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Ross Bullen, Assistant Professor
B.A. (Wilfrid Laurier), M.A. (Western), Ph.D. (Western, 2010)

American Literature

Hart Hall Rm. 306
Tel. 364-2329
Email - rbullen@mta.ca
Other websites: http://rossdanielbullen.wordpress.com

I began teaching in the Department of English Literatures at Mount Allison in September 2012. Prior to this, I taught courses in American literature and cultural studies at OCAD University, McGill University, and the University of Western Ontario. I grew up in Milton, Ontario, and attended Wilfrid Laurier University (BA) and Western (MA and PhD).

In my teaching and research I study nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature and culture. In particular, I am interested in the relationship between race and economics in American literature. I am working on a book manuscript – titled The White Fraud: White Elephants, Siam, and the Problem of Value in American Literature – that examines how nineteenth-century American writing about Siam (now Thailand) animated discourses about the contested value of early U.S. imperialism in Southeast Asia. My next major project will explore the homology between the economic precept known as “Gresham’s Law” and the “one-drop rule” in African American literature.

I teach a variety of courses at Mount Allison, including upper-year courses in early American literature, contemporary American literature, and African American literature.


Education:
PhD, English, University of Western Ontario, 2010
MA, English, University of Western Ontario, 2004
BA, English & Philosophy, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2002


Research interests:
American Literature before 1900
Cultural Studies
Asian American Studies
African American Literature


Teaching:
English 3711: American Literature from the Colonial Period to the Civil War
English 3721: American Literature from the Civil War to the Present
English 3731: African American Literature
English 2701: Introduction to American Literature
English 1201: Introduction to Principles of Literary Analysis


Publications:
Books: The White Fraud: White Elephants, Siam, and the Problem of Value in American Literature (in progress)


Journal Articles:
“Wildcats and Shinplasters: William Wells Brown and the Economy of Passing” (in progress)

“Blood Money: Gresham’s Law, Property, and Race in Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses.” Canadian Review of American Studies 42.2 (2012): 194-215

“‘This Alarming Generosity’: White Elephants and the Logic of the Gift.” American Literature 83.4 (December 2011): 747-773


Awards & honours:
McIntosh Prize (awarded for the best public lecture by a fourth-year PhD student on a topic growing out of his or her thesis), Western, 2008
SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, 2007-2008
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2006-2007; 2007-2008 (declined); 2008-2009
Faculty of Arts and Humanities Alumni Graduate Award (research travel scholarship), Western, 2007