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Ramzi is currently in his third year of the Ph.D. program in American Studies and recently received his Master’s Degree. He will be completing his comprehensive exams in Cultural History, Critical Theory, and 20th Century American Literature in the Fall of 2008 and will be teaching his first WID course “Three Leading Ladies: Temple , Garland, Monroe,” a film focused seminar on the Hollywood star system, in the Spring. Ramzi’s scholarly focus is in the history of American literature and popular culture from 1865-present, with particular attention to the late 20th century. His research interests revolve around narratives of fantasy and enchantment and contemporary American cultural politics, and include science fiction and fantasy literature/film, comic book culture, Hollywood cinema, children’s culture, the postmodern American novel, and the politics of visual culture. His proposed dissertation project, “Heroic Measures,” is a cultural history of the American superhero since 1956. In the Summer of 2008, Ramzi participated in Cornell University’s 22nd Annual School of Criticism and Theory as a member of Beth Povinelli’s seminar, “Recognition, Espionage, Camouflage.” In the Spring of 2007, he presented his paper “Flame On!: James Sturm’s ‘Untable Molecules’ and the Queer History of the Fantastic Four” at the 5th Annual DC Queer Studies Symposium held on the U of Maryland Campus. Alongside colleagues Aaron Potenza and Julie Passanante Elman, Ramzi helped originate and implement the first GW American Studies Departmental Conference, “Collected Stories,” where faculty and graduate students present recent work to an audience of their peers. In 2009, “Collected Stories” will enjoy its third year. In his first summer at GW, Ramzi was awarded a Social Science Research Council Fellowship in Visual Studies, under which he conducted preliminary dissertation research for his dissertation proposal. During his time as an SSRC Fellow, Ramzi attended the UCD Clinton Institute of American Studies First Annual Summer workshop in Dublin, Ireland. There, he participated in a “Cold War Cultural History” seminar run by Elaine Tyler May and presented a paper at the Transnational American Studies Symposium titled “Superman Meets the Apocalypse: Cold War, Culture War, and the American Superhero in an Age of Infinite Crisis.” This
Fall, Ramzi will be presenting his paper “Marvelous Corpse: The
National Body and Iconic Death in the American Superhero Comic Book,”
at the 2008 American Studies Conference. He will be presenting alongside
his colleagues on a panel he co-organized with Prof. Hertha D. Sweet Wong
titled “The State of Comix: Cultural Identity, The Nation, and the
Visual Politics of American Comics.” The panel will be sponsored
by the Visual Studies Caucus. Ramzi’s time at GW has been incredibly
productive and his work has benefited from the support and encouragement
of both his colleagues and an extraordinary faculty. He is happy to speak
with prospective students about GW’s American Studies program and
can be reached at ramzi@gwu.edu
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