Robert Volpicelli

Candidate statement

Associate Professor, Randolph-Macon College
I’m a scholar of modernist literature and culture who has developed a number of secondary interests (disability studies, postcolonial studies, and the sociology of literature, chief among them) that are vital to our current field. As my C.V. shows, I’ve written on a wide range of modernist authors (most notably, in the contexts of Irish, British, and African American literature) and placed much of this writing in important scholarly venues. I’ve been a regular attendee at the annual Modernist Studies Association Conference since 2010, and I’ve participated in many different levels of the conference (panels, roundtables, and seminars as a leader and a participant). My time as a member of MSA governance would be steered by my deep commitment to modernist studies as an important site for understanding the literature and culture of both the last century and the present one. I would be committed to furthering the accessibility and diversity of our field in every sense, and I would also be invested in joining many of my colleagues in the effort to imagine new, more sustainable practices for the profession of literary studies.