Harrod Suarez

Biography

My work in and out of the classroom has gravitated toward cultural geography as it plays in literature and film. In what ways does the nation-state set the parameters by which we understand who we are as individuals, communities, and cultures? In this regard, I am especially invested in the archipelago as a geographical figure for conceiving of a different world. The archipelago–a repeating series of islands, surrounded by seawater and often neglected or otherwise marginalized in our cultural imaginary–illumines what we haven’t realized we needed.

Literature and film provide substantive opportunities for sorting through these questions given the expansive and imaginative worlds that artists create. For me, it is crucial to savor the details of a text in order to access its real texture, which frays at the edges and whose seams come undone if you nestle in them long enough. Reading for those moments when things don’t quite add up drives my critical energies and helps me explore our cultural, social, political, and ethical relations. My turn toward archipelagic thinking is thus entangled symbiotically with my approach to literature and film.