Nicole R. Fleetwood
Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood, a Professor of American Studies and Art History on the New Brunswick campus, was recently named a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards for her third publication, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Harvard University Press, 2020).
The book—as well as an exhibition of the same name that is showing through April 4 at MoMA PS1 in New York City—takes a critical look at the U.S. prison-industrial complex and its social and cultural effects through the lens of art made by incarcerated and non-incarcerated artists. Fleetwood illustrates the strength of the human spirit despite the often inhumane and harsh conditions that prisoners live through on a daily basis. She also highlights the overwhelming racial disparities and injustices that exist behind prison walls.
Fleetwood received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in the Program in Modern Thought and Literature and her B. Phil. from the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Miami University (Ohio). In addition to numerous published articles, Fleetwood has authored On Racial Icons: Blackness and the Public Imagination (Rutgers University Press, 2015) and Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness (University of Chicago Press, 2011).
Cathy Park Hong
Cathy Park Hong, a Professor of Creative Writing in the School of Arts and Sciences on the Newark campus, was named a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards for her autobiographical book of essays, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (One World, 2020).
In the book, Hong builds on her own personal experiences of growing up as a Korean American to amplify the often muted racial dialogue that confronts the Asian American stereotype in our society. The book sparks a deeper reflection on the larger effects of systemic cultural racism on Asian American communities.
Hong holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa and teaches a Craft of Poetry course at Rutgers. She is the poetry editor of The New Republic magazine and author of three previous poetry collections: Engine Empire (W.W. Norton, 2012) Dance Dance Revolution (W.W. Norton, 2007), and Translating Mo’um (Hanging Loose Press, 2002).