About Me

I am a scholar of 20th- and 21st-century American and World literatures and culture. I am an assistant professor at Ursinus College, and I received my PhD from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where I was the 2021 recipient of the Mildred Kates Dissertation Fellowship. I also hold a BA and an MA in English from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA, where I grew up.

My current book project, Domestic Denial: Terror, Race, and Home in Post-9/11 Literature, examines how racialized forms of violence affect the domestic dynamics of families of color. It is under contract with the University of Minnesota Press.

Other research interests include the most recent fiction, Bollywood, reality tv, and Shakespeare adaptions. My research can be found in or is forthcoming in Studies in American Fiction, MELUS, TSLL, Post45 Contemporaries, CEA Critic, and elsewhere.

These research interests inform my teaching as well. I generally teach literary history, narrative studies, critical race studies, and postcolonial studies. I won the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award at UNCG in 2020.

I’m an avid reader and you can keep up with my reading journey at my Goodreads page, where I’m always happy to chat about books. I’m also very active (some might say too active) on Twitter where I tweet about academia, my scholarship, teaching, and anything else that comes through my brain. You may also find me on Bluesky. On this site, you’ll find more information about me, my scholarship, and my teaching. Feel free to reach out via Twitter or email me at jshelat@ursinus.edu.