Nissa Cannon

Candidate statement

I hold a position of privileged precarity—I have a measure of job security at a prestigious institution, but am denied many of the benefits and participation in shared governance of a tenure-line faculty member. I would be honored to use this relative privilege to advocate for contingent scholars within the MSA, supporting the many manifestations contingency takes (in fact, the current Contingent Faculty Representative and I have organized a workshop on just this topic of better understanding and advocating for contingency’s heterogeneous forms that we hope to lead at this autumn’s MSA).

I have been a member of the MSA since 2014, and an active participant in the Contingent Faculty Caucus since its foundation. My own research focuses on modernist mobility and material culture. I am currently writing a book on transatlantic literature and the interwar infrastructure of expatriation, and my scholarship has appeared in publications including Modernism/modernity’s Print+, Cultural History, and ELN (see nissaren.wordpress.com for details). I am the book reviews editor for the Journal of Modern Periodical Studies, and a member of the Hemingway Review blog’s advisory board, and welcome the opportunity to serve the profession as part of the MSA board.