
John Michael
John Hall Deane Professor of Rhetoric and Poetry
Professor of English
Professor of Visual and Cultural Studies
PhD, The Johns Hopkins University
- Office Location
 - 405 Morey Hall
 - Telephone
 - (585) 275-9259
 
Research Overview
John Michael's research interests include: U. S. and diasporic literatures and cultures; academic intellectuals and popular politics; national literatures in global contexts; translation studies; the institutional and theoretical implications of the contemporary humanities.Research Interests
- American literature
 - critical theory
 - cultural studies
 
Selected Publication Covers

Selected Publications
- “World Theory: Amitav Ghosh on Being at Sea,” symplokè 28:1-2 (2020) 331-48.
 - “Secular Lyric: The Modernization of the Poem in Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson,” Fordham University Press 2018
 - “,” NLH 48 (Spring 2017) 2: 265-84.
 - “Tragedy and Translation: A Future for Critique in a Secular Age,” in Critique and Post-Critique ed. Rita Felski and Elizabeth Anker (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017) 252-78.
 - . (Johns Hopkins University Press). 2016
 - "Profiles in Courage, JFK's Books for Boys," in American Literary History (5 July 2012)
 - "The Presence of Immigrants, or Why Mexicans and Arabs Look Alike," in Making Sense of Presence: Philosophy, History and Politics, spec. issue of Storia della Storiographia 55 (2009), 144-58
 - Identity and the Failure of America from Thomas Jefferson to the War on Terror, University of Minnesota 2008
 - "Liberal Justice and Particular Identity: Cavell, Emerson, Rawls," in Arizona Quarterly 64.1 (2008), 27-47
 - "Identity, Masochism, and the Democratic Intellectual in the War on Terror," in Intellectuals and Public Responsibility, spec. issue of The Hedgehog Review (2007), 71-80
 - Review: George Snedeker, The Politics of Critical Theory: Language/Discourse/Society, in Socialism and Democracy 19.1 (2005)
 - "Beyond Us and Them: Identity and Terror from an Arab-American's Perspective," in Palestine America, spec. issue o South Atlantic Quarterly 102.4 (2003), 701-28
 - Anxious Intellects: Academic Professionals, Public Intellectuals, and Enlightenment Values, Duke 2000
 - Emerson and Skepticism: The Cipher of the World, Johns Hopkins 1988
 
Forthcoming
- “Death, Love, and Emerson’s Poetry"
 
Work in progress
- Modern Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America: Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, and Death
 
Teaching
- John Michael's teaching interests span the corpus of American literature, the questions of aesthetics, and the demands of worldly criticism and critical theory in a situation that has been global for a very long time.
 
Honors
- Presidential Fellow, Salzburg Seminars, Salzburg, Austria, 1993
 - Fulbright Lecturing Award, Instytut Anglistyki, Uniwersytet warszawski, Poland, 1990-91
 - CIES Fellowship, Summer Polish Institute, University of Pittsburgh, 1990
 - Junior Faculty Research Fellowship, 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, 1989
 - William B. Kenan Teaching Fellowship for Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching, The Johns Hopkins University, 1981-82 and 1982-83
 - Humanities Center Fellowship for Study in Paris, The Johns Hopkins University, 1980-81
 - Human Biology Fellowship, The Johns Hopkins University, 1979-80
 - Graduate Fellowship, The Johns Hopkins University, 1977-79
 - Advisory Board, Journal of Narrative Theory, 2000-present
 - Editorial Board, Telos, 1990-98
 - Steering Committee, Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies Conference, 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, 1994
 - Tenure and Promotion Referee for (most recently) Princeton University, University of Michigan, Georgia Technological Institute, New York University
 - Outside Reader, Westview Press, University of Minnesota Press, Harper Collins, University of Chicago Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, University of Oklahoma Press, PMLA