Biography
Office Hours
By appointment
Biography
After growing up in Hawai‘i, Indonesia, and Tennessee, Brian Roberts received a PhD in English from the University of Virginia in 2008. His scholarship and teaching focus on American Studies, African American and black diasporan literature and culture, modernism/modernity, and archipelagic studies. He has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar twice (Universitas Sebelas Maret, 2015; Universitas Airlangga, 2023), and his work has appeared in journals including American Literature, American Literary History, Modern Fiction Studies, African American Review, and PMLA.
His first book, Artistic Ambassadors: Literary and International Representation of the New Negro Era
His book Borderwaters: Amid the Archipelagic States of America
Professor Roberts has given invited talks and workshops in Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Spain, Germany, and at several institutions in the United States including Yale, Northwestern, University of Connecticut, Rutgers-New Brunswick, the German Historical Society in DC, and the University of Virginia. At Brigham Young University, he has been a Humanities Center Fellow and currently holds a Humanities College Professorship.
Degrees
PhD, University of Virginia, 2008
Interests
American studies; modernism/modernity; African American and black diasporan literature and culture; archipelagic studies; environmental humanities