Wendy McMahon is a Lecturer in American Studies. She joined the School of American Studies at UEA in 2010 after completing her doctoral research at the University of Essex. Her research is wide-reaching, from the literature and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean (with particular emphasis on Cuba); the ways in which the United States and Latin America have imagined and written each other as well as the ways in which the United States is imagined globally; twenty-first century American literature and culture (including 9/11 writing); to the intersections between gender (particularly masculinity) and nation-building. Wendy’s research is predominantly concerned with issues of belonging, place, exile, writing the self, and the relationship between art, politics, the body, and capital.  Wendy’s first book, Dislocated Identities: Exile and the Self as (M)Other in the Writing of Reinaldo Arenas (forthcoming) examines the complex relationship between exile, autobiographical construction, identity formation, and place in the writing of one of Cuba’s most notorious literary figures. Her current research project is an analysis of the crucial role of crisis in American culture in the twenty-first century, exploring the many ways which literature, art, film, and the media respond to and interact with the various crises that have characterised the last decade.

 Americaschoolsproject - A Community Outreach project between American Studies, UEA and local schools.