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Crystal Anderson

Associate Professor - English
English
Alamance Building 305C
2338 Campus Box
Elon, NC 27244 canderson14@elon.edu (336) 278-6481

Brief Biography

Crystal S. Anderson, PhD

  • Associate Professor of English
  • Academic Diversity Fellow (2010-2014)

Teaching Interests:  American literature, American Studies, Asian film and literature, ethnic studies, African American literature and culture, speculative fiction, immigration, civil rights and labor

Research Interests:  Comparative cultural studies (African American, Asian, Asian American) focusing on literature, visual culture, popular culture

Professional Blog: High Yellow

Research Blog: KPK: Kpop Kollective

 

Education

PhD, American Studies, 2000. The College of William and Mary. Williamsburg, VA.
Dissertation: “Far From ‘Everybody’s Everything’: Literary Tricksters in African American and Chinese American Novels”
Major: American literature, with concentrations in African American and US Latino literature
Minor: History of race and ethnicity, with concentrations in immigration, civil rights and labor

M.A., English, 1994. University of Virginia. Charlottesville, VA.
Thesis: “The Poetics of HD in Helen in Egypt”
Concentration: American literature

B.A. magna cum laude, 1992. University of Richmond. Richmond, VA.
Major: English
Minor: Women’s Studies and Greek
 

Employment History

Elon University.  Elon, NC.  2008-present.  Associate Professor, English Department.

University of Kansas.  Lawrence, KS.  2005-2008.  Assistant Professor, American Studies.

Ohio University. Athens, OH. 2001-2005. Assistant Professor, English Department.

Sweet Briar College. Sweet Briar, VA. 1999-2001. Minority Honors Fellow, Honors Program.

University of Richmond. Richmond, VA. 1997-1999. Visiting Instructor, English Department.

The College of William and Mary. Williamsburg, VA 1995-1996. Visiting Instructor, English Department.

Courses Taught

Elon University

  • ENG 359: African American Novels
  • GST 239: The Korean Wave
  • ENG 238: African American Literature to 1945
  • ENG/AMS 370: The Atlantic World, 1440-1880
  • ENG 355: The Harlem Renaissance
  • ENG 223: American Literature I
  • ENG 224: American Literature II
  • ENG 110: College Writing
  • ENG 255: Asian Film and Literature
  • AMS 210: Concepts in American Studies

University of Kansas

Undergraduate Courses

  • Understanding America (Introduction to American Studies)
  • Visual Culture and the Harlem Renaissance
  • Research Seminar in American Studies (Speculative Fiction and American Culture;  The Transnational;        Comparative Ethnic Studies)

Graduate Courses

  • Theorizing America
  • Seminar in The Post-Soul Aesthetic

Ohio University

Undergraduate Courses

  • Surveys in African American Poetry, Fiction and Drama
  • Tales of African American Migration
  • Satire in the African American Novel
  • Ellison’s Invisible Man and the Black Literary Tradition
  • Writing and Reading: African American Literature, African American Speculative Fiction
  • Major American Authors:  William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!


Graduate Courses

  • Tricksters in African American Literature
  • African American Responses to Faulkner
  • The Post-Soul Aesthetic

Sweet Briar College

  • Race, Class and Gender in American Popular Culture, 1848-present
  • American Studies at the Millennium
  • The Immigration Experience
  • US Civil Rights Movements
  • Asian/African American Cultural Interaction
  • Thought and Expression (Freshman Composition)

University of Richmond

  • Race and Gender in Women’s Literature
  • The Modern Novel
     

The College of William and Mary

  • Major American Writers


 

Leadership Positions

Academic Diversity Fellow, 2010-2014.

Coordinator, American Studies Program, Elon University, 2010-2011.

Undergraduate Director, American Studies Program, University of Kansas, 2006-2008

Co-director, American Cultures Seminar, University of Kansas, Spring 2008

Co-coordinator, Interdisciplinary Jazz Studies Colloquium, University of Kansas, 2006-2007

Faculty Advisor, Black Graduate Council, Ohio University, 2002-2005

Campus Coordinator, Regional Planning Committee on VA Death Penalty Awareness Week, Sweet Briar College, 2000-2001

Current Projects

KPK: Kpop Kollective (Project Manager). Collaborative aggregation and content curation of information on Hallyu (Korean wave) popular culture

  • KPK: Kpop Kollective (Editor-in-Chief);  Research blog that features scholarship, content aggregation and curation of media and information related to Hallyu and Digital Humanities.
  • KPOPIANA (Exhibition Designer and Editor): Digital collections in Omeka on Hallyu popular musical

iFans: Mapping Kpop's International Fandom (Exhibition designer and Curator).  Digital exhibition in Omeka that maps the global spread of K-pop fans and features case studies of fan cutlures and behaviors in an effort to understand global fan attitudes and practices. (in process).

Hallyu Harmony: A Cultural History of Kpop (Creator). Digital exhibition in Omeka on the cultural history of Hallyu K-op. (in process)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grants Awarded

New Faculty General Research Fund Grant, University of Kansas Center for Research, 2007, $8,000

Teaching Seminar, Center for Teaching Excellence (deferred to Spring 2008), University of Kansas, $1,000

Internationalizing the Curriculum, International Programs, University of Kansas, 2007, $895

Best Practices Institute, Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Kansas, 2006, $1,000

Publications

Book Projects
Beyond the Chinese Connection: Contemporary Afro-Asian Cultural Production (Forthcoming in June 2013, University of Mississippi Press).
Using Bruce Lee’s films as a framework, this book interrogates cross-cultural dynamics within a transnational context.  It argues that Lee’s films prefigure negotiations with global culture by post-1990 Afro-Asian literature and visual culture that combine ethnic and national associations in ways that both challenge and reinforce homogenizing stereotypes produced by global culture. 

 

Journal Articles

“The Afro-Asiatic Floating World: Post-Soul Implications of the Art of iona rozeal brown.”  African American Review 41.4 (2007): 655-666.

“These—Are—the ‘Breaks’: A Roundtable Discussion on Teaching the Post-Soul Aesthetic.” African American Review 41.4 (2007): 787-804.

“ ‘The Girl Isn’t White’:  New Racial Dimensions in Octavia Butler’s Survivor.”  Extrapolation 47.1 (2006): 35-50.

“Racial Discourse and Black-Japanese Dynamics in Ishmael Reed’s Japanese by Spring.” MELUS 29.3/4 (2004): 379-396.

“Chinatown Black Tigers: Black Masculinity and Chinese Heroism in Frank Chin’s Gunga Din Highway.” Ethnic Studies Review 26.1 (2003): 67-86.

 

Book Chapters

“When Were We Colored?: Blacks, Asians and Racial Discourse.” InBlacks and Asians: Crossings, Conflict and Commonality. Ed. Hazel McFerson.  Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2006.  59-77.

“Panthers and Dragons on the Page: The Afro-Asian Dynamic in The Black Aesthetic.”  In The Black Urban Community:  From Dusk ‘Till To Dawn. Ed. Gayle T. Tate and Lewis A. Randolph. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006.  427-437.

“ ‘A Small Part of a Much Larger Story’: The Survival of Leonard Peltier.” InThe Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement. Ed. Susan M. Glisson.  Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield, 2006.  289-308.

“ ‘Genius Does Not Grow On Trees’:  Antecedents of Spoken Word.”  Black Praxis:  Special Edition:  Spoken Word in the 21st Century.  Ed. Traci E. Currie. 2004.  10-18.

Digital Publications
High Yellow (professional blog) 
"What Does Gangnam Style Mean for (the) US?," August 27, 2012.

"Time for an Update: A Response to Kim Ji-Myung’s ‘Serious Turn for Hallyu 3.0’," August 4, 2012.

“Dancing in the Street: Choreography in Kpop,” March 22, 2012.

“On Pitting Kpop Idols Against Non-Idols,” January 24, 2012.

“Things I Learned From Watching Sageuk (Historical Kdramas).”  January 7, 2012.

“The Unsung and the Unsaid in Kpop.” January 1, 2012.

“Why I Do Kpop Even Though Chuckleheads Keep Giving Me the Side-Eye.” July 30, 2011.

“Don’t Hate the Playa AND the Game: Recent Criticism of Kpop.” June 4, 2011.

KPK: Kpop Kollective (research blog)
“Let’s Call This Song Exactly What Is Is: Defining K-pop,” July 11, 2012.

“Can We Get Some Facts, Ma’am?: Erroneous Reporting on Kpop by Mainstream Media,” May 20, 2012.

“Talking about Asians Behaving Badly: Fan Reaction to the Block B-Jenny Hyun-MBC Blackface Controversies,” March 31, 2012.

“Super Junior Plays Rivendell: On Suspicious News Reporting in Kpop.” Co-written with Kaetrena Davis Kendrick. November 26, 2011.

“An Informal Review of Sun Jung’s Korean Masculinities: Part 4, or Who Are You Calling A Cult?” August 25, 2011.

“An Informal Review of Sun Jung’s Korean Masculinities: Part 2, or Why We’re Not Going To Talk About Bae Yong Joon.” July 22, 2011.

hellokpop (multimedia global hub for K-pop and Korean culture)
“Where U At?: Calling The Fans of KHip-hop,” July 26, 2012.

“Lawsuits and Rice Wreaths: The Business of Kpop.”  May 3, 2012.

“Why Blackface is Wrong in Kpop.”  March 23, 2012.

“You’re In the Army Now: The Changing Impact of Enlistment on Kpop.” January 22, 2012.

“The Once and Future Kpop Concert.” December 4, 2011.

“People Not Products.” September 12, 2011.

“Babies, Tweens and Grandmas: Unsung Fans of Kpop.” August 29, 2011.

“Kpop Success in the U.S.: At What Cost?” August 16, 2011.

“Style Over Substance: Weighty Matters in Kpop.” August 1, 2011.

“One Agency to Rule Them All?” July 14, 2011.

“An Idol Army: Thoughts on the Mega Group.” July 5, 2011.

“Gentlemen, Gangsters and the Guys Next Door: The Many Faces of the Male Kpop Idol.” July 2, 2011.

“Blind To The Fact:  Recent Criticism of Kpop.” June 16, 2011.

Media Mentions
Summers, Sarah.  “Looking for an RCL Blog Topic?” Rhetoric and Civil Life: Section 012. Pennsylvania State University. September 25, 2012.  <http://sites.psu.edu/rclsummers/2012/09/25/looking-for-an-rcl-blog-topic/>

Pan, Deanna.  “Is ‘Gangnam Style’ a Hit Because of Our Asian Stereotypes?” Mother Jones – Mixed Media.  September 24, 2012.  <http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2012/09/gangnam-style-asian-masculinity >

Al Jazeera English. “K-pop Diplomacy.” The Stream. September 3, 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYt813fDWTw>

Van Drie, Laura.  “Crystal Anderson: Reaping the Benefits of Blogging.”  Elon University – Instructional & Campus Technologies. May 17, 2012. <https://blogs.elon.edu/technology/teaching-and-learning/crystal-anderson-reaping-the-benefits-of-blogging/>

“Can K-pop Break the U.S.?” The Korea Herald. October 3, 2011.  <http://www.koreaherald.com/opinion/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111003000316>
 

Presentations

 

“Women and the Wuxia Series.”  50th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Conference/Association for Asian Studies: Transnational Asia: Art, History, Popular Culture and Political Economies.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  2011.

“Chinese School: Cross-Cultural and Transnational Strategies in Ping Pong Playa(2007).”  Association of Asian American Studies. Austin, TX. 2010.

“These—Are—the ‘Breaks’: A Roundtable Discussion on Teaching the Post-Soul Aesthetic.” Evolutionary Momentum in African American Studies: Legacy and Future Directions.  Clark University, February, 2008.

“A Tale of Three Cities:  The Urban and Afro-Asian American Encounters in The Matrix Trilogy.” Association of Asian American Studies.  New York, NY.  2007.

“Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist.”  Spencer Museum of Art.  University of Kansas.  2007.

“Using an Orientalist Lens?: The Harlem Renaissance Photography of James Van Der Zee.”  Harlem Renaissance:  Aesthetics, Values, Identity.  The 23rd Annual Symposium on African American Culture and Philosophy.  Purdue University.  2007.

“Happily Ever After:  Asian/America in Tsui Hark’s Once Upon A Time in China.”Comparative Literature Symposium on America's Asia, Asia's America.  Texas Tech University, Lubbock, April, 2007.

“Orientalism and the Harlem Renaissance.”  American Studies Association.  Oakland, CA.  2006.

“What Are You Looking At?”:  Mirrors as Reflectors of Race in the Art of Roger Shimomura and Iona Rozeal Brown.”  Association of Asian American Studies.  Atlanta, GA. 2006.

“ ‘Because Some Things Never Change and Some Things Do’:  Afro-Asian Solidarity and Discord in The Matrix Trilogy.”  American Seminar—Hall Center for the Humanities.  University of Kansas.  November, 2006.

“The Cost of Liberty is Less than the Price of Repression: The Historical and Cultural Context of Jacob Lawrence’s John Brown Series.”  Holt/Russell Gallery. Baker University.  June 2006.

“The New Color Line:  Black Authenticity and Transnational Context in African American Art.”  Blacker Than Thou:  Authenticity and Identity.  The 22nd Annual Symposium on African American Culture and Philosophy.  Purdue University.  2006.

“The Afro-Asiatic Floating World: The Cross-Cultural Implications of iona rozeal brown’s Paintings.” American Studies Association.  Washington, DC.  2005.

“The Afterlife Is Just a Lay Up Away”: The Resolution of Despair in Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle.  American Literature Association.  Boston, MA.  2005.

“Harmonious Heritages: Lawson Inada’s Response to the Call of Jazz in Legends from Camp.”  MELUS: Urban Ethnicities.  University of Chicago.  2005.

“‘Worlds of Color’:  Literary Representations of Black-Asian Cooperation.”  American Studies Association. Atlanta, GA.  2004.

“Imagined Coalitions:  Pan-Ethnic Movements in the Fiction of W.E.B. Du Bois and George Schuyler.”  Race, Nation and Ethnicity in the Afro-Asian Century. Boston University, 2004.

“Stranger in the Village?: The Black Aesthetic in Maxine Hong Kingston’sTripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book.” (Panel participant and organizer). MELUS: Transfronterismo: Crossing Ethnic Borders in U.S. Literatures. University of Texas, San Antonio.  2004.

“When Were We Colored?: Blacks, Asians and Racial Discourse in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.” Blacks and Asians in the Making of the Modern World. Boston University, 2003.

“The Wildest Seed Yet: New Racial Dimensions in Octavia Butler’s Survivor.” College Language Association. Washington, DC.  2003.

“Racial Discourse as Environmental Policy: The Rhetorical Response to Black Emigration and Japanese Nationalism.” East of California Asian American Studies. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 2002.

“Black Is. . . and Black Ain’t: The Multiethnic Impulse of the Black Aesthetic and the Novels of Ishmael Reed and Frank Chin.”  Dartmouth Summer Institute on American Studies, 2002.

“Asians and Asian Americans in the Contemporary Black Imagination.” Blacks and Asians: Encounters Through Time and Space International. Boston University, 2002.

“Towers of Ivory, Ebony and Jade: Asian American Studies and the Legacy of the Black Intellectual Experience in the South.” East of California Asian American Studies Conference. Oberlin College, 2001.

“Can We All Just Get Along? Bridges and Chasms Between Asian American and African American Cultures.” Association for Asian American Studies. Toronto, Canada, 2001.

“Nothing New Under the Sun: Race, Postmodernism and Literary Interpretative Strategies.” MELUS. Memphis, TN, 2001.

“The Multiethnic Legacy of Africana Studies.” National Council for Black Studies 25thAnniversary. Greensboro, NC, 2001.

“Shaolin. . . With Rhythm: Asian Appropriations in Paul Beatty’s White Boy Shuffle.”Post-Soul Satire: A Symposium on the Fiction of Paul Beatty, Trey Ellis and Darius James. College of the Holy Cross, 2001.

“The Schmoo of American Culture: African American and Asian American Cultural Dynamics in Ishmael Reed’s Japanese by Spring.” African American Literature and Culture Society 2000: Looking Back With Pleasure II. Salt Lake City, UT, 2000.

“Chinatown Black Tigers: Black Postmodernism and Masculinity in Frank Chin’sGunga Din Highway.” American Literature Association. Long Beach, CA, 2000.

“More Than Black and White: Media Portrayal of the Relationship between African Americans and Asian Americans in the U.S.” 24th Annual International Conference of the National Council for Black Studies. Atlanta, GA, 2000.

“The Kaleidoscope of Meaning: Postmodernism and the Fiction of Walter Mosley.”Southern Conference on Afro-American Studies. Houston, TX, 1999.

“Redefined African American Tricksters in Postmodern Fiction.” American Literature Association Symposium on the Trickster.  Lake Tahoe.  1997.

“The Resolution of Cultural Pain in Asian American Women’s Autobiography.”  American Women Writers of Color Conference. Ocean City, MD. 1996.

“Lifting the Veil of Cytheraea: HD's Revisionist Modernism in Helen in Egypt.”  National Poetry Foundation -Poets of the 50s Conference. Bangor, ME.  1996.

“The Cult of Domesticity in William Wells Brown’s Clotel and Frances Harper’s Iola Leroy.”  National Association of African American Studies Conference.  Petersburg, VA.  1995.

“'Promise of a Soil-Soaked Beauty': Jean Toomer and the Southern Literary Modernists.” American Culture Association in the South Conference.  Richmond, VA. 1995.

 

 

Professional Activities

 

National Service

Reader, American Studies, 2008-present

Reader, African American Review, 2005-present

Volunteer, Compact for Faculty Diversity:  Annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring. 2006-present

Commentator, “Watching the Detective: Race and Representation in Asian American and Latino Detective Fiction” Panel, American Studies Association, 2007.

Panel Organizer, “The Interracial Anthropopolis: Afro-Asian and Afro-Native Urban Encounters.”  Association of Asian American Studies, 2007.

Panel Organizer, “Geishas, Gurus and Genocide: Afro-Asian/American Cultural Interaction in Film, Literature and Art.” Association of Asian American Studies, 2006.

Panel Organizer, “Fractures in the Racial Imagination: Ethnic Art as Transformative Space.” American Studies Association, 2005.

Chair and Commentator, “African Americans, Asian Americans, and Whiteness in the West” Panel,  Western History Association Conference, 2004

Presider, “Writing the Dissertation” Panel, Compact for Faculty Diversity’s Tenth Annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, 2003.

Commentator, “Race: An International Perspective” Panel, American Studies Association Conference, 2001.

 

University Service

Coordinator, American Studies Program, Elon University, 2010-present.

Affiliated Faculty, Center for Law and Humanities, Elon University, 2008-present.

Affiliated Faculty, Asian Studies, Elon University, 2009-present.

Member, Interdisciplinary Jazz Studies Colloquium, University of Kansas, 2006-2008

Co-director, American Cultures Seminar, University of Kansas, Spring 2008

Co-coordinator, Interdisciplinary Jazz Studies Colloquium, University of Kansas, 2006-2007

Member, Aaron Douglass and the Harlem Renaissance Exhibit-Regional Committee, University of Kansas, 2005-2007

Member, Committee on Undergraduate Studies and Advising, University of Kansas, 2007

Member, CUSA Subcommittee on Advising, University of Kansas, 2007

Member, Templeton-Blackburn Scholars Selection Committee, Ohio University, 2001-2005

Faculty Advisor, Black Graduate Council, Ohio University, 2002-2005

Member, University American Studies Steering Committee, Ohio University, 2003-2005

Faculty Advisor, Ethics Bowl Team, Sweet Briar College, 1999-2001

Campus Coordinator, Regional Planning Committee on VA Death Penalty Awareness Week, Sweet Briar College, 2000-2001

Co-Curricular Advisor, Sweet Briar College, 2000-2001

 

Departmental Service

Undergraduate Director, American Studies Program, University of Kansas, 2006-2008

Chair, Undergraduate Studies Committee, American Studies Program, University of Kansas, 2006-2008

Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee, American Studies Program, University of Kansas 2005-2006

Member, Search Committee, African American Race and Gender, American Studies/Women Studies, University of Kansas, 2005

Member, Graduate Committee, Ohio University, 2002-2005

Member, Graduate Admissions Subcommittee, Ohio University, 2002-2005

Member, Search Committee, African American Literature-African American Studies, Ohio University, 2002

Member, Search Committee, African American Literature Visiting Professor-African American Studies, Ohio University, 2001

Member, Search Committee, Nineteenth Century American Literature-English Department, Ohio University, 2001

Member, Search Committee, Minority Dissertation Scholar-in-Residence-English Department, Ohio University, 2001

            Member, Honors Committee, Sweet Briar College, 1999-2001