William Decker
Regents Professor
Phone: 405-744-8949
Message: 405-744-9474
BA, Denison University
Areas of Interest & Expertise
American literature colonial to contemporary
Ethnicities and color lines
Critical Race Theory
Literature of travel and migration
Autobiography, memory, epistolarity
Recent Courses Taught
ENGL 6220, Slave Narrative Tradition: Past, Present, Future
ENGL 5660, Whitman and Dickinson
ENGL 5480, American Expatriates: Henry James to James Baldwin
ENGL 4520, Remembering the Sixties
ENGL 4300, Exotic Destinations
ENGL 3200 (Cambridge, UK), Traveling and Telling: Mobility and the Art of Narrative
Selected Publications
Books:
Geographies of Flight: Phillis Wheatley to Octavia Butler.Northwestern University Press, 2020.
Kodak Elegy: A Cold War Childhood. Syracuse University Press, 2012.
Epistolary Practices: Letter Writing in America before Telecommunications. University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
The Literary Vocation of Henry Adams. University of North Carolina Press, 1990.
Edited Volumes:
DaisyMiller (Introductions, annotations, bibliography). Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2013.
Henry Adams and the Need to Know, co-edited with Earl N. Harbert. Massachusetts Historical Society and University of Virginia Press, 2005.
Articles and Book Chapters:
"Dynasty, Declension, and the Endurance of the House of Adams." Reviews in American History49:2 (June 2021).
"Autobiography, Education: Henry Adams and the Definition of a Genre." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 33.1 (Winter 2018).
"Longing in Long-Distance Letters: Nineteenth Century and Now," in Celeste-Marie Bernier, Judie Newman, Matthew Pethers ed., The Edinburgh Companion to Nineteenth Century American Letters and Letter-Writing. Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
"'Who Aint a Slave?' Moby-Dick and the Slave Narrative Tradition." Literature in the Early American Republic, 2009.
"Americans in Europe: Henry James to the Present," in Alfred Bendixen, ed. The Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing Cambridge University Press, 2008.
“'Surely Cora Was Not Forgotten’: Remembering Africa in the Leatherstocking Tales,” in Jeffrey Walker, ed., Reading Cooper, Teaching Cooper AMS Press, 2007.
Recent Talks and Conference Presentations
“Henry Adams: The Many Faces of the Many and the One.” Colloquium: Henry Adams and Les Mémoires de Ariitaimai. Université de la Polynésie Française, February 27-March 1, 2023, Papeete, Tahiti.
“Freeway Dystopia: On the Road with Lauren Oya Olamina.” Université Catholique de Louvain Virtual Talk, April 21, 2022.
“’Twas Not Long Since I left My Native Shore”: Phillis Wheatley’s Celestial Cartography.” Massachusetts Historical Society Virtual Talk, February 17, 2022.
"Cartographies of Fugitivity, Heterotopias of Revolt: Martin Delany to Alexandra Bell." American Studies Association Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 12, 2021.
"Henry Adams: Knowledge and Neglect." Society for US Intellectual History, Chicago, Illinois, November 8, 2018.
"Fugitive Geographies: The Slave Narrative and the Myth of American Space." Universität Erfurt, June 7, 2017.
"Autobiography, Education: Henry Adams and the Definition of a Genre." Modern Language Association Convention, Austin, Texas, January 9, 2016.
"Geography, Empathy: Octavia Butler and the Perils of Sharing." American Studies Association Meeting, Toronoto, Ontario, October 8, 2015.
Awards and Recognition
OSU Regents Distinguished Research Award 2016
DAAD Visiting Professor, Universität Paderborn, Germany, May-July, 2012
Fulbright Lecturer, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 2008-2009
Fellow, Massachusetts Historical Society 2005
OSU Arts and Sciences Junior Faculty Research Award 1999
Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars 1990
Current Research
Book in progress: Writing Distance: Genres of Travel and Separation.