Associate Professor
raymond.malewitz@oregonstate.edu

Office: 541-737-1656

Moreland Hall

Moreland Hall 340

2550 SW Jefferson Way

2550 SW Jefferson Way
Corvallis, OR 97331
Credentials: 
Ph.D. English - University of Virginia, 2007
B.S. English and Biochemistry - University of Michigan, 1999
Honors and Awards: 

D. Curtis Mumford Faculty Service Award, Oregon State University, 2019

Fulbright Distinguished Chair of American Studies, University of Warsaw, 2022

International Service Award, Oregon State University, 2023

Curriculum Vitae: 
Office Hours: 
MW 2-2:50 Moreland 340

Profile Field Tabs

At OSU
Affiliated with: 
School of Writing, Literature, and Film
Headquarters: 
OSU Main Campus
Research/Career Interests: 

Current Research

My ongoing research is focused on issues relating to contemporary American literature, literature and science, environmental literature, and material culture. My first monograph The Practice of Misuse: Rugged Consumerism in Contemporary American Culture (Stanford University Press, 2014) examines the emergence in late twentieth-century American literature and culture of new figures—“rugged consumers”—who creatively misuse, reuse, and repurpose objects in their environments to suit their idiosyncratic needs and desires. In its discussion of rugged consumer representations, the book offers new ways of understanding how economic and environmental anxieties influence cultural artifacts during the contemporary period.  A related story on how these ideas apply to maker culture is available here.

My second monograph, Animal Illness and the Literary Imagination, is under contract at Cambridge Unversity Press. Among other things, the project explores how American and English literature represents and critiques the biopolitical management of large-scale animal disease outbreaks.  A section of the project was published by Critical Inquiry.  Related, shorter works are available in The Washington Post here and here and at Punctum Books here.

In recent years, I have become interested in public outreach projects, including the popular "The Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms" video series, which I have directed, edited, and managed since 2019.  You can see a few of my videos below.

In the winter and spring terms of 2022, I served as Fulbright Distinguished Chair of American Studies at the University of Warsaw.

 

Monographs

Animal Illness and the Literary Imagination (Under contract at Cambridge University Press)

The Practice of Misuse: Rugged Consumerism in Contemporary American Culture. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2014.

Refereed Articles

"On the origin of 'Oops': The Language and Literature of Animal Disease" Critical Inquiry 45.4 (2019): 839-858.

“Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table: Chemistry as Posthumanist Science." Configurations 24.4 (2016): 417-440.

“Climate-Change Infrastructure and the Volatilization of Contemporary American Regionalism.” Modern Fiction Studies 61.4 (2015): 715-730.

“‘Some new dimension devoid of hip and bone’: Remediated Bodies and Digital Posthumanism in Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story.Arizona Quarterly 71.4 (2015): 107-127.

 “Narrative Disruption as Animal Agency in Cormac McCarthy’s The Crossing.Modern Fiction Studies 60.3 (2014): 544-561. Reprinted in Philosophical Approaches to Cormac McCarthy: Beyond Reckoning.  New York: Routledge, 2017.

“Regeneration Through Misuse: Rugged Consumerism in Contemporary American Culture.” PMLA 127.3 (2012): 526-541. Reprinted in Literary Criticism: Chuck Palahniuk. New York: Cengage, 2014.

“William Gibson’s Paternity Test.” Configurations 19.1 (2011): 25-48.

“‘Anything can be an instrument’: Misuse Value and Rugged Consumerism in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.” Contemporary Literature 50.4 (2009): 721-741.

“‘My Newish Voice’: Rethinking Black Power in Gwendolyn Brooks’s Whirlwind.” Callaloo 29.2 (2006): 531-544.  Reprinted in Critical Insights: Gwendolyn Brooks.  Ed. Mildred R. Mickle.  Pasadena: Salem Press, 2009.  254-276. and Poetry Criticism. Volume 138. Independence: Gale, 2013.

Proceedings and Conference Presentations: 

"What is a Prologue?": An Introduction to the Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms

"What is Irony?": A Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What is Imagery?" A Guide for English Essays

"What is a Frame Story?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What is the Uncanny?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What is Poetic Meter?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What is Anaphora?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What is a Graphic Narrative?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What is Tone in Literature?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What is Onomatopoeia?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What is a Setting?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

"What are Assonance and Consonance?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers