Curriculum Vita
Dennis Redmond
Address
Institute of Communications Research
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
228 Gregory Hall
810 South Wright Street
Urbana IL 61801
Telephone: (217) 333 1549
Email: redmond2@uiuc.edu
Web: http://www.efn.org/~dredmond
Education
Currently enrolled as Ph.D. student in Institute for Communications Research, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, 2000, University of Oregon. Degree received May 2000. Primary field: 20th century literature
and aesthetics. Secondary field: 20th century philosophy (Frankfurt School, critical theory, culture studies). Tertiary field:
Enlightenment period.
Exchange student, 1994-1996, Albert-Ludwig University, Freiburg, Germany.
M.A. in Comparative Literature, 1994, University of Oregon. Fields
included 20th century literature (modernism and postmodern
media culture), 20th century critical theory, and the
Enlightenment.
B.A. in Literature, 1991, Antioch College. Senior thesis: The Culture
of the Comic Strip (historical survey of the daily cartoon from
Winsor McKay and George Herriman to Charles Schulz and Garry
Trudeau).
Dissertation
Title: Global Storm: Theodor Adorno’s Negative Dialectics.
Advisor: Wolfgang Sohlich
Reading Committee: Kenneth Calhoon, John McCole, Forest Pyle.
Description: The dissertation analyzes the concepts and categories of Theodor
Adorno’s Negative Dialectics and applies these to the
late 20th century process of globalization. Topics include
the rise of the multinational media culture, the relationship of 20th
century literary and aesthetic modernism with postmodernism, 20th
century philosophy (the span from the ontologies and existentialisms
to the post-structuralisms and postmodernisms), and critiques of the
Cold War consumer culture and Americanization. The dissertation
argues Adorno’s concepts are indispensable to understanding the
rise of multinational capitalism in the post-Cold War period,
including the emergence of the European Union and an increasingly
integrated East Asian region. These themes are illuminated by
readings of the early 1960s novels of US writer William S. Burroughs
(The Soft Machine, The Ticket that Exploded, and Nova
Express), three plays written in the 1970s by Germany playwright
Heiner Müller (Germania Death in Berlin, Lessings
Sleep Dream Cry, and Hamletmachine), and finally US writer
William Gibson’s cyberpunk classic Neuromancer (1984).
Teaching interests
Multinational media culture (videogames, cinema, video, digital media)
20th century literature (novel, theater)
20th century cultural theory (Frankfurt School, Western Marxism, Theodor
Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu)
Economic and social integration in the European Union and East Asia
Post-Cold War geopolitics
Teaching experience
From 1997 to 2000, I had sole responsibility for creating, teaching and
grading the following undergraduate courses:
Rock the Dragon. Graduate teaching fellow in Comparative
Literature, Spring Quarter. Cultural history of East Asia’s
media culture, from the 1970s Hong Kong films to Vietnamese director
Anh Hung Tran’s Cyclo to the Japanese anime series Neon
Genesis: Evangelion. Materials included economics and politics of
the Southeast Asian crisis, East Asia geopolitics and economic
integration, gender and micropolitics.
Godzilla Versus Wall Street. Graduate teaching fellow in
Comparative Literature, Spring Quarter and Winter Quarter of 1998.
Cultural history of the East Asian region ranging from the Hong Kong
films of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai to the
economics and political history of the East Asian developmental
state, the Pacific Rim boom, the Southeast Asian crash, and the
business culture of Wall Street. Supporting texts included Vietnamese
writer Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War, short stories by
Taiwanese writer Ang Li, and Doug Henwood’s Wall Street.
Hotel Microsoft. Graduate teaching fellow in Comparative
Literature, Winter Quarter 1999. The politics and culture of the
information capitalism spawned by the Cold War, the story of
Microsoft and the Silicon Northwest, the culture of programming and
the Internet, the rise of the freeware movement and its potential
cultural effects. Texts included Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying
of Lot 49, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas, William Gibson’s Neuromancer, as well as
historical and economic background on the global computer and
information industry.
Starship Europa: The EU as Superpower. Graduate teaching fellow in
Comparative Literature. Winter Quarter 2000, Fall Quarter 1998, Fall
Quarter 1997. Cultural history of the European Union, with a focus on
the process of European geopolitical and economic integration. Texts
included French writer Jean Genet’s The Blacks, Polish
director Andrez Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds, Man of
Iron, and Man of Marble, German dramatist Heiner Mueller’s
Hamletmachine, Italian author Italo Calvino’s If On a
Winter’s Night a Traveller, and animation by Czech director
Jan Svankmajer.
It Came from Planet Z. Graduate teaching fellow in Comparative
Literature, Spring Quarter 1998. Science fiction from the 1930s to
cyberpunk. Texts included Orson Welles’ 1938 War of the Worlds
radio broadcast, the original Star Trek TV series, Fritz Lang’s
Metropolis, Fred Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet,
Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man and William Gibson’s
Neuromancer.
The Culture of the Cold War. Graduate teaching fellow in Comparative
Literature, Spring Quarter 1997. Analysis of the spy and nuclear
narratives of the Fifties consumer culture. Materials included the
classic Bond films of the Sixties (Goldfinger and You Only
Live Twice), William Burroughs’ Nova Express, plus
materials on the Rosenberg and Hiss trials, the history of military
Keynesianism, the economics of the arms race, the rise of the media
culture, and case studies of the resistance to the Cold War both in
the West and East.
Publications
“Animation, Anime, and the Cultural Logic of Asianization.” In: The Essential Science Fiction Reader.
Edited by J.P. Telotte. University Press of Kentucky: Lexington, KY, 2008 (127-139).
“Anime and East Asian Culture: Neon Genesis Evangelion.” The Quarterly
Review of Film and Video Volume 24, Number 2, 2007 (183-188).
“Chapter 6. Grand Theft Video: Running and Gunning for the US Empire.”
In: The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto. Edited by Nate Garrelts. McFarland: Jefferson,
NC, 2006.
“Iranian Film as Central Asian Geopolitics.” Mindzwine. Volume 4, November 2004, Kolkata,
India.
The World is Watching. Southern Illinois University Press: Carbondale, IL, 2003.
Web: <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/GV.html>
Works and Essays
Uplink. (2005 to present) Quarterly webzine and resource guide focusing on
videogame culture. All unsigned articles written by myself. Web:
<http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Uplink.html>
Satellite Uplink. (2004) This book analyzes the late 20th
century information culture, from 1960s science fiction to the 1990s
3D videogame. Texts include William S. Burroughs’ Nova
Express trilogy of 1960-64, William Gibson’s Neuromancer
(1984), and the leading 3D videogames of the late 1990s and early
2000s (Half Life, Neil Manke’s They Hunger mods
for Half Life, Croteam’s Serious Sam and Remedy’s
Max Payne). Web: <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/penguin.html>.
Comparative Literature in the 21st Century (2003). Essay on the
crisis of the US humanities, and why we need to reinvent Comparative
Literature on a truly global scale. Web:
<http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/CompLitFuture.html>
21st Century Geopolitics. (2003) Essay on multinational politics in
the dawning 21st century, with special focus on East Asian
and European political and economic integration. Web:
<http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Geopolitics.html>
The Tale of Kieu as Postcolonial Classic. (2003) Analyzes the
magnificent 19th century Vietnamese verse novel, The
Tale of Kieu. Themes include nation-state formation in East Asia,
mercantilism and colonialism, nationalism and literati culture,
realism and national allegory. Web: <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/kieu.html>
Papers and Presentations
2006: Popular Culture Association. Atlanta meeting, March 2006. “Devil
May Cry and East Asian Media Culture.”
2005: Popular Culture Association. San Diego meeting, March 2005. “The
3D Videogame as Form: Half Life and Neil Manke’s Mods.”
2004: Modern Language Association. Philadelphia meeting, December 2004.
“The Constellation in Art: Multinational Tropes in the 3D
Videogame.” Web: <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/SpiritedAway.html>
2004: Modern Language Association. Philadelphia meeting, December 2004.
“Anime and East Asian Culture: Neon Genesis Evangelion.”
An extended version of this paper was published by the Quarterly Review of Film and
Video (see publications, above).
2004: Association for Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC) 2004
Conference. University of Oregon. “East Asian Tropes in
Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away,” June 2004. Web: <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/SpiritedAway.html>
2002: Globalization and Theory Conference. Cornell University. Under
auspices of German Cultural Studies Department. Presentation
entitled, “Adorno as Multinational Marxist,” July 2002.
Web: <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/admm.html>
2000: Rethinking Marxism 2000 Conference. University of Massachusetts
at Amherst. Presentation entitled, “Eurokeiretsu Vs. Asiakeiretsu: Multinational
Capitalism in the European Union and East Asian Region.” Web:
<http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/EuroAsiazilla.PDF>
Translations
My original translations of the following works by Theodor Adorno:
Negative Dialectics <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/nd.html>
Minima Moralia <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/nd.html>
My original translations of the following works by Heiner Müller:
Germania Death in Berlin <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Germania.html>
Life of Gundling <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Gundling.html>
Hamletmachine <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Hamletmachine.html>
The Mission <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Mission.html>
Quartet <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Quartet.html>
Selected poems <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/MuellerPoems.html>
Selected prose <http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/MuellerProse.html>
Professional Experience
2005: Reader for Cultural Critique, publication based at the
University of Minnesota.
2004-2005: Student-teacher practicum in middle school and high school,
Middle/Secondary Program, College of Education, University of Oregon.
2003-2004: Substitute teacher, Morgan Hill Unified School District, Morgan
Hill CA, middle-secondary level (Language Arts).
2001-2002: SEIU researcher, located at SEIU International
headquarters at 1313 L Street, Washington, DC 20005. Duties included
public policy research in the hospital sector, general healthcare
market analysis, and writing, liaison and communications support for
union campaigns in southern California. Coordinated research efforts
with other researchers and staff at union locals, operated database,
identified potential policy issues and goals.
2001: Participant in DAAD Summer Seminar: “From Frankfurt to Los
Angeles and Back: The Fate of Critical Theory in the International
Discussion after WW II”, June-July 2001, organized by Prof.
Peter Hohendahl at the Institute for German Cultural Studies, Cornell
University. This is a seminar open to a select group of scholars and
professors, invited to discuss the historical trajectory, reception
and future evolution of Critical Theory.
1999-2000:
President of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, the
official union of the more than 1100 graduate employees at the
University of Oregon. Duties included running a small office,
overseeing our staff (three employees plus occasional temp workers),
managing an annual budget of a quarter of a million dollars,
organizing membership drives, membership and community outreach,
contract bargaining with the University, participating in campaigns
to defend labor rights both here and abroad, coordinating the efforts
of over thirty departmental stewards and volunteers, and working with
other higher education organizations to help protect funding for
graduate students on the state and Federal level.
1997-99: Vice-President for Membership Benefits, Executive Board of the
GTFF. Duties included overseeing and managing the GTFF insurance
plan, dealing with member questions, and working to upgrade our
benefits package. I also helped to write and publish the GTFF Voice,
the official newsletter of the union.
1997-99: Trustee on the GTFF Health and Welfare Trust, independent body
which exercises fiduciary responsibility for the GTFF’s health
insurance plan.
Academic honors
1986: Watson Scholarship, a multi-year award from the IBM corporation
to academically successful high school seniors.
Foreign Languages
German Fluent
French Advanced reading proficiency
References
References are available upon request.