Michele Janette
Professor / Graduate Faculty
Ph.D. 1997, Yale University
Email: mjanette@ksu.edu
Office: E/CS 131
Phone: (785) 532-2170
Fields of interest:
20th Century American Literature; Asian American Literature ; Feminism/Women's Studies; Cultural Studies; Film; Critical Theory.
Michele Janette specializes in Vietnamese American literature. Her wider interests and teaching areas include Asian American literature, contemporary American literature, cultural studies, film, and feminism. She has edited a collection of Vietnamese American writings (1962-2011) and produced an oral history documentary film about multicultural Kansas history and its preservation. Her articles include an exploration of inducements to both responsibility and pleasure in Parabola; a case study of teaching Vietnamese-authored novels of the Vietnam war to a Midwestern, often US military-connected student population; examinations of identity, secrecy, and history in Bitter in the Mouth; a recovery of No Passenger on the River as a foundational Vietnamese American text; surveys of Vietnamese American literature; an analysis of the way the film Three Seasons encourages viewers to look in new ways at Vietnam; an exploration of the irony in Monkey Bridge as a guerrilla tactic; and a consideration of significant ghosts in the novels of Toni Morrison and Maxine Hong Kingston.
She is a member of the Women's Studies affiliated faculty, and served as Director of the Program in Cultural Studies from 2001-2010 and as Department Head for Women’s Studies 2010-2015. She has been awarded the Stamey Award for Excellence in Teaching from the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Michael Donnelly Faculty Award from the English Department for excellence in teaching, research and service. And as often as she can, she builds things, like cabins in the high mountains of New Mexico.
