Academic Appointments

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ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS:

(V) Affiliate Associate Professor formerly Visiting Scholar, English Department, University of Washington-Seattle, for comparative cultural research (invited by dr. Robert McNamara, prof. Brian M. Reed, Chair) officially 15 June–30 September, 2015 and invited again from dr. McNamara and prof. Reed for 1 June–30 September 2016. This Visiting Scholar status with library privileges (including online access) was extended to 30 September 2017 and again for: 1 January–31 December 2018 and from prof. Anis Bawarshi, Acting Chair, 1 January–15 September 2019. The English Department faculty voted in a quorum in May 2019 to change my status to Affiliate Associate Professor, which is a higher rank. This new status has now been approved by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences as effective from 16 September 2019.

(IV) Five-Year University Visiting Research Fellowship, Faculty of Arts, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK, 12/2014–12/2019 and Three-Year Renewal, University Visiting Research Fellowship, University of Winchester, 10/2020–10/2023. My predecessor is the British literary scholar of medieval literature, Tom Shippey (Ph.D. Cantab.).

(III) Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, Director, American Literature and Cultural-Studies, 9/14–present, Faculty member of U.S. Literature, Cinema Studies and Critical Theory, 10/97-present. Successful habilitation proceedings were held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 19 iv 2018 with a lecture entitled, “The Stars of a Constellation; or, Orson Welles-William Shakespeare, Movement, and Silence”. The academic council approved of my promotion to the degree of docent and to the associate professorship. Official notification from the Rector’s Office of Charles University dates the appointment to Docent and to Associate Professor of American and English Literature from 1 vii 2018.

General Researcher-Scholar Status changed from 1 January 2015. 6 hours of weekly teaching as a Senior Researcher. Research points needed increased by 100% for this position after two highly productive 5 year performances in comparative cultural research from 2004–2009 and from 2009–2014.

MA-level basic (i.e., required) and optional classes taught and current (52/95 w/FAMU included):

1. ‘Theoretical Approaches to Henry James’, Winter 1997.
2. ‘Theoretical Approaches to Joyce’s Finnegans Wake‘, Summer 1998.
3. ‘Intercultural Authority: Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow‘, Winter 1998.
4. ‘Artistic Authority: Joyce’s Ulysses’, Winter 1998.
5. ‘Cinematic Authority: Orson Welles and Alain Resnais’, Summer 1999.
6. ‘Aesthetic Pleasure and Authority: Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon‘, Winter 1999.
7. ‘Cinematic Pleasure and Authority: From Griffith to Wenders’, Winter 1999.
8. ‘Desire and Power: Late Novels of James’, Summer 2000.
9. ‘Aesthetic Pleasure and Authority: Joyce’s Finnegans Wakeand Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow‘, Summer 2000.
10. ‘Cinematic Pleasure and Evil: From Welles to Akerman’, Winter 2000.
11. ‘Aesthetic Pleasure and Evil: Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow‘, Winter 2000.
12. ‘Cinematic Unthought: Orson Welles’, Summer 2001. The seminar took place at Ponrepo, an independent cinema in Prague; the post-film discussions were also open to the general public.
13. ‘Explosions of Freedom: James, Bataille, Deleuze, Nancy’, Summer 2001.
14. ‘Cinematic Meaning and Pleasure’, Winter 2001.
15. ‘Explosions of Being’, Winter 2001.
16. ‘Literary and Philosophical Baroque’, Summer2002.
17. ‘Cinematographic Meanings and Pleasures’, Summer 2002.
18. ‘Cultural Baroque: Heidegger, Joyce, Klossowski’, Winter 2002.
19. ‘Cinema as Meaning and Pleasure’, Winter 2002.
20. ‘Cinema as Meaning and Enjoyment’, Summer 2003.
21. ‘Literary and Philosophical Baroque: Spinoza and Leibniz for the 21st Century’, Summer 2003.
22. ‘Leibniz and Contemporary Culture’, Summer 2003.
23. ‘Spinoza and Contemporary Culture’, Winter 2003.
24. ‘Aesthetic Joys: Joyce’s Finnegans Wake‘, Summer 2004.
25. ‘Forms of Culture: Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow‘, Winter 2005.
26. ‘Transforming Tradition: Baroque Ventures, Identities and Values in Literature and Theory I’, Winter 2005.
27. ‘Transforming Tradition: Baroque Ventures, Identities and Values in Literature and Theory II’, Summer 2006. On paid sabbatical leave, Winter 2006.
28. ‘Modernity & Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow‘, Winter 2007.
29. ‘Shakespeare, Orson Welles, & Modernity‘, Winter 2007.
30. ‘Modernity & Pynchon’s Against the Day (2006)’, Summer 2008.
31. ‘Cosmic Energies & Pynchon’s Against the Day‘ Winter 2008.
32. ‘Cosmic Energies, Orson Welles, & Shakespeare’, Winter 2008.
33. ‘The Philosophical Baroque: Joyce’s Finnegans Wake & Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow‘, Summer 2009.
34. ‘Social Theory, Pynchon’s Inherent Vice (2009) & the Philosophical Baroque’, Winter 2009.
35. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, & Spectacle Society: From James to Stein’, Winter 2009.
36. ‘Lacan’s Seminars & After’, Winter 2010.
37. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, & Spectacle Society: US Fiction’, Winter 2011.
38. ‘Psychoanalysis & Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2012.
39. ‘Psychoanalysis & Cultural-Studies’, Winter 2012.
40. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, & Spectacle Society: US Fiction & Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2013.
41. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, & Spectacle Society: US Fiction & Cultural-Studies’, Winter 2014.
42. ‘Psychoanalysis & Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2015.
43. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2016.
44. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2017.
45. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2018.
46. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2019.
47. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’, Summer 2020.
48. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2020.
49. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2021.
50. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2022.
51. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2024.
52. ‘Experience, Commodity Culture, and Spectacle Society: US Fiction and Cultural-Studies’, Summer 2025.

BA-level required classes taught (82) and current (1) + Special lectures:

1. Lectures given on Twentieth-Century American Prose fiction, Summer semester, 2000-Winter semester 2023 (3 lectures, e.g., Wtr 23) (selected semesters).
2. ‘US literature I, beginnings-1870: 2003, 2010 (3 sections taught).
3. ‘US literature II, 1870–1945’: 1997-2005; 2007–Summer 25 (31 sections taught).
4. ‘US literature III, 1945–present’: 1998–2002, 2004–Winter 24 (49 sections taught).

Special lecture/seminar for department lecture series taught (one of three for American Cultural-Studies):

I.-VII. ‘Consumerism & the Unconscious in US Prose Fiction & in Continental Theory’, Winter semesters 2013–2019.

Special lecture and seminar for American Cultural Studies lecture series:

1. Two special lectures for an American Cultural Studies lecture series, ‘A Pairing of Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet and of James’s Washington Square’; ‘Money, Bio-Power and ‘Race’: James’s The American Scene’, Winter semester 1999.
2. ‘Money, Power and Desire of James’s The Golden Bowl’, Winter semester 2000.
3. ‘Thomas Pynchon and the Post-Enlightenment Epoch’, Summer semester 2002.
4. ‘Orson Welles, American Cinema and the Unthought’, Summer semester 2003.
5. ‘New Halls of Communication: Maurice Blanchot and Thomas Pynchon’, Summer semester 2004.
6. ‘New Subjects and Modes of Movement: Cinematic Narratives of Terrence Malick’, Summer semester 2005.
7. ‘Orson Welles, Shakespeare and American Culture with Special Reference to Chimes at Midnight’, Summer semester 2006.
8. ‘The Concept of Dizziness and the Cinema of Buster Keaton’, Summer semester 2007.
9. ‘Adorno, Baroque Modernity, & U.S. Culture’, Summer semester 2008.
10. ‘Adorno, Dystopia-Utopia, U.S. Cultural Modernity, & After’, Summer semester 2009.
11. ‘Adorno, Dystopia-Utopia, U.S. Cultural Modernity, & After’, Summer semester 2010.
12. ‘Adorno, Dystopia-Utopia, U.S. Cultural Modernity, & After’, Summer semester 2011.
13. ‘Adorno, Dystopia-Utopia, U.S. Cultural Modernity, & After’, Summer semester 2012.
14. ‘Adorno, Dystopia-Utopia, U.S. Cultural Modernity, & After’, Summer semester 2013.

Supervisions: 

78+ (76 Charles/2 FAMU; 54 graduates, including 6 successfully finished doctoral students, 29 successfully completed master’s students and 1 MFA student at FAMU, and 18 successfully accomplished bachelor’s students; ongoing: 4 Ph.D. students, 2 B.A. students, e.g.,:

1. Supervised an MA thesis (Silvia Hromádková) “Three Readings of Pynchon”. 1997–98. Graduated.
2. Supervised a Vilém Mathesius Prize-winning MA thesis (Jana Mlčochová) “Freedom & Subjectivity: The Late Novels of Henry James”. 2001–02. Graduated.
3. Supervised an MA thesis on (Karel Vachek)  on Thomas Pynchon. 2002–03. Graduated.
4. Supervised an MA thesis (Vĕra Musilová) “The New Franklin: Demythologizing Benjamin Franklin’s Moralities”. 2002–03. Graduated.
5. Supervised a Vilém Mathesius Prize-winning MA thesis (Hana Ondráčková, one of two translators of a published edition of Gravity’s Rainbow into Czech) “Radiant Literature, Thomas Pynchon: Gravity’s Rainbow”. 2003–05. Graduated.
6. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Markéta Křenková) “Frustrated Sensibilities in the Context of the Conventions of the New York Elite of Wharton’s Fiction”. 2005–06. Graduated.
7. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Pavlína Černá) “Authentic Existence and the ‘American Dream’ in Dreiser’s Fiction”.  2006–07. Graduated.
8. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Lenka Petáková) on Henry James  2006 only. Unfinished.
9. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Evgenia Konoreva) “Reflections of the Deleuzian ‘Time-Image’ in the Films of Andrei Tarkovsky and Alain Resnais”. 2007–08. Graduated.
10. Supervised a Ph.D. thesis on Theoretical Otherness, on Local Color Fiction and on Kate Chopin by Dagmar Junková (M.A. in English and Philosophy, Charles Univ.), 2005–2009. Held a Fulbright Scholarship in the USA, and has now graduated. Successful viva held 30 June 2009. Graduated.
11. Supervised a Ph.D. thesis on the Post-Modern Puzzle Novel by Richard Stock (M.A. in Literature and Theory, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign), half-time 2003–10. Successful viva held 11 February 2010. One positive opponent’’s report from Prof. J. Hillis Miller, University of California-Irvine, USA. Graduated.
12. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Vera Řenčová) on Edith Wharton. 2008–10. Program changed.
13. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Daniel Litochleb) “Entropy and Consumerism in Pynchon’s Works”. 2008–11. Graduated.
14. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Andrea Knotková) “The Archetype of the Indian in American Cinematography”. 2009–11. Graduated.
15. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Julie Žáčková) “African-Americans in American Film”. 2009–11. Graduated.
16. Supervised a Vilém Mathesius Prize-winning B.A.-level thesis (Marika Buršíková) “The Metaphysical Detective Story: Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy and Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, 2009–10. Graduated.
17. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Michaela Létalová) “The Columbian World Exposition of 1893 and Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day“. 2008–10. Graduated.
18. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Pavlína Černá) “Ethics of the self as an aesthetics of existence in Wharton’s The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence.”,  2008–10. Graduated. Currently a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
19. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Jana Kadrevis) Acker & Pynchon: A Comparative Analysis of the Postmodern Body. 2009–10. Unfinished.
20. Supervised a Ph.D. thesis on “Against Adaptation: Toward Transdisciplinarity and Minor Cinema” by Linda Petříková (M.A. in English, Charles Univ.), 2006–14. Studied at NYU in New York City, USA on a competitive scholarship in a competition held at the Arts Faculty of Charles University. One positive opponent/reader’s report from prof. Richard Burt, University of Florida, USA. Graduated.
21. Supervised a Ph.D. thesis on Narrative Space and Thomas Pynchon by Vít Vaníček (PhDr., Charles Univ.), 2005–12. Was studying in Indiana, USA on a competitive scholarship. Graduated. Now teaching Composition at the University of Illinois-Chicago. One positive opponent/reader’s report from prof. J. Hillis Miller, University of California-Irvine, USA. Graduated.
22. Supervised a Ph.D. thesis on “‘Bartleby, the Scrivener in Contemporary Culture” by Tereza Stejskalová (M.A. in English and Philosophy, Charles Univ.),  Successful viva held 7 June 2017. Thesis readers: Prof. Marcel Arbeit, Palacký University, Olomouc and Prof. David L. Robbins, Charles University, Prague. 2008–17. Graduated.
23. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Petra Landerová) “Vertiginous Relations in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms & Mourning Becomes Electra”. 2011–12. Graduated.
24. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Hana Moravčíková) “The Function of Seymour Glass in the Conceptual and Textual Persona and Fictional Output of J.D. Salinger”. 2011–12. Graduated.
25. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Iva Martináková) “Beyond Horror: or, Exploring Connections Between E.A. Poe’s Writings and A. Hitchcock’s Cinema”. 2010–12. Graduated.
26. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Jana Samková) “Kurt Vonnegut’s Humor in Three Cinematic Adaptations”. 2010–12. Graduated.
27. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Tomáš Bazika) “Orson Welles: Film Noir and its Aesthetic Legacy”. 2012–13. Graduated.
28. Supervising an M.A.-level thesis (Petra Landerová) “The Representation of the Female Body in US Prose Fiction.” 2012–16. Graduated.
29. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Lucie Halášková) “Modernity and the Changing American South: Alienation in Selected Fiction by Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty”. 2013–15. Graduated.
30. Supervised a Ph.D. thesis on materialist aesthetics in Generation X writers from the United States by Melinda Morvay (M.A., the University of Constantine the Philosopher, Nitra, 1999), 2009. Terminated study for personal reasons and due to new degree requirements. Unfinished.
31. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Daniel Litochleb), 2012–. Unfinished.
32. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Julie Začková), “Representing Race on Screen: The Concept of African-American Pain through the Lens of European-American Film-Makers”. 2012–15. Graduated.
33. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Lenka Šimková) on US Crime TV Series & Cultural-Studies. 2011–. Unfinished.
34. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Kristýna Seidlová) “On the Psychology of Human Desire of Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’sand of Steinbeck’s East of Eden”. 2011–13. Graduated.
35. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Iva Vejvodová) on “The Portrayal of Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes in American Animated Cartoons”. 2011–12. Graduated.
36. Supervised a Ph.D. thesis (Christopher Gonzales) (B.A. in English Literature-San Diego State University, MA in Liberal Arts and Sciences- San Diego State University) on “From the Sages of Oral Tradition to the Pages of Gothic Fiction: Examining Folklore and Rural Tradition in the Gothic Canon, and Beyond”. 2012–17. Unfinished.
37. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Jan Mackal) on “Henry James & His Stance Towards Aestheticism & Decadence”. 2013–15. Graduated.
38. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Andreas Patenidis) “Spatio-Temporality in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury”. 2013–15. Graduated.
39. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Matej Moravec) “American Suburbia from 1950s to 1980s: The Development of the Image of Suburbia in the Short Stories of John Cheever, John Updike, and Raymond Carver”. 2013–14. Graduated.
40. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (David Kudrna) “The Comic in Henry James’s Fiction”. 2013–16. Graduated.
41. Supervised a B.A.-level thesis (Anastasia Molozina) “Representations of Freedom, Belief, and Democracy in Selected Beat Authors, Pynchon, and O’Connor”. 2013–. Unfinished.
42. Supervised a B.A. thesis (Lucia Szemetová) “Deconstructing the Fantastic World of Wes Anderson: The Philosophy Behind the Artificial Surface of a Contemporary Director”. 2015–16. Graduated.
43. Supervised an M.A.-level thesis (Přemysl Černík) on “The Great Gatsby vs. Trimalchio: Nick Carraway Reconsidered”. 2015–17. Unfinished.
44. Supervised a B.A. thesis (Karolína Kašparová) “The Political Aspect of Literature: Criticism of a (Neo-)conservative Community”. 2017–18. Graduated.
45. Supervised a B.A. thesis (Václav Kyllar) “Woman’s Revolt: Revolt in Women’s American Prose of the End of the 19^th Century”. 2017–19. Graduated.
46. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Jason Burleson) “The Function of Paranoia in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow“. 2014–19. Graduated.
47. Supervised a Vilém Mathesius Prize-winning M.A. thesis (Alex Russell) “David Foster Wallace, Technology and the Self”. 2018–19. Graduated.
48. Supervised a Vilém Mathesius Prize-winning B.A. thesis (Anna Cranfordová) “Postmodernities in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49“. 2019. Graduated.
49. Supervised a Vilém Mathesius Prize-winning M.A. thesis (Teja Šosterič) “Labyrinths in Postmodernism: Danielewski, Pynchon, Wallace”. 2019–20. Graduated.
50. Supervised a Ph.D. thesis by Evgenia Konoreva (M.A. in English and Intercultural Studies, Charles Univ.)“The Lacanian Concept of Sexuation as an Alternative to the Genderqueer Paradigm”. Successful viva held 20 December 2022. Thesis readers: docent Josef Fulka, Philosophy Department, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University and doctor Gabriel Tupinambá, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Socials—IFCS, Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazílie. 2014/15–22. Graduated.
51. Supervised a B.A. thesis (Andrew Buring) “American Capital and American Art: How Some Escaped and Others Did Not”. 2018–20. Unfinished.
52. Supervised an M.A. thesis (David Kudrna) “Mental and Ontological Simulacra: Non-Rationality and Non-Reality in Works by Philip K. Dick”. 2018–20. Graduated.
53. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Marek Torčík) “Objectivity Disguised: Ideas of Authenticity in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon and Paul Auster”. 2019–20. Graduated.
54. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Darya Kulbashna) “Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and René Daumal’s Mount Analogue: From Pataphysics to Power”. 2019–20. Graduated.
55. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Simona Milotová) “Agents without Agency: A Study of Archetypes and Society in Works of Edith Wharton”. 2020–21. Graduated.
56. Supervised a B.A. thesis (Alžběta Rückl) “Forms of Alienation and Loss in Hemingway’s Texts”. 2020­–21. Graduated.
57. Supervised a B.A. thesis (Markéta Karlasová) “Aspects of Temporality in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Early Novels”. 2020–22. Unfinished/topic area changed.
58. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Dunja Ilić) “Between Mainstream and Avant-Garde Filmmaking: The French New Wave and the Illusion of Realism”. 2021-22. Graduated.
59. Supervised a B.A. thesis (Julia Lessova) “A Comparative Analysis of the New African-American Narratives and Critical Voices of Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, Al Sharpton, and Patrisse Cullors”. 2021–22. Graduated.
60. Supervising an M.A. thesis (Oksana Kozachukhnenko) “The Force of Rhetoric: James Baldwin and the Era of Digital Media”. 2021–present.
61. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Klára Nekvasilová) “The Body, Mind, and Lost Generation in Hemingway and Fitzgerald”. 2020–21. Graduated.
62. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Thuy Luongova) Nostalgia for the Hyperreal: Communities, Myths and Metamodern Sensibilities. 2022–23. Unfinished.
63. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Jyoti Verma) Film Theory Meets Philosophy: On Orson Welles’s Film Noirs and Postwar USA. 2022–23. Graduated.
64. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Bota Koilybayeva) “On Animal Subjectivity in Contemporary US Cinema”. 2022–23. Graduated.
65. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Roksolana Fedorenko) “Lost in Time: The Concept of Temporality in Works of the US Lost Generation”. 2021–24. Will graduate.
66. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Snezhanna Markova) Towards a new social media model: redistribution of power in the subscription-based creator economy. 2023–24. Will graduate.
67. Supervised an M.A. thesis (Oksana Kozachukhnenko) “The Force of Rhetoric: James Baldwin and the Era of Digital Media”. 2021–24. Will graduate.
68. Supervising a Ph.D. thesis (Darya Kulbashna) Note All and Nothing: Indeterminacy of Meaning in the Writing of Samuel Beckett and Experimental Music of the New York School. 2021–present.
69. Supervising a Ph.D. thesis (Batuhan Lüleci) On Exilic Writing including Said, Adorno, et. al. 2021–present.
70. Supervising a Ph.D. thesis (Peter L’uba) On Art and Life with Emerson, Nietzsche, and Rancière. Title to be finalized. 2022–present.
71. Supervised an M.F.A. thesis at FAMU International (Antoine Dossin) Building bridges from Friedrich Nietzsche, to László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr: the shadows of Nietzsche’s perspectival existentialism in the novels of Krasznahorkai and films of Tarr. 2022–24. Will graduate.
72. Supervising a Ph.D. thesis (Botagoz Koilybayeva) On Animal Subjectivity in Film: Multispecies Documentaries and the Cinematic Umwelt. 2023–present.
73. Supervising a B.A. thesis (Jakub Kyselka) “Between Fact and Fiction: Writing History in Mason & Dixon and The Sot-Weed Factor”. 2024–present.
74. Supervising a B.A. thesis (Jana Žertová) “The Helpless Spectator: Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five and the Modern Age of Tragedy”. 2024–present.
75. Supervised an M.F.A. thesis at FAMU International (Antoine Dossin) Building bridges from Friedrich Nietzsche, to László Krasznahorkai and Béla Tarr: the shadows of Nietzsche’s perspectival existentialism in the novels of Krasznahorkai and films of Tarr. 2022–24.
76. Supervising an M.F.A. thesis at FAMU International (Joel Hukki) “Jungian Archetypes of Anima and Animus in Ingmar Bergman’s and Pedro Almodóvar’s Films: An Exploration of Gender, Psychology, and Symbolism in Female Characters”. 2024–present.
77. Supervising an M.A. thesis (Andrew Wilson) “The Map in Motion: Toward a Metabolic Theory of Contemporary Cartography”. 2025–present.
78. Supervising an M.A. thesis (Magdalena Matoušková) “The Theory of the Male Gaze in Prose Fiction by Henry James”. 2025–present.
79. Supervising an M.A. thesis (Jana Fialová) “Controversy and Contribution: The Impact of Non-African-American Musicians on the African-American Music Tradition”. 2025–present.
80. Supervising a B.A. thesis (Natálie Mikolajová) “US Transcendentalists in the Context of Contemporary Political and Social Movements”. 2025–present.
    1. Official Consultant: For Richard Olehla for a Ph.D. thesis on Thomas Pynchon, 2003–11. Graduated.

Opponencies:

Author of more than 72 official reader’s reports as the opponent of various Habilitation (1), PHD (4), MFA (1), MA (35) and BA (31) theses from 1998–present, including, e.g.,

1. Lucie Kloubková, “Slave Narratives: Journeys Towards an Identity?” (MA, 1998).
2. Petra Key, “Slave Narratives: Journeys Towards an Identity?” (MA, 1998).
3. Jan Jonák, BA thesis on Thomas Pynchon (BA, 1999).
4. Jan Jonák, “Beloved and the Common Ground in Select African American Novels” (MA, 2000).
5. Zuzana Šemberová, “Toni Morrisonová a české překlady jejích románů” (MA, 2000).
6. Aleš Kaňka, “Some Notes on Motifs and Structure in Pale Fire” (MA, 2000).
7. Radka Schlosserová, “Symbolism of names in Toni Morrison’s novels (in the relationship to the concept of power and control)” (MA, 2001).
8. Maria Knoflíčková, “Construction and Deconstruction of Racial Identity in Toni Morrison” (MA, 2005).
9. Hana Slováčková, magisterská diplomová práce, “S. Bellow’s Sammler’s Planet, Herzog” (MA, 2005).
10. Kamila Xenie Vetišková, “The Aesthetics of A Lie of the Mind” (MA, 2005).
11. Linda Petřiková, “Between Literature and Cinema: Edith Wharton’s and Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence” (MA, 2005).
12. Dita Salavová, “Post 9-11 Hollywood” (MA, 2005).
13. Zuzana Pokorná, “Word made Flesh: Re-Creating Identity in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” (MA, 2005).
14. Dagmar Junková, “An Ambiguous Triumph: Evolving Stereotrypes of Local Color Fiction in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening” (MA, 2005).
15. Kryštof Chamonikolas, “Fictional Paths to ‘A Larger Truth’ in American New Journalism” (MA, 2006).
16. Karolína Jelínková, magisterská diplomová práce, “William Faulkner’s Light in August: Constructing Race in the Community” (MA, 2006).
17. Damian Manire, “‘Living’ Europe: The Alien Impressions of Henry James and Lambert Strether” (MA, 2007).
18. Zuzana Buriánková, “Adaptation—Mimesis, Transformation, Interpretation” (MA, 2007).
19. Safwan Naser, “‘The Emersonian Pynchon'” (MA, 2007).
20. Bibiana Machátová, “Edward W. Said : Postcolonial Studies and the Politics of Literary Theory” (MA, 2007).
21. Johana, Labanczová, “Copy, Imitation, Forgery as an Artistic Principle in the Novel Chatterton by Peter Ackroyd” (BA, 2010).
22. Veronika Stankovianská, “Literary Semiotics in the Early Works of Harry Matthews” (BA, 2010).
23. Hana Slováčková, “The Disappointment of the Western Intellectual in the Twentieth-Century (in Saul Bellow’s novels Mr. Sammler’s Planet and Herzog) (MA 2005/2010).
24. Ali Daghman, “Giving a Voice to the Other: Said’s Theory of Anti-Colonial Discourse“ (MA, 2010).
25. Kristýna Patočková, “The Depiction of the Changing Consciousness of Women in Three Novels of the Turn of the Century” (MA, 2010).
26. Michal Mecner, “Robert Frost: The Village and Beyond“ (MA, 2010).
27. Jakub Boguszak, “King Lear on Screen” (BA, 2010).
28. Martina Šindelářová, “Fictional Political Mirroring in Two Novels by Vladimir Nabokov” (BA, 2010).
29. Karolina Vančurová’, “Affinities Between the Poetry of Wallace Stevens and Paul Valéry” (MA, 2011).
30. Kateřina Hůlková, “Toni Morrison: Magical Realism Serving to Outline Cultural Experience” (BA, 2011).
31. Blanka Maderová, “Self, Speech and Agency: Emerson, Melville and Bartleby—Beyond Pragmatism and Performativity” (PhD, 2011). Graduated.
32. Ivan Marinovíc, “Alternative Storytelling Principles And Their Rendering In Contemporary Revisionist Western” (MFA, FAMU International, CDM, 2011).
33. Matěj Moravec, “The Depiction of Ethnicity in the Short Stories of William Saroyan” (BA, 2012).
34. Marek Linhart, “Myth in American Advertising after 1945” (MA, 2013).
35. Martin Lauer, “Instability of Character in Sam Shepard’s Work of the 1970s” (MA, 2013).
36. Ádám Hushegyi, “A Rite of Passage: The Transformation of Anglo-American Comic Books in the Post World-War II Era” (BA, 2014).
37. Michaela Žůrková, “The New York School Poets and Visual Arts: The Poetry of John Ashberry and Frank O’Hara” (BA, 2014).
38. Tereza Pospišilová, “Faith and the Search for Identity in the Works of J.D. Salinger” (BA, 2015).
39. Victoria Hädler, “Elements of the Grotesque in the Novels of Toni Morrison” (BA, 2015).
40. Magdalena Císlerová, “Free of Inhibitions and Full of Pleasure: The Image of Europe in the Work of James Salter” (BA, 2015).
41. Elena Tkacheva, “Not Quite a Juggler of Identities: Joseph Brodsky’s Translations within the American Literary Tradition” (BA, 2016).
42. Martin Šinaľ, “An Analysis of Francis Fukuyama’s Arguments Exemplified on Contemporary Dystopian Cultural Production” (MA, 2017).
43. Pavel Gonçarov, “Internet Memes And Their Significance For Myth Studies” (external examiner for Palacký University, Olomouc, PhD, 2017).
44. Jan Suk, “The Poetics of Immanence: Performance Theatre of Forced Entertainment” (PhD, 2017).
45. Peter Luba, “Pragmatic Method, Transformation, Perspectivism, and Individualism: The Cornerstone of Pragmatism Laid by Ralph Waldo Emerson” (BA, 2019).
46. Tomaš Kovařík, “Triangulating Agency: Identity, Society and Politics in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man” (BA, 2019).
47. Zdeněk Polivka, “Between Nostalgia and Pragmatism: Cormac McCarthey’s Border Trilogy” (MA, 2019).
48. Adéla Zeimannová, “Emerson’s Self-Reliance as a Core Value of American Society” (BA, 2019).
49. Barbora Tomášková, “The American Notion of Freedom: Freedom as a Central Element of American History and Its Reflection in Literature” (BA, 2020).
50. Tatiana Kupková, “The Search for Meaning in Donald Barthelme’s Work” (BA, 2020).
51. Jana Benadiková, “Getting the Picture: An Analysis of Narrative in E. L. Doctorow’s The Book of Daniel” (BA, 2020).
52. Jamie Rose, “Ongoing Queerness: The Flourishing of TransWomen’s Literature in North America” (MA, 2020).
53. Klára Staňková, “The Problematics of Race in Selected Writings of Toni Morrison” (BA, 6/2021).
54. Klára Staňková, “The Problematics of Race in Selected Writings of Toni Morrison” (BA, 9/2021).
55. Michal Otahal, “The Legacy of Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison’s Influence on Fight Club” (BA, 2021).
56. Tereza Ottová, “Nomina nuda tenemus: Postmodernist Method in Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire” (BA, 2021).
57. Kristýna Bularzová, ““The Same River Twice”: An Analysis of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Steven Spielberg’s Film Adaptation” (BA, 2021).
58. Adéla Zeimmanová, “What It Means to Be American?: Creating American National Identity” (MA, 2021).
59. Peter Ľuba, “Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Dewey, and the Creative Reader” (MA, 2021).
60. Daniela Rydlová “(In)Sincere Authorship – Three Novels of Jeffrey Eugenides” (MA, 2022).
61. Magdalena Matoušková, “The Mechanism of Lynching in William Faulkner’s Light in August” (BA, 2023).
62. Michail Kiristaev, “Indie Rock Poetry: Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (BA, 2023).
63. Yaren Gezer, “Notes from the House of Sleep: Reading the Hieroglyphs of Night-Language in Anais Nin, H.D., and Anna Kavan” (MA, 2023).
64. Tomáš Veselý, “We Are All Metamoderns: An Introduction To Metamodernism” (MA, 2024).
65. Dr. Jiří Flajšar, “The Suburban Novels of Richard Yates”, (external examiner for Palacký University, Olomouc). Report submitted 2/24. Habilitation proceedings in progress.
66. Ondřej Polák, “Language as a Virus of the Mind: The Thinking and Writing of William. S. Burroughs” (BA, 2024).
67. Julia Lessová, “Masks, Veils, and Invisibility: Racial Passing in Afro-American Literature” (MA, 2024).
68. Emanuela Maltese, “Postcolonial Reading of James Baldwin” (PhD, 2024).
69. Ekaterina Fedorstova “Inhuman Humanity: Effective Psychopathy in Corporate Capitalism in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” (BA, 2025). Forthcoming.
70. Lucie Malcová, “Beyond What Is Written: Sexuality, Gender, and Spirituality in The Color Purple” (BA, 2025). Forthcoming.
71. Thea Šebková, ““Geography is destiny”: Globalization, Space and Mobility in Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange and Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West” (BA, 2025) Forthcoming.
72. Danila Gudkov, on Flannery O’Connor, (MA, 2025). Forthcoming.

Freebie Video Series Attached to Classes Taught (7):

—Winter semester 1998, 2000, 2005, and 2009; Summer semester 1999, 2000, and 2018.

Lacan Reading Group (1):

—Winter semester 2010.

Selected faculty member committee work:

1. Appointed to/served on the board of examiners for the MA-level examination multiple times in Literary and Cultural Theory, Charles University, e.g. 9/2020 (Chair of Committee), 9/2023 (Chair of Committee), 2/2024 (Chair of Committee), and 9/2024 (Chair of Committee), English Literature, Charles University (6/2021) and in US literature, Charles Univ.-Prague (34 sessions): 10/1997, 5/1998, 2/2000, 5/2004, 2/2006, 9/2006, 9/2007, 1/2008, 5/2008, 9/2008, 5/2009, 9/2009, 2/2010 (no exam held), 5/2010, 9/2010, 2/2013, 2/2015, 9/2015, 2/2016, 6/2018, 9/2018 (no exam held), 5/2019, 9/2019 (Chair of Committee), 6/2020 (Chair of Committee), 9/2020 (Chair of Committee), 6/2021 (Chair of Committee), 9/2021 (Chair of Committee), 6/2022 (Chair of Committee), 9/2022 (Chair of Committee), 9/2023, 2/2024 (Chair of Committee), 6/2024 (Chair of Committee), 9/2024, and 1/2025 (Chair of Committee).
2. Appointed to/served on the board of baccalauréat examiners for the BA-level examination in US literature, Charles Univ.-Prague (32 sessions): 10/1997, 2/2000, 2/2001, 5/2003, 5/2004, 9/2004, 2/2005, 9/2005, 9/2006, 9/2007, 9/2008, 5/2009, 9/2009, 6/2010, 6/2011, 9/2011, 6/2013, 9/2013, 6/2014, 6/2015, 2/2016, 6/2016, 9/2018, 6/2019 (Chair of Committee), 9/2019 (Chair of Committee), 6/2020 (Chair of Committee), 9/2020 (Chair of Committee), 6/2021, 9/2021 (Chair of Committee), 6/2022 (Chair of Committee), 6/2024, and 2/2025 (Chair of Committee) .
3. Examined/read BA-level and MA-level theses in US literature, Charles Univ.-Prague (49 sessions): 6/1998, 9/1998, 9/1999, 2/2000, 2/2001, 9/2001, 9/2002, 5/2003, 9/2004, 2/2005, 5/2005, 9/2005, 2/2006, 9/2006, 9/2007, 5/2008, 2/2010, 1/2011, 6/2011, 9/2011, 2/2012, 9/2012, 2/2013, 6/2013, 9/2013, 6/2014, 9/2014, 6/2015, 2/2016, 9/2016, 2/2017, 6/2018, 6/2019, 9/2019, 1/2020, 9/2020, 6/2021 (2x), 9/2021 (2x), 6/2022, 9/2022, 1/2023, 2/2023, 9/2023, 2/2024, 6/2024, 9/2024, and 2/2025.
4. Appointed to/served on the Board of Examiners for the Doctoral Studies Examination (26 sessions): 2/2010. (Chair) Viva defense session: 11/2023 for Vít Bohal. Pass. Viva defense session: 6/2025 for Kateřina Kovářová. Forthcoming. Viva defense: 2/2010 for Richard Stock. Pass. Viva defense: 6/2009 for Dagmar Pegues. Pass. Viva defense and on the dissertation defense committee: 6/2011 for Christopher Koy, for Blanka Maderová and for Richard Olehla: All pass. Viva defense and on the dissertation defense committee: 4/2012 for Vit Vaníček. Pass. Viva defense and on the dissertation defense committee: 6/2014 for Linda Petříková. Pass. Viva defense: 9/2017 for Stephan Delbos. Pass. Exam in Literature: 2/2011 for Linda Petříková and 6/2011 for Tereza Stejskalová. Pass. Exam in Literature: 4/2012 for Vít Vaníček. Pass. Exam in Literature: 9/2012 for Jan Suk. Pass. Exam in Literature: 9/2012 for Jakub Ženíšek. Pass. Exam in Literature: 9/2020 for Evgenia Konoreva, for Františka Zezuláková Schormová, for Kateřina Kovarová, and for Veronika Krajicková. All pass. Viva defense: 12/2020 for Františka Zezuláková Schormová. Pass. Viva defense: 11/2021 for Jana Marešová. Pass. Exam in Literature: 10/22 for Vít Bohal. Pass. Viva defense: 12/2022 for Jevgenija Konoreva. Pass. Exam in Literature: 9/2023 for Darya Kulbashna. Pass. Exam in Literature: 6/2024 for Václav Kyllar. Pass. Exam in Literature: 6/2024 for Peter L’uba. Pass. Viva defense: 9/2024 for Emanuela Maltese. Pass. Exam in Literature: 2/2025 for Batuhan Lüleci. Pass.

Paid sabbatical leave at Charles University:

—Summer semester, 2023.

—Summer semester, 2014.

—Winter semester, 2006.

Interim Head of American Studies

(while doc. Justin Quinn was on leave)

—Summer semester, 2011.

(II) F.A.M.U. (Film and T.V. Faculty Academy of Performing Arts), Prague, Czech Republic, faculty member in Cinema Studies, re-named F.A.M.U. International, 10/03-present. Worldwide students including from Brown University, Charles University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Fordham University, Haverford College, Indiana University, Mount Holyoke College, New School (NYC), Northwestern University, Occidental College, Pomona College, Rice University, Smith College, Tulane University, UC-Berkeley, UC-Irvine, UCLA, Universität Wien, USC, Whitman, Yale University, etc.

Classes taught and current (48):

1. ‘Film History and Theory I’ Cinema Studies program F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2003. The FAMU Dean, Michal Bregant, taught the other section of the same-titled year-long class.
2. ‘Film History and Theory II, Cinema Studies program F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2004. The FAMU Dean, Michal Bregant, taught the other section of the same-titled year-long class.
3. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2004.
4. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2005.
5. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2005.
6. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2006.
7. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2006.
8. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2007.
9. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2007.
10. ‘Circulating within the Post-modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2008.
11. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2008.
12. ‘Circulating within the Post-modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2009.
13. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2009.
14. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU Interational, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2010.
15. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 201o.
16. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2011.
17. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2011.
18. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2012.
19. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2012.
20. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2013.
21. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2013.
22. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2014.
23. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2014.
24. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2015.
25. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2015.
26. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2016.
27. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2016.
28. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2017.
29. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2017.
30. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2018.
31. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2018.
32. ‘Circulating within the Post-Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer semester 2019.
33. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter semester 2019.
34. ‘Focus on Film Theory and History’, (Two sessions only in a team-taught course), FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2020.
35. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2020.
36. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer 2021.
37. ‘Focus on Film Theory and History’, (Two sessions only in a team-taught course), FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2021.
38. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2021.
39. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer 2022.
40. ‘Focus on Film Theory and History’, (Two sessions only in a team-taught course), FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2022.
41. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2022.
42. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer 2023.
43. ‘Focus on Film Theory and History’, (Two sessions only in a team-taught course), FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2023.
44. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2023.
45. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer 2024.
46. ‘Circulating within the Modern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2024.
47. ‘Focus on Film History and Theory I’ (two sessions for a team-taught course), FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Winter 2024.
48. ‘Circulating within the Postmodern Cinematic Image’ FAMU International, F.A.M.U.-Prague, Summer 2025.

(I) Magdalen College, Oxford and Mansfied College, Oxford, UK, as doctoral candidate tutored twentieth-century literature in English (Mansfield), 1996, and US literature [Magdalen on the invitation of David Norbrook (ed., The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse: 1509–1659, Penguin) and Mansfield], 1996.