Cary Wolfe (born 1959) is an American academic. He teaches English at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

. He has written on topics from

American poetry American poetry refers to the poetry of the United States. It arose first as efforts by American colonists to add their voices to English poetry in the 17th century, well before the constitutional unification of the Thirteen Colonies (although ...

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, m ...

. He has been a voice in debates on

animal studies Animal studies is a recently recognised field in which animals are studied in a variety of cross-disciplinary ways. Scholars who engage in animal studies may be formally trained in a number of diverse fields, including geography, art history, ant ...

and advocates a version of the posthumanist position. He is series editor for Minnesota Press's Posthumanities Series. He was born and grew up in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

Early life

In 1984 Wolfe read interdisciplinary studies in English, philosophy, and comparative literature at

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, where he received a B.A. with Highest Honors. He later received an M.A. from the Department of English there in 1986. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of English, at Duke University in 1990.

Career

Wolfe's first teaching position was as an assistant professor at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

, Bloomington, in 1990. He remained there until 1998, serving as associate professor of American studies. Wolfe moved to the State University of New York at Albany as a visiting professor. At Albany, he later served as director of graduate studies, associate chair, Department of English, 1998–1999, and was made a full professor in 1999. In 2003, he was accepted an endowed professorship, the Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie post, at

. Wolfe directs a center of critical and cultural

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be ...

at Rice, 3CT.

Works

Books

* ''The Limits of American Literary Ideology in Pound and Emerson'', Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, no. 69 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). * ''Critical Environments: Postmodern Theory and the Pragmatics of the "Outside,"'' Theory Out of Bounds Series, no. 13 (Minneapolis:

University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its boo ...

, 1998). * ''Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and the Posthumanist Theory'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). Nominated for the James Russell Lowell Prize, Modern Language Association, 2004. * ''What is Posthumanism?'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010) * ''Before the Law: Humans and Other Animals in a Biopolitical Frame'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012) * ''Ecological Poetics, or Wallace Stevens’s Birds'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020) Reviewed in the Electronic Book Review

Edited collections

* * (rpt. of the above in modified form with new introduction). * * The MSN issue: Music/Sound/Noise, special issue of EBR: Electronic Book Review, ed. with Joseph Tabbi and Mark Amerika. Online. World Wide Web: http://www.altx.com/ebr. * *

References

External links

Presentation at the University of Minnesota, 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Cary State University of New York faculty Living people University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Duke University alumni Rice University faculty 1959 births