Core Faculty

Core Faculty


Paul Anderson

Paul Anderson

Associate Professor, American Studies

  • paa2@iu.edu
  • BH 549

Research Interests
cultural study of 20th century U.S. music; 20th century U.S. intellectual and cultural history; 20th century African-American intellectual and cultural history; american studies methodologies; past and present; critical theory (past and present) and affect theory; U.S. arts and popular culture (esp. 1920-1980)

Aleshia Barajas

Aleshia Barajas

Assistant Professor

CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar

  • alebara@indiana.edu
  • BH 577

Research Interests
US-Mexico border studies; latinx studies; experimental ethnographic writing; affect and materiality

Lessie Jo Frazier

Lessie Jo Frazier

Professor, Gender Studies

Professor, American Studies

  • frazierl@indiana.edu

Research Interests
intersection of cultural studies theories of power, subjectivity, and ideology with questions of political economy

Karen Inouye

Karen Inouye

Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor

Department of American Studies

Department of History

  • kinouye@indiana.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 550

Research Interests
Asian American and Asian Canadian studies; transnational American studies; afterlife of wartime incarceration; wartime prisons on Native land

Colin Johnson

Colin Johnson

Associate Professor, Gender Studies

Adjunct Associate Professor, American Studies

Director of Graduate Studies, American Studies

Adjunct Associate Professor, History

Adjunct Associate Professor, Human Biology

Research Interests
history of gender and sexuality in the united states; feminist and queer theory; rural social and cultural history; nineteenth and twentieth century American literature

Eunice Lee

Eunice Lee

Assistant Professor, American Studies

Assistant Professor, Asian American Studies

  • ele6@iu.edu
  • Ballantine 578

Research Interests
Asian American and Asian Diasporic literature and culture; Pacific Islander literature and culture; US imperialism and militarism; feminist science, technology and medicine studies; food studies

Sonia Lee

Sonia Lee

Associate Professor, American Studies

Associate Professor, Latino Studies Program

Associate Director, Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society

  • soslee@iu.edu
  • Ballantine 545

Research Interests
Black and Latinx studies; social movements, constructions of race and ethnicity, trauma and healing, mental health, abolition

Susan Lepselter

Susan Lepselter

Associate Professor, American Studies

Associate Professor, Anthropology

  • slepselt@indiana.edu
  • BH 576

Research Interests
Interdisciplinary creative scholarship, public feeling and affect theory, uncanny conspiracy theory, neurodivergence in culture, human/non-human animal interaction, indigenous film and literature.

Alex Lichtenstein

Alex Lichtenstein

Chair, American Studies

Professor, Department of American Studies

Professor, Department of History

Research Interests
U.S. labor history; comparative U.S./south African history; civil rights; history of the American left

 Olga Rodriguez-Ulloa

Olga Rodriguez-Ulloa

Assistant Professor, American Studies

Assistant Professor, Latino Studies Program

  • olgrodri@iu.edu
  • Ballantine Hall 575

Research Interests
race and feminist theory; Indigenous, Latinx and Latin American studies; visual culture; popular music

Micol Seigel

Micol Seigel

Professor, American Studies

Professor, History

  • mseigel@indiana.edu
  • BH 552

Research Interests
race in the Americas; racial theory; transnational method; popular culture; Brazil; Latin American studies; history; mass incarceration; the cold war; postcolonial and queer theory; cultural studies

Maisha Wester

Maisha Wester

Associate Professor, American Studies

Associate Professor, African American and African Diaspora Studies

On British Academy Global Professorship until 2024

  • mwester@iu.edu

Research Interests
gothic literature in the African diaspora; American gothic literature; horror film studies; twentieth century American literature

Phoebe Wolfskill

Phoebe Wolfskill

Associate Professor, American Studies

Associate Professor, African American and African Diaspora Studies

Director of Undergraduate Studies

  • pwolfski@indiana.edu
  • Ballantine 551

Research Interests
American art and visual culture, photography and race/racial difference, the Harlem/Negro Renaissance and WPA art; satire, caricature, stereotype, and appropriation in art and visual culture