Faculty
Benedict Giamo
Associate Professor of American Studies.
Field: Poverty and homelessness; literary and social criticism; intercultural studies; creative nonfiction.
Profile: Giamo's most recent book--Kerouac, the Word and the Way--examines the prose art of Jack Kerouac as an expression of an ever shifting spiritual quest. His other books include The Homeless of Ironweed, a literary and cultural study of William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Albany Cycle; Beyond Homelessness: Frames of Reference (with Jeffrey Grunberg); and On the Bowery: Confronting Homelessness in American Society.
Current Project: "Homeless Come Home: An Account of Advocacy and Murder in Topeka, Kansas" (a book-length manuscript in progress).
Teaching Interests: Seminars: Poverty & Homelessness; Topics in Intercultural Studies; Kerouac, the Beats, and Dylan. Courses: Culture and Society in the Great Depression; Witnessing the Sixties; The Outsider in American Literature and Culture. Interested in developing a course on Creative Nonfiction and Ethnography.
Recent Publications:
"Tante Piacere" (Great Pleasure), Gradiva: International Journal of Italian Poetry, forthcoming, Spring 2008.
[Kenneth Burke] "An American Original," Harvard Review 27 (December 2004):82-89. (A special feature on Kenneth Burke in this issue which, along with my essay, includes an introductory piece by the critic Denis Donoghue and a reprint of Burke's short story, "Mrs. Maecenas.")
"The Myth of the Vanquished: The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum," American Quarterly 55 (December 2003): 703-728.
"Enlightened Attachment: Kerouac's Impermanent Buddhist Trek," Religion and Literature 35 (Summer-Autumn 2003): 173-206. (Special issue on pilgrimage in literature, spiritualized travel, and sacred place.)
Contact Information
Office: 168 Decio Faculty Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone: (574) 631-7142
Email: bgiamo@nd.edu
