Brian Ingraffia, Associate Professor, English
616-526-8595
ingraffia@calvin.edu
Office: LN 155 (directions)
Weekly Schedule
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Educational/Professional Background
Professor Ingraffia graduted summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin in 1984 with a BA in the liberal arts honors program. He then began work at the University of California, Irvine, receiving an MA in English in 1986 and a PhD in American literature with a critical theory empasis in 1993. His doctoral dissertation was on "Vanquishing God's Shadow: Postmodern Theory, Ontotheology, and Biblical Theology." Professor Ingraffia taught in Biola University's English department until 2002, when he joined the English department at Calvin College.
Academic Interests/Areas of Specialization
Twentieth-century American literature, postmodern American fiction, postmodern theory and culture, literature and religion, contemporary literary theory, history of critical theory, hermeneutics, and philosophy and literature
Selected Activities
Professor Ingraffia is the author of Postmodern Theory and Biblical Theology: Vanquishing God's Shadow, published by Cambridge University Press. At the Festival of Faith and Writing in 2008, Professor Ingraffia moderated an interview with Sefi Atta and Diane Glancy called "Writing Across Borders." He also has a piece forthcoming in Flannery O'Conner Review called "Self-Torture in Flannery O'Conner's Wise Blood." He recently received a grant from the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship for "Theorizing Religion and Literature: An Anthology of Modern, Postmodern and Postsecular essays," a volume which he is co-editing with Roger Lundin and Katherine Bassard (Baylor University Press 2009).
Favorite Books
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon and Mr. Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos
Hobbies
collecting music and books—he has over 3,000 books in his library; listening and dancing to the blues
Additional Information
Listen to a recording of Writing Across Borders: Sefi Atta and Diane Glancy in Conversation, a conversation moderated by Professor Ingraffia at the Festival of Faith and Writing 2008.
