Kevin Dettmar

W.M. Keck Professor of English; Director, The Humanities Studio
With Pomona Since: 2008
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Kevin Dettmar splits his research and teaching between British & Irish modernism, especially James Joyce, and contemporary popular music. A literary, music, and cultural critic, he has written for academic anthologies as well as popular publications like The Atlantic Monthly and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

    He is the co-editor for Oxford University Press book series Modernist Literature & Culture, and general editor of the Longman Anthology of British Literature.

    Professor Dettmar taught at Loyola Marymount University, Clemson University, Columbia University, and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, before coming to Pomona in 2008.

    Research Interests

    • Professor Dettmar is currently working on a three-volume edition of the unpublished correspondence of James Joyce for Oxford University Press.
    • His latest book, Gang of Four: Entertainment!, explores the UK post-punk band's influence by combining English literary criticism and rock music criticism.

    Areas of Expertise

    • James Joyce
    • Rock & roll
    • Modern British literature
    • Modern Irish literature
    • Popular culture
    • Cultural studies
  • Work

    Work

    Gang of Four's "Entertainment!" 33 1/3 Series. London, New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.

    Think Rock (Prentice-Hall, 2011)

    Editor, Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan (Cambridge University Press, 2009)

    Is Rock Dead? (Routledge, 2006)

    The Illicit Joyce of Postmodernism: Reading Against the Grain (University of Wisconsin Press, 1996)

    Co-Editor with M. Wollaeger, Modernist Literature & Culture book series (Oxford University Press, 2007- )

    Twentieth Century Editor, The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature (D.S. Katstan, gen. ed., Oxford University Press, 2006)

    Co-Editor with D. Bradshaw, The Blackwell Companion to Modernist Literature and Culture (Blackwell, 2006)

    Co-Editor with W. Richey and contributor, Reading Rock & Roll: Authenticity, Appropriation, Aesthetics(Columbia University Press, 1999)

    Twentieth-Century Section Co-Editor with J. Wicke, General co-editor with D. Damrosch, beginning with 3/e, Longman Anthology of British Literature (Addison Wesley – Longman Publishers, 1998. Second ed., 2002. Third ed., 2006)

    Featured Work

  • Education

    Education

    B.A., University of California, Davis
    Davis, California

    Post-Graduate Diploma, Trinity College Dublin
    Dublin, Ireland

    Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
    Los Angeles, California

    Recent Courses Taught

    Inventing the Great Books
    James Joyce
    Senior Exercise/Seminar Option
    The Anglo-Irish Literary Tradition

  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    National Endowment for the Humanities, Director, NEH Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers, “James Joyce’s Ulyssses: Texts and Contexts,” Dublin, Ireland, June 25-August 3, 2007; June-July, 2012

    Executive Committee, Modern Language Association (MLA), Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature, 2011-2016

    Midwest Modern Language Association, President, 2005-06