes our lived daily experience, our very thoughts and dreams. Those questions led me to an M.A. in English, which is a degree that mixes philosophy and art, going beyond the self. I earned my M.A. at SSU, focusing mainly on Modernism, with an emphasis in African American literature and theory.

As of September 2010, I earned a PhD in English Literature from UC Davis, specializing in 20th Century American Literature and Technocultural Studies. My dissertation is entitled "Dark Side of the Machine,...etc., etc.," wherein I studied relationships between technology and race, categories that have tended to remain separate in academia (for extremely interesting reasons, I found out). All of this is to say that I view SRJC as my savior, love it, and am thrilled to be teaching here.

Academic Experience

Taught at UC Davis for six years (2002-2008)
UWP 1 (freshman comp). Three years
Enl 3 (Intro to poetry, drama, fiction). Three years

Have taught at SRJC since Fall 06
Engl 305, 302, 100, 1A, 1B, Engl 5,
Many Learning Communities and Smart Start classes
Humanities 8: Comparative Mythology (Fall 11)
Engl 12: Children's Literature

SSU: English 99

Professional Areas of Interest

My first love is teaching, which is deeply related to my other love: being a scholar. My fields of specialization are in American Studies, 20th C. American Literature, and Technocultural Studies, which is to say I'm a theorist of modernity. I'm also interested in the social history of "things" (artifacts), Afrofuturism, environmental racism, technopower, cyberpunk, and more, so much more--which I'll spare you. Again, it is thanks to SRJC that I can say any of this.

Presentations and Publications

• “Putting the South in Posthumanism: Signifying Cyborgs in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man”: Florida State University’s 2008 Film and Literature Conference
• “Premodern Posthumanism: Tracing Technology in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man": Scholar’s Symposium, UC Davis, Dec. 2008
• PDA Talk at SRJC: “Teaching in the Machine: Views from a Technoculturalist”

WOLM Lectures at SRJC:
“Off the Grid and Into the World” (on Into the Forest)
“Trickster’s Tools: Power and Wit in Their Eyes Were Watching God”
“Dark Side of the Machine in Huck Finn”

Dissertation: Dark Side of the Machine: Race, Technology, and Nonhumanist Beings in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian & The Road