Dr. Griffin's research and teaching combine literary and cultural criticism with feminist theory to address social and cultural representations of gendered identity. Dr. Griffin's areas of interest include multicultural literature and gender studies; her publications and women's studies courses combine literary and cultural criticism with feminist theory to address issues of women’s representation in a diverse society. Her work combines feminist and postmodern theories to explore the politics of identity that arise when women’s self-representational narratives clash with cultural representations of women. Her exploration of women’s multi-faceted identities traces how theoretical perspectives that arrive at the academic table as theory derive from a cultural landscape of lived realities of plurality, marginalization, mobility, and annihilation. Dr. Griffin's articles have appeared in Concerns: A Publication of the Women's Caucus for the Modern Language Association, Perspectives on Modern Literature by Rodopi Press, Style, "Women as Narrators" series, and He Said, She Says: An RSVP to the Male Text, ed. Aguilar and Howe. Her reviews have appeared frequently in The Lesbian Review of Books.  Dr. Griffin is past coordinator of the Women's Resource Center at Boston College. She served as guest editor of the International Feminism issue of the Cambridge feminist quarterly, Woman of Power: A Magazine of Feminism, Spirituality, and Culture. Dr. Griffin directed the Federal Women's Program for the Boston Regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency for five years, addressing issues of diversity and representation. For further information, see Dr. Griffin's web page at http://www2.bc.edu/~griffinc

 

Current Courses: Fall 2007

Introduction to Feminisms

Advanced Seminar in Feminist Theory and Pedagogy

 

 ___________________________ EDUCATION _____________________________

 

Ph.D.  University of Massachusetts, Amherst - English Literature, May 1998 

            Focus: American Studies, Feminist Theory, Memoir, and Narrative Nonfiction Studies

                       

M.A.   Boston College, English Literature

            Teaching Fellow: Creative Nonfiction

 

B.A.    University of Tulsa, English Literature 

            Concentrations: Creative Writing, Communication & Media Studies

 

 

__________________________ DISSERTATION ____________________________­­­­­­_

 

EX-Centricities : A Geo/graphics of Self-Re/presentation in the Autobiographics of Dorothy Allison, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Kim Chernin  

Director: Professor Deborah Carlin.

 

Working at the intersection of various disciplinary axes, this study constructs dialectic between postmodern and feminist theory in the reading of three contemporary American women writers (Dorothy Allison, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Kim Chernin) whose works cross genre boundaries to enter into current conversations about the contemporary subject, story, and representation. The concept of eX-centricities, as applied here, signifies the politics and possibilities of moving beyond traditional cultural and literary centrist thinking by examining how these writers foreground the mediating role of language in self-construction, while problematizing the surrender of self to language. Such a perspective argues that postmodern tropes do not arrive on the contemporary landscape as abstract theory, but from the lived reality of plurality, marginalization, annihilation, mobility, and partial positionality within constantly changing configurations. Difference and diversity, then, become as significant as commonality. By foregrounding what has been in the background, these autobiographics fracture those frames that have been constructed to contain some stories while privileging others. Creating a transformative shift in perspective they deconstruct the cultural matrices of dominant socio-symbolic systems and bring the invisible into view.  

 

_________________________________ PUBLICATIONS _______________________________________    

•Texts

 

To Tell the Truth: Practice and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, forthcoming Longman/Pearson, 2008.

 

•Academic Articles, Book Chapters, and Essays:  

               

“Memory, Memoir, and Fictions in the Autobiographics of Kim Chernin.” Literature and The Writer.  Ed. Michael J. Meyer. Rodopi Perspectives on Modern Literature 31. Rodopi P, 2004.

 

"Ex-Centricities: Multi-Cultural Self-Representation in Contemporary American Women's Autobiographics." Women as Narrators. Style 35:2 (Summer 2001): 321-40.

 

“ ‘I Will Not Wear that Coat’: Feminism and Postmodernism in Dialogue.” He Said, She Says: An RSVP to the Male Text. Ed. Sarah Appleton Aguiar and Mica K. Howe. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2001.

 

“Going Naked into the World: Recovery and Re/presentation.” Pedagogy and Representations of Violence. Ed. Wendy S. Hesford and Judith Roof. Concerns, A Publication of the Women’s Caucus for the Modern Language Association. 26:3, 4 (Autumn 1999): 6-20.

 

"A Passion for Female Friends: An Interview with Janice Raymond," Women's Studies: Thinking Women. Wetzeo, Jodi and Margo Linn. Denver: Kendall-Hunt, 1993.

           

•Reviews

 

Rev. of Apples and Oranges: My Journey Through Sexual Identity, by Jan Clausen (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999). The Lesbian Review of Books VI.2 Winter 1999: 12.

               

Rev. of Lesbian Configurations, by Renee C. Hoogland (New York:  Columbia UP, 1997). The Lesbian Review of Books IV.1 Fall 1997: 13-14.

 

Rev. of Jo’s Girls:  Tomboy Tales of High Adventure, True Grit, and Real Life, ed. Christian McEwen. Boston:  Beacon Press, 1997; Sojourner 22.11 (July 1997): 36-37.

 

•Creative Nonfiction

               

“A Leap from Faith,” In the Belly of the Lamb: Women Remember Their Fundamentalist Pasts, ed. Susan Lonac and Terri Griffith, (forthcoming).

 

“Making Myths of Our Lives.” Sojourner 8.10 (June 1993).

           

•Features and Profiles

 

Numerous; available upon request.

 

____________________ PROFESSIONAL PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS _____________________

 

Conversations: Creative/Critical Meetings.

Panel theme: Experimental Voices: Consciousness of the Borderlines

Northeast Modern Language Association, Pittsburgh, PA, April 1999

 

Essentialism and Representation: Cultural Presence in Absentia.

Conference theme: Foundations for the Twenty-First Century

National Women’s Studies Association, SUNY, Oswego, June 1998

 

Home, Another Country:  Dialogics of Class, Culture, and Community in Contemporary American Autobiography. Panel theme: American Writers in Cultural Dialogue

Northeast Modern Language Association, Baltimore, MD, April 1998

 

Geo/Graphics; Taking a Position on Postmodernism, Identity, and Class.

Conference theme: The Image of Class in Literature, the Media, and Society

Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, Colorado Springs, CO, March 1998

 

Texts and Con/Texts:  Crossing Life and Literature in Contemporary Autobiographics of the Americas. Conference theme: Currents and Crosscurrents: Generating Creativity and Change

National Women’s Studies Conference, St. Louis, June 1997

 

When Paradigms Shift: Self-Representation and the Reconstruction of the Autobiographical Subject. Northeast Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA, April 1997

 

Legitimacy and Literary Legacies.

Central New York Conference on Language and Literature, SUNY, Cortland, October 1996

 

_______ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS_________

 

Federal Women’s Program Manager

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Boston, MA (1985-1989)

 

Served as chief advisor for deputy and regional administrators on administrative policies, programs, and practices affecting women, representation, and organizational diversity. Designed, directed, and gained federal and regional funding for a two-year Needs Assessment and Education Program developing an empirical study and creating forums for dialogue about issues of organizational and cultural diversity. Chaired regional and national Program Councils; Edited regional and national newsletter; Served as member of the National Human Resources Development Council.

 

Woman of Power Magazine, GUEST EDITOR

"International Feminism" Issue, summer 1987

Cambridge, MA.

 

Coordinated all aspects of research, solicitation, review, and editing. Coordinated and chaired editorial committee.  Interviewed Charlotte Bunch (international activist and writer), Janice Raymond (feminist philosopher and scholar), and Wilma Mankiller (first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation).

 

Women's Resource Center, COORDINATOR

Boston College (1982-1984)

 

Created collaboration between the Women's Resource Center and university departments, programs, cultural events, and student organizations. Coordinated a DIALOG & Discussion colloquium series addressing women’s issues. Collaborated with the Humanities Speakers Series to bring to campus major authors such as May Sarton, Maya Angelou, and Mary Gordon. Developed Women’s Career Planning Workshops in collaboration with the Career Center and the Undergraduate Student Government Women’s Caucus. Developed Safety Awareness Seminars in collaboration with the BC Police Department. Supervised staff of work-study undergraduates, graduate fellows, interns, and volunteers. Developed a brochure for the WRC and extended library holdings. Chair: Advisory Council to the Women's Resource Center with representation from faculty, administrators, college deans, and students.

 

Broadcast Media Relations, DIRECTOR

Department of University Relations (1975-1978)

The University of Tulsa, Tulsa Oklahoma

 

Served as University liaison and spokesperson with broadcast media and community organizations, University representative and participant in special events; collaborated with Communication Department in producing University FOCUS, a weekly educational television program (writer/host), conducted news conferences, news interviews, supervised journalism and communication interns. Wrote news releases, feature articles, and profiles for the alumni quarterly journal and for media outlets.

 

_____________________________ HONORS AND AWARDS _____________________________________

 

Teaching Fellowship

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1993.

 

University Fellowship; Teaching Fellowships

Boston College, 1982-1984.

 

T.B. Murphy Foundation Grant

Boston College Center on Culture and Social Welfare Research Institute,  "Mythic Symbols, Metaphors, and Narratives of the American Holidays,” summer 1992. 

 

Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities Grant

~ for Woman of Power Magazine, “Women of Color” issue addressing race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, class and cultural diversity, fall 1986 (grant co-writer).

           

EPA Honors:

·          Sustained Superior Performance Awards (1985-1989)

·          Bronze Medal for Outstanding Program Initiatives (1988)

·          Nominated by Region for National Gold Medal Award, a 'Human Resources' Development and Affirmative Action Award (1988)

           

National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ), Council for Advancement and Support of Education Award

~ for Television Public Service Announcement addressing diversity in education and employment, 1980.

           

University Scholarship

Oklahoma Board of Regents, University of Tulsa, 1979-81.

 

__________________________ PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS ___________________________

·          Associated Writing Programs (AWP)

·          Modern Language Association (MLA)

·          Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA)

·          American Studies Association (ASA)

·          National Women's Studies Association (NWSA)

·          New England Women’s Studies Association (NEWSA)

·          National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)