James Barilla

Assistant Professor
Office: 523 Humanities Office Building
(803) 777-2332
barillaj@mailbox.sc.edu

Education

M.S. University of Montana
Ph.D., University of California, Davis

Specialization Areas

• Creative Writing,
• Creative Nonfiction,
• Literature and the Environment

Recent Courses

See Course Descriptions for detailed information.

• ENGL 434: Environmental Literature
• ENGL 650: Graduate Creative Nonfiction Workshop
• ENGL 460: Advanced Creative Nonfiction
• ENGL 360: Creative Writing

Current Research Project(s)

The Nature of Homelands. Narrative nonfiction. Will include chapters on returning and restoring New Orleans, inhabiting toxic landscapes such as North Richmond, California, the role of the casino in the reservation landscape, and the control of invasive species.

Books

West with the Rise. Creative non-fiction narrative of fly fishing and invitro fertilization as expressions of nature/culture boundaries. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006).

Articles

“Neighborhood Levee, Neighborhood Marsh.” Forthcoming in Mississippi Quarterly.

“The Restoration Quandary: Biological Invasions and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Gardens in the Dunes,” in Reading Leslie Marmon Silko: Critical Perspectives on Gardens in the Dunes, ed. Laura Coltelli (Pisa, Italy: University of Pisa Press, 2007).

“A Mosaic of Landscapes: Ecological Restoration and the Work of Leopold, Coetzee, and Silko,” in Coming into Contact: New Essays on Ecocritical Theory and Practice. ed. Adam Sweeting (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2007).

“The Aliens in the Garden,” in Writing the World: Globalization, ed. David Rothenberg (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005): 50-58.

“On the Point of a Sharp Hook,” in Eco Man: New Perspectives on Masculinity and Nature, ed. Mark Allister (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2004): 149-156.

“Aldo Leopold,” a biographical analysis of his life and work, in Scribner’s American Writers Series: Supplement XIV, ed. Jay Parini (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004): 177-194.

“Exotic and Native,” in Putah and Cache: Number 8 (1999). Reprinted in You Are Here: The Journal of Creative Geography 4:1 (Summer 2001): 5-11.

Selected Readings and Conference Presentations

“When the Water Recedes,” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Conference (ASLE), Spartanburg, SC 2007.

“After the Deluge: Restoration and Apocalypse in New Orleans and A Friend of the Earth,” Western Literature Association (WLA), Boise, ID-2006.

“In and Out of the ‘Field’ of Environmental Literature: Rubbing Professional and Personal Boundaries (Roundtable Discussion),” ASLE, Eugene, OR-2005.

“The Restoration Quandary: Biological Invasions and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Gardens in the Dunes,” WLA, Bozeman, MT–2004.

“Ecological Restoration and the Possibilities for Environmental Justice,” ASLE, Boston, MA–2003.

“Culture Made Toxic: Native American Literature and the Restoration of Toxic Homelands,” WLA, Tucson, AZ–2002.

“Native American Literature and Ecological Restoration.” Environment, Culture and Community Conference, Brisbane, Australia–2002.

 “After the Bomb: Restoration, Post Colonial Theory and Bikini Atoll,” ASLE, Flagstaff, AZ–2001.