Peter Kvidera
Professor/Chair/Core Director
Background
Dr. Kvidera is a Professor in John Carroll University's Department of English. He focuses on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literature, with particular interest in immigrant and ethnic writing. In addition to this course, he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in American realism and modernism, U.S. immigrant writers, and Japanese literature. He often teaches courses for the University Core Curriculum, including linked courses and Issues in Social Justice (ISJ) courses. He has served as Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and Director of the University's Integrative Core Curriculum.
Dr. Kvidera received his undergraduate degree from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. He then spent two years teaching English in Kyoto, Japan. Following his return to the United States, he received his master's degree from Marquette University and his doctoral degree from the University of Washington. Before joining the faculty at John Carroll University he taught as a Mellon Fellow at Duke University.
Areas of Expertise
American Realism and Modernism
U.S. Immigrant Literature
U.S. Ethnic Literature
Japanese Literature
William Faulkner
Toni Morrison
Research Interests
Dr. Kvidera's research focuses on U.S. immigrant and ethnic literatures.
Education
B.A. English, Loras CollegeM.A. English, Marquette University
Ph.D. English, University of Washington
Courses Taught
EN 1250, Seminar on Academic WritingEN 1730, Immigrant Literature
EN 1780, Literary Justice: Anisfield-Wolf Seminar
EN 2010, Introduction to World Literature
EN 2510, Business Communications
EN 2620, American Literature and Interpersonal Communication (linked with COM 2091, Interpersonal Communication)
EN 2670, Japanese Literature (linked with HS 3810, History of Japan)
EN 2700, Major American Writers
EN 3710, American Literature to 1900
EN 3720, American Literature: 1900 to present
EN 4750, U.S. Nobel Laureates: Hemingway, Faulkner, Morrison
Publications
Selected Publications:“‘A Gratifying Divergence’: Immigrant Settlement and the National Narrative in Willa Cather’s My Antonia.” College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies 51.2 (Spring 2024): 203-232.
“The Story/History of Japan: Producing Knowledge by Integrating the Study of Japanese Literature and Japanese History.” Journal of Japanese Language and Literature 55.1 (Spring 2021): 131-159.
“Ethnic Identity and Cultural Catholicism in Pietro di Donato’s Christ in Concrete.” MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. 35.3 (Fall 2010): 157-181.
“Imagining the Italian: Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Italian Immigrant Writing, and the Power of Literary Representation.” Teaching Italian American Literature, Film, and Popular Culture. Eds. Edvige Giunta and Kathleen McCormick. New York: Modern Language Association, 2010. 279-288.
“Rewriting the Ghetto: Cultural Production in the Labor Narratives of Rose Schneiderman and Theresa Malkiel.” American Quarterly 57.4 (December 2005): 1131-1154.
“Resonant Presence: Legal Narratives and Literary Space in the Poetry of Early Chinese Immigrants,” American Literature 77.3 (September 2005): 511-539.
“Fast Fish and Raw Fish: Moby-Dick, Japan, and Melville’s Thematics of Geography.” Co-written with Russell Reising. The New England Quarterly 70.2 (June 1997): 285-305.
“Searching for a ‘Home on the Range’: Homebase and the Repositioning of the Chinese Immigrant on the American Frontier.” The Image of the Frontier in Literature, Media and Society. Ed. Will Wright. Pueblo, CO: Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, 1997.
