Ramzi Fawaz is an American associate professor of English at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin. Founded when Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848, UW–Madison ...
, where he teaches courses in
queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...
and
feminist theory
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...
, American cultural studies, and
LGBTQ
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
literature. He is the author o
''The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics,''published in January 2016 by NYU Press, which received the 2012–2013
Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies (formerly known as ''Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies'' or ''CLAGS'') was founded in 1991 by professor Martin Duberman as the first university-based research center in the United States dedicated to the study ...
Fellowship Award for Best First Book Manuscript in LGBT Studies. His essays have been published in
''American Literature'',
''GLQ'', ''
Feminist Studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppressi ...
'',
''Callaloo'', and ''ASAP/Journal''.
Life and career
Fawaz received his PhD in American Studies at
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
. He is a former fellow of the
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...
and the
Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies (formerly known as ''Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies'' or ''CLAGS'') was founded in 1991 by professor Martin Duberman as the first university-based research center in the United States dedicated to the study ...
, which awarded him the 2012–2013 CLAGS Fellowship Award. He is also a co-organizer of the Sexual Politics/Sexual Poetics Collective (SPSP), a group of early queer studies scholars working in new directions of the field.
Work
Fawaz states that his work is influenced by queer theory and LGBTQ writers and artists. He is drawn to the idea of cultural production, including the making of visual and written media (e.g. movies, books, comics), and he often explores this through the lens of marginalized and queer groups. According to Fawaz, having been denied civic engagement in other settings, cultural production has become a way for queer people to engage in social and political discourse.
He advocates for the importance of comics in society, as they reflect and explore issues like gender and sexuality before the mainstream culture does. Although comics are often disregarded in popular culture, they are able to address these societal issues in an alternative way while staying under the radar.
His first book, ''The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics'', explores how the American superhero came to embody the political aspirations of racial, gender, and sexual minorities in the post–World War II period. He argues that the superhero transformed from a symbol of white masculinity in the 1940s and 1950s to a social outcast (often depicted as a mutant) in the early 1960s. This transformation encouraged comic book writers and artists to develop various left-wing political ideals that were not socially acceptable in their work.
The powerful mutants and freaks, who were social outcasts, became symbols of social and political aspirations for marginalized groups, including racial and sexual minorities, working-class people, and women in the United States.
Selected publications
''The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics'' (New York: NYU Press, January 2016).
''I Cherish My Bile Duct as Much as Any Other Organ': Political Disgust and the Digestive Life of AIDS in Tony Kushner's Angels in America,'' Special Issue On the Visceral, edited by Marcia Ochoa, Sharon Holland, and Kyla Wazana Tompkins. GLQ 21.1 (2015): 121–152.
''Space, That Bottomless Pit: Planetary Exile and Metaphors of Belonging in American Afrofuturist Cinema''. Callaloo 35.4 (2012): 1103–1122.
''Where no X-man has Gone Before!' Mutant Superheroes and the Cultural Politics of Popular Fantasy in Postwar America''. Special Issue on Speculative Fictions, ed. Priscilla Wald and Gerry Canavan. American Literature 83.2 (Summer 2011): 355–388.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fawaz, Ramzi
American LGBT writers
Columbian College of Arts and Sciences alumni
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Writers from Wisconsin
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American people of Egyptian descent