My research interests are in the areas of feminist and critical theories, psychoanalysis, postcolonial scholarship, and American and cultural studies. In both my writing and teaching, I take an interdisciplinary approach, since such an approach best captures the richness and relevance of theoretical insight to the larger cultural context.  I recently published A Kinder, Gentler America: Melancholia and the Mythical 1950s (University of Minnesota Press, 2005), which employs a theory of melancholia to examine the neoconservative idealization of the 1950s within contemporary American political culture.   My first book, Voluptuous Yearnings: A Feminist Theory of the Obscene (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1994), offers a reading of the category of the obscene using the lens of feminist and critical theories.  My two most recent articles examine the political activism and writings on freedom of Simone de Beauvoir ("Acting on Behalf of the Other: Simone de Beauvoir and the Case of Djamila Boupacha"), as well as the feminist performance art of Cindy Sherman ("Uncensored, Unrehearsed: Theodor Adorno and the Performance Art of Cindy Sherman").  I am currently at work on a co-edited project that assesses the impact of Jacques Derrida upon the liberal arts.

At California State University, Long Beach, I teach a variety of courses in political theory and critical thinking.  These include Introduction to Critical Thinking, Ancient Political Thought, Modern Political Theory, Recent Political Theory, Women in Political Theory, and the Senior and Graduate Seminars in Political Theory.  In the classroom as in my writing, I try to engage my audience by demystifying theory and illustrating its intimate relationship to everyday life.

Curriculum Vitae