Dr. Robert M. Ficociello

Assistant Professor of American Literature

Dr. Fic's Deep South Music Show 

Department of English 
University of Nebraska at Kearney
905 West 25th Street
Kearney, NE 68849
Thomas Hall 109C 

308.865.8295
ficociellor2@unk.edu
 

Research Interests 

20th Century American Literature, War Discourse, Literary Theory, Disaster Culture, New Orleans Literature and Culture

Education  

Ph. D. English (Writing, Teaching, and Criticism). University at Albany, SUNY. Albany, NY. August 2009.

M.F.A. Drama and Communications (Fiction Writing). University of New Orleans. New Orleans, LA. 2003.

B.S. Marine Biology. University of Massachusetts. Dartmouth, MA. 1991.

Professional Experience 

Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska, Kearney, Fall 2009 to present.

Area Co-Chair, Disasters and Culture, Pop Culture/American Culture Association. Spring 2013 to present.

Managing Editor, Platte Valley Review, Fall 2010 to Summer 2012.

Composition Coordinator, University of Nebraska, Kearney, 2011 to 2013.

Lecturer, Loyola University, New Orleans, Fall 2008 to Spring 2009.

Publications 

“Crane’s Episode Among Episodes in American War Discourse,” War, Literature, and the Arts. Forthcoming.

“The Tomb of Nationalism: The (Im)Possibility of an Other in Danilo Kis’ A Tomb for Boris Davidovich,” co-written with Robert Bell, Loyola University New Orleans. Cultural Representation and the International Short Story Sequence. Jeff Birkenstein and Robert M. Luscher, Co-Editors. Rodopi Press. Forthcoming.

“Jim Heynen’s, The Fall of Alice K.,” Briar Cliff Review. (2013) Vol. 25. No. 1. 110.

“Steinbeck’s Civil War: War as Peace in the American 1930s,” The Grapes of Wrath: A Retrospective After 70 Years. Ed. Michael J. Meyer, Rodopi Press (2009) 327-50.

“Fish(ing) for Colonial Counter-Narratives in the Short Fiction of Paul Bowles,” Paradoxical Citizenship. Ed. Silvia Nagy-Zekmi, Lexington Press (2005). 167-73.

“The Three R's of Prairie Fire,” Review in Literary Magazine Review (2004). Vol. 22, No. 4. 24-8.

 Fiction  

“How We Read,” Future Earth Magazine. (Summer 2012) Vol. 5. Online.

“Stolen Green,” Apogee. (2012). Vol. 1. No. 1. 53-64.

“Greyhounded,” Short Story (Spring 2011). Vol. 19, No. 1 3-13.

“Conjure,” New Orleans Review (Spring 2008). Vol. 34.1. 131-40.

“Bathos: A Postscript to Mythos,” South Dakota Review (Winter 2006). Vol. 44, No. 1. 14-7.

“Blackjack, Shotgun, and Harmony,” Short Story (Fall 2002). Vol. 10, No. 1. 22-6.

“Peanuts,” Mobius (1997). Vol. 9, No. 1. 17-9.

Presentations 

Panel Chair and Presenter. “Let the Dust Settle: The (Never-ending) 'Dust Bowl' Disaster” Panel: Disasters and Culture. PCA/ACA Annual Meeting. Washington, DC. Spring 2013.

Panel Chair and Presenter. “Disaster Pedagogy, Critical Thinking, and Cultural Studies” Panel: Disasters and Culture:  The Shapes of Disaster. PCA/ACA Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. Spring 2012.

Panel Chair and Presenter. “From Oriental Spies to the Red Menace: Threats Against the State in American Literature and Culture” Panel: WWI/WWII:  Orientalism and Authority. PCA/ACA Annual Meeting. San Antonio, TX. Spring 2011.

Panel Chair and Presenter. “Greatness? The Great War and the Great Depression in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.” Panel: WWI/WWII: Literary and Philosophical Responses to WWI and WWII. PCA/ACA Annual Meeting. St. Louis, MO. Spring 2009.

“Cultural Discourse of the Cold War,” Futures of American Studies: Re-Configurations of American Studies. Seminar Leader, Donald Pease. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. June 2007.

“Grad(ual) Becoming: On Graduate Student Identities,” Panel: Graduate Student Identities. CCCC. New York, NY. Spring 2007.

“The Ending is Just Beginning: Postmodern Short Fiction,” Panel: Are We There Yet? Arriving at the End in Postmodern Short Stories. AWP Annual Conference. Austin, TX. Spring 2006.

Panel Chair and Presenter. “19th Century American Literature and the Psychoanalytic Subject,” Psychoanalysis and Community: The Annual Conference for the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Fall 2005.

“A Cold War Origin: Public Discourse and the National Narrative,” Panel: Cultural Production and the State: Constructing an “Other” as Enemy: War as State Control. PCA/ACA Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA. Spring 2005.

“When Good Isn’t Always Good: Meta-Criticism, Pedagogy, and Postcolonialism,” Panel: Literary Criticism and Theory: Theory and Practice in Multicultural Literature. SCMLA Cultural Confluences. New Orleans, LA. Fall 2004.

“Fish(ing) for Colonial Counter-Narratives in the Short Fiction of Paul Bowles: What the Short Fiction of Bowles Can Teach Us,” Panel: Global Awareness Through Critical Pedagogy. Crossroads in Cultural Studies. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Summer 2004.

Invited Fiction Reader. “Towers of Power” Gulf Coast Writers Conference. University of Southern Alabama. Fairhope, AL. Spring 2003.

 Professional Organizations  

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association.
Modern Language Association.