Dan Burns
Assistant Professor of English
Department: English
Email: dburns2@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-5814
Professional Expertise
Links
News & Notes
Education
PhD, English, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
MA, English, Clemson University
BA, Psychology, Clemson University
Courses Taught
ENG 4970: Literature Senior Seminar; ENG 3700: Jewish American Literature after 1945; ENG 3640: Film Criticism; ENG 3510: The Novel; ENG 2250: African American Literature before 1945; ENG 2240: American Literature after 1865; ENG 1725: Stephen King; ENG 1230: The Social Thriller; ENG 1235: Cult Classics, Literary Trash; ENG 1232: Literature on Screen; ENG 1100: Writing: Argument and Inquiry; GFC 2100: Introduction to Global Film & Cultures; GFC 4970: Global Film & Cultures Capstone.
Leadership Positions
Coordinator, Literature Concentration, Department of English, 2026-
Secretary, Literature/Film Association, 2025-
Co-coordinator, Global Film & Cultures Minor, 2023-26
Co-advisor, Elon College Fellows Living Learning Community, 2022-25
Research
film & media studies; adaptation; history & theory of the novel; 20th/21st c. U.S. literature and culture; genre studies; literary theory
Grants Awarded
Recent Grants
ECAS Dean Mini Grant, (with Maggie Kelly). Elon College, the College of Arts & Sciences, Elon University, 2026.
Read On Elon Book Club, (with Maggie Kelly). Phi Beta Kappa (φβK), Elon College, the College of Arts & Sciences, Elon University, 2025.
Winter Term Enhancement Grant, Center for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning (CATL), Elon University, 2025.
Faculty Engagement Grant, Committee on Elon History & Memory (CEHM), Elon University, 2024.
Best Practices in Writing Pedagogy Grant, “Teaching Best Practices through Multimodal Composing: The Videographic Essay,” Center for Writing Excellence (CWE), Elon University, 2022.
Teaching and Learning Grant, “Team-Teaching to Promote Cross-Disciplinary Learning in the Undergraduate Film & Media Analysis Classroom,” Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), Elon University, 2022.
Publications
"Voice v. Vision: Adapting If Beale Street Could Talk Across Two Eras." The Routledge Companion to James Baldwin, edited by Yasmin Y. DeGout, Anna Pochmara, and Tyechia L. Thompson, Routledge, 2026, pp. 406-417.
“Introduction to Focus: Recovering the Big Read.” American Book Review, vol. 37, no. 2, 2016, pp. 4-5. Guest-edited special-topic issue. Commissioned contributions, wrote introductory essay, worked with editorial staff, etc. Invited.
“On the U.S. Reception of L’insurrection qui vient.” Politique, Démocratie et Culture aux Etats-Unis à L’Ère du Numerique, edited by Elisabeth Boulot, L’Harmattan, 2011, pp. 155-178. Invited.
Reviews
“Precipice Poetics.” Review of Tenth of December by George Saunders. American Book Review, vol. 34, no. 4, 2013, pp. 5-6. Invited.
Review of Darkmotherland by Samrat Upadhyay. American Book Review, vol. 47, no. 2, Summer 2026. Invited.
Presentations
Recent Conference Presentations
“The Wonderful World as It Actually Is: Deep Gossip and the Drama of Duration in Peter Hujar’s Day." Literature/Film Association (LFA). Elon University, Elon, NC, Forthcoming October 2026.
“Collaboration Across Demarcation: Outsider Theory in Rodney Ascher’s Room 237.” The LFA/AAS Online Conference. Literature/Film Association and the Association of Adaptation Studies, February 2026.
“‘An Immense Spiritual Dread of Space’: The Meaning of Miniaturism in Ari Aster’s Hereditary.” Literature/Film Association (LFA). Georgia Southern University, Savannah, GA, Forthcoming September 2025.
“Queer Kinship and the ‘Unfamilied Child’ in Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers.” Adaptation and Aging. The LFA/AAS Online Conference. Literature/Film Association and the Association of Adaptation Studies, February 2025.
“Beyond Empathy in the Civil Rights Biopic: The ‘Thick Solidarity’ of Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah.” Literature/Film Association (LFA). York University of Pennsylvania, York, PA, September 2024.
“‘…since this door was intended only for you…’: Spectatorial Subjectivity in Orson Welles’ The Trial.” Writerly Worlds and Worldly Writers: Transcultural Receptions of German Writers. American Comparative Literature Association Conference (ACLA). Palais des congrès de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada, March 2024. Invited.
“Seriality and Sustain: The Resistance to ‘Assigned Streaming’ in a Binge-worthy Era.” Co-presented with Kai Swanson. Adapting in and Out of the Classroom. The LFA/AAS Online Conference. Literature/Film Association and the Association of Adaptation Studies, February 2024.
Mapping the Maximalist Novel, Roundtable Discussion, Modern Language Association Convention (MLA). Philadelphia, PA, January 2024.
“Direction as Data Extraction: Surveilling Behavioral Surplus in Joseph Kosinski's Spiderhead.” Co-presented with Kai Swanson. Literature/Film Association Conference (LFA). University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, September 2023.
“Cross-Disciplinary Strategies for Engaged Learning: Partnering Language and Visual Tools for Course Design.” Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), Elon University, Elon, NC, June 2023.
“Too Big to Fail: Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life and the Art of Excess in the Age of Inclusion.” Twenty-First-Century Forms, Roundtable Discussion, Modern Language Association (MLA). San Francisco, CA, January 2023.
Professional Activities
Walker, Elsie. “Episode 6: Dan Burns on Petite Maman.” Films Change Lives, Substack, 21 Jan. 2025, https://filmschangelives.substack.com/p/episode-6-dan-burns-on-petite-maman.
Peer Review Panelist: National Endowment for the Humanities, Awards for Faculty Program, American Literature, Language, and Studies (2023).
Editorial Referee: South Asian Review; Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture; The Comparatist; Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal; College Literature.
Service Activities
German Studies Advisory Board, Department of World Languages & Cultures, Elon University, 2025-
Programming Committee (with Sandy Marshall and Binnan Gao), Global Neighborhood Film Series, 2022-
Academic Standing Committee, Elon University, 2024-26.
Library Committee, Elon University, 2022-24.
Professional Development
First-Year Experience (FYE) Community of Practice, Elon University, 2024-25.
Faculty Mentor, Preparing Future Faculty (PFF), The Graduate School, Duke University, 2023-24.
Advancing Equity Summer Institute, Office of the Provost/Academic Inclusive Excellence, Elon University, 2023.
Summer Writing Pedagogy Institute, Center for Writing Excellence, Elon University, 2022, 2023.