Faculty and Staff

Introduction to Literature; Introduction to World Cinema; Studies in World Literature; Postcolonial Studies; Literary Theory & Criticism

World literature and cinema, Eastern European literature and film, postcolonial studies, translation studies, critical theory. 

Marla Zubel studies and teaches twentieth century literature and film in a global context. Her current research examines a neglected archive of Eastern European cultural encounters with the Third World. She is particularly interested in the ways writers and filmmakers of the former Socialist Bloc turned to documentary, and other non-fiction genres and forms, in order to represent the relationship between the local and the global at the height of the Cold War.

Dr. Zubel’s transnational and intermedial research interests greatly inform her work in the classroom. In her courses students engage with theories of postcolonialism, diaspora, nationalism, and transnationalism, while carrying out close formal analysis of works of literature and film from all over the world. By examining the ways these works both shape and were shaped by the original contexts of their emergence, students are challenged to consider the ways different literary forms and forms of media make certain kinds of socio-political critique possible.

Dr. Zubel’s work has appeared in the peer-reviewed journals Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture, Postcolonial Studies, Studies in Eastern European Cinema, and Cultural Critique. She is currently working on a book that examines the ways Eastern European—and especially Polish— literary and cinematic reportage was used to both document and facilitate Second World solidarity with the Third World in the era of decolonization.

Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2017.

B.A. Literature; Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, 2006.