Derek P. Lee

Assistant Professor, Literature

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Degrees

Pennsylvania State University, PhD in English
University of Michigan, MFA in Creative Writing
Dartmouth College, BA in Biochemistry

As an interdisciplinary scholar, I work across a broad swath of twentieth and twenty-first century literature, including modernist and contemporary culture, science studies, multiethnic fiction, speculative fiction, and the graphic novel. I’m particularly fascinated by epistemology and the entanglements between Western, non-Western, and esoteric forms of knowledge. My first book project—Parascientific Revolutions—examines the paranormal mind in twentieth-century literature and science. I teach classes in Asian American literature, science fiction, fantasy, the supernatural, literature and science, and comics.

Courses at Wake Forest

  • ENG 395 – Cyborgs & Sorcerers: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Multicultural America
  • ENG 375 – Fu Manchu, Model Minorities, and other Asian American Fictions
  • ENG 361 – Mutants, Machines, Mad Scientists: Literature & Science
  • ENG 302 – Comics, Race, and Social Justice
  • ENG 175 – Do No Harm: An Introduction to Narrative Medicine
  • ENG 150 – The Graphic Novel
  • ENG 150 – The Ghost: An Introduction to Cultural Haunting

Selected Publications

  • “All Hail Cthulhu! On Lovecraft, Monstress, and Asian American Bildung.” American Literature, forthcoming.
  • “Is Psylocke Asian? The Racial Fantasy and Ambiguity of an Uncanny Oriental.” Inks, forthcoming.
  • “The Ethics of Extrapolation: Science Fiction in the Technical Communication Classroom.” Technical Communication Quarterly, 31:1 (2022), 77-88. 
  • “Homo Amens: Epistemological Thanatopolitics and the Postcolonial Zombie.” ARIEL, 51:4 (2020), 155-183.
  • “Postquantum: A Tale for the Time Being, Atomik Aztex, and Hacking Modern Space-Time.” MELUS, 45:1 (2020), 1-26.
  • “The Man in the Macintosh and the Science of the Occult.” James Joyce Quarterly, 55:3-4 (2018), 115-137.
  • “Dark Romantic: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Specters of Gothic Modernism.” Journal of Modern Literature, 41:4 (2018), 125-142.
  • “On Anarchy, or What We Talk About When We Talk About Science.” Journal of Literature and Science, 10.1 (2017), 21-25.
  • “The Politics of Fairyland: Neil Gaiman and the Enchantments of Anti-Bildungsroman.” Critique, 57:5 (2016), 552–564.