Education
2002 Ph.D., English, The Graduate Center, City University New York.
Dissertation
title: Narrative Telos: The Ordering Tendencies of Chance.
Fields
of specialization: Narrative Theory, Philosophy of Science, and 20th Century
Novels.
Passed
Oral Examinations with Academic Distinction.
Publications--Theory/Criticism/Reviews
2010 with Stanley Salthe, "Monstrous Fate: The Problem of Authorship and Evolution by Natural Selection," Annals of Scholarship (forthcoming).
2009 "The Poetics of Purpose," Biosemiotics 2 (2009): 77-100.
2008 "The (Re)emergence of Language in Art," Dialogues, New York: Krugier Gallery.
2007 Review of Wendy Wheeler's. The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture. Configurations 14 (2007): 185-188.
2006 "C. S.
Peirce's Theory of Self-Organization and The Crying of Lot 49,"
Pynchon Notes 52-53 (2006): 23-39.
2005 "Hopeful Monsters: Literary Teleology and Emergence." Emergence:Complexity & Organization 7 (2005): 95-104.
2004 Review of Angus Fletcher's New Theory for American Poetry, in Style 39 (2004): 501-505..
2003 "Nabokov,
Teleology, and Insect Mimicry," Nabokov Studies 7 (2003): 177-213.
2002 Review of Brian Boyd's Nabokov's Pale Fire and the Magic of Artistic Discovery, in Antioch Review 60 (Summer 2002):
530-531.
2001 "Neutral Evolution and Aesthetics: Vladimir Nabokov and Insect Mimicry," Working Papers Series 01-10-057 (Santa Fe:
Santa Fe Institute, 2001).
1999 "Polonius and Poland, a Coincidence," English Language Notes 36 (1999): 8-13.
1999 "Indeterminacy Revisited," zingmagazine 5 (1999): 33-38.
1997 "Louis Begley: Trying to Make Sense of It," Antioch Review 55 (1997): 292-304.
1994 "Martin Amis: Between the Influences of Bellow and Nabokov," Antioch Review52 (1994): 580-590. reprinted in Contemporary
Literary Criticism 101, ed. Deborah Stanley (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1997), 78-83
Publications--Literary
2009 Trixie (Kindle, 2009).
2003 Naked Singularity (The Permanent Press, 2003).
2000 "S,"murmur 2 (2000): 142-143.
1997 "The
Bird Girl," Texas Short Stories (Browder Springs, 1997), 364-373.
1996 Smoking Hopes (The Permanent
Press, 1996).
Honors and Awards
2002 Alfred
Kazin Award for Best Dissertation, English Department, Graduate Center, CUNY
2001 Scholar
in Residence, Rockefeller Foundation Study and
Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy
2001 Dissertation
Fellowship, Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women, NY, NY
2001 Writer
in Residence, Art & Science Laboratory,
Santa Fe, NM
2001 Visiting
Researcher, Santa Fe Institute, Santa
Fe, NM
2000 Writer
in Residence, Art & Science Laboratory,
Santa Fe, NM
1998 Academic
Distinction, English Department, Graduate Center, CUNY
1995 Washington
Prize for Fiction, Kaufman Literary Agency, Arlington, VA (Smoking Hopes)
1992 Bernard
Cohen Prize for Fiction, Hunter College, NY, NY (Smoking Hopes)
1991 Mayor's
Scholarship, Hunter College, NY, NY
1990 Bernard
Cohen Prize for Fiction, Hunter College, NY, NY ("The Bird Girl")
Invited/Featured Lectures
2004 "Ecopoetics,"
with Marcella Durand and Lytle Shaw, Dactyl Foundation, NY, NY
2004 "Euthanasia and
Fate," Virginia University, James Madison University, Delaware University.
2003 "On Euthanasia, Moral Choice, and Science," Hemlock Society, New York, NY; Hudson Valley Humanists, New Paltz, NY;
Washington Secular Humanists, Baltimore, MD; Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, Colo Springs, CO; Denver Atheists, Denver,
CO; FACT, San Antonio TX
2003 "Nabokov
and Mimicry," Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
2002 "Sacred/Secular: The Epiphenomenal in Post 'Postclassical' Science," Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY
2001 "Nabokov
and Anti-Darwinian Evolution" Dactyl Foundation, New York, NY
2001 "Art Versus Science,"
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM
2001
"Neutral
Evolution and Aesthetics: Vladimir Nabokov and Insect Mimicry," Santa Fe
Institute, NM
Conferences
2009 "The Problem of Authorship and Evoltuion by Natural Selection," Society for Literature, Science & the Arts, Atlanta, GA
2008 "Image Clusters," Society for Literature, Science & the Arts, Charlotte, NC
2007 "Poetics or Semiotics," Biosemiotics Gathering, Syros Greece
2007 "Message without Sender," Soceity for Literature, Science & the Arts, Portland, ME
2006 "On T. L. Short's Notion of Purpose," C. S. Peirce Conference, Helsinki, Finland
2006 "On T. L. Short's Notion of Purpose," Biosemiotics Gathering, Grotigen, The Netherlands
2006 "Evolution: Cultural, Biological, and Cosmic," Soceity for Literature, Science & the Arts, Dactyl Foundation, NYC--organizer
2006 "Deterministic Chance (As a Kind of Punning), Emergence, and Final Chance," Soceity for Literature, Science & the Arts, Dactyl Foundation, NYC
2005 "Meaning,
Function & Context as Scientific Concepts" Society for Literature, Science,
2005 "Henry James'
Teleology" Society for the Study of Narrative Literature,
2004 "Ecology and Ethics," Society for Literature and Science, Durham, NC
2004 "Phenomenal Patterns: Naratology," PALA, NY, NY
2004 "James's
Pragmatic Teleology," Universite de Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2003 "Darwinian
Ecologies," Society for Literature and Science, Austin, TX
2003 "The Status of Emergence," roundtable: N. Katherine Hayles, John Johnston, Eve Keller, and Susan Oyama, Society for Literature
& Science,
Austin, TX--organizer
2002 "Nonlinearity
and Teleology," Society for Literature and Science, Cal-Tech,
Pasadena, CA
2002 "Nabokov and Insect Mimicry,"
Nabokov Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2002 Agency
in Henry James: From Positivism to Probabilism," Society for
the Study of Narrative Literature, E Lansing, MI
2001 "Genetic Determinism and Telos,"
Society for the Study of Narrative Literature, MLA, New Orleans, LA
2001 "Narrative
Teleology and Aesthetics," Determinism Workshop, Max Planck
Society, Ringberg Castle, Germany
2001
"Nabokov,
Evolution, and Aesthetics," American Literature Association, Cambridge, MA
2000
"Narrative
Teleology and New Physics, " Central NY Conference on Literature and
Language, SUNY Cortland, NY
2000
"The History of Chaos in
Science, Literature, and Art," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts
& Humanities, NY, NY--chair
2000
"Pynchon
and Complexity Science," Twentieth-century Literature Conference,
Louisville, KY
1998
"Art
and Science," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, New York,
NY
1998
"The
Interpreters," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, New York,
NY--chair
1991
"Writing
Across the Curriculum," Writing Centers Association, New York, NY
Video
Documentaries
2000 "The Look of
Love," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities,
NY--producer
with
artist Alexandra Wiesenfeld
1999 "Don't Let Go," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, NY--concept development
with
artist James Gilroy and filmmaker Larry Clark
Curatorial Projects-Visual Art
2009 Judy Glantzman, "A Thirty-Year Retrospective," Dactyl Foundation, NY
2007 Yelena Yemchuk, "Notes on Fatomas," Dactyl Foundation, NY
2006 Debra Sessel, "Faith," Dactyl Foundation, NY
2004 Yelena
Yemchuk, "Sensitive," Dactyl Foundation, NY
2002 Yelena
Yemchuk, "Phenomena+Existence
No. 1," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, NY
2002 James
Gilroy, "Before and
After 9/11," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities,
NY
2002 Emily
Orling, "Infant
Paintings," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, NY
2000 Alexandra
Wiesenfeld, "The Look of Love," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts &
Humanities, NY
1999 James
Gilroy, "Information
Paintings," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, NY
Professional Affiliations
International Vladimir
Nabokov Society, Society for Literature, Science & the Arts, Society for the
Study of Narrative Literature, and International Soceity for the Study of Biosemiotics
Works-in-Progress