Department of English Language & Literature

Education

• Ph.D., University of Rochester

Interests and Expertise

Dr. Lori Burlingame is a Professor of English, whose area of specialization is Native American literature, and the faculty advisor for the Native American Student Organization (NASO) at Eastern. Prof. Burlingame earned her B.A. from Allegheny College in English and Russian and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.

Before joining the English Department at Eastern Michigan University in the Fall of 1997, Prof. Burlingame worked as a lecturer at Nazareth College, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Geneseo, and SUNY Brockport. From 1994-1995, she received a FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Secondary Education) Fellowship at St. John Fisher College. She has also taught as a graduate student at the University of Rochester and as a co-instructor of a Fall 1994 writing seminar at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester.

Prof. Burlingame's research interests are in twentieth and twenty-first century Native American fiction, specifically the works of D'Arcy McNickle, James Welch, Louise Erdrich, and Leslie Silko. She has done some reviewing for The American Indian Quarterly, The American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Studies in American Indian Literatures (SAIL), Western American Literature, and The Great Plains Quarterly.

Prof. Burlingame loves teaching and working with students, and she believes in the interactive classroom in which students are actively engaged with and discussing literature and writing. Please feel free to e-mail or to call her; she welcomes hearing from students and prospective students.

Courses

• Native American Literature (161)
• Studies in Native American Literature (361)
• Major Authors: Louise Erdrich (450)
• Modern American Literature (310)
• Studies in the American Novel (421)
• Studies in Poetry (470)
• Introduction to Literature (100)
• Writing about Literature (Engl. 300)
• Graduate Studies in Native American Literature (592)
• Composition

Publications and Presentations

• Critical Review Essay: Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary by Joe Jackson. Western American Literature, vol. 52, no. 4, Winter 2018, pp. 459-462.
• Critical Review Essay: Companion to James Welch's 'The Heartsong of Charging Elk' by Arnold R. Krupat. Western American Literature, vol. 51, no. 2, Summer 2016, pp. 261-264.
• "Mythic Realism, Dreams, and Prophecy in James Welch's The Heartsong of Charging Elk." Moments of Mythical Realism in US Ethnic Literatures, edited by Lyn Di Iorio Sandin and Richard Perez, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, pp. 175-191.
• In Beauty I Walk: The Literary Roots of Native American Writing. Edited and with Introductions by Jarold Ramsey and Lori Burlingame, University of New Mexico Press, 2008.
• Critical Review Essay. The Novels of Louise Erdrich: Stories of Her People by Connie A. Jacobs. SAIL: Studies in American Indian Literatures, vol. 13, no. 4, Winter 2001, pp. 105-110.
• "Empowerment through 'Retroactive Prophecy' in D'Arcy McNickle's Runner in the Sun: A Story of Indian Maize, James Welch's Fools Crow, and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony." The American Indian Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 1, Winter 2000, pp. 1-18.
• "Cultural Survival in Runner in the Sun." The Legacy of D'Arcy McNickle: Writer, Historian, Activist, edited by John Lloyd Purdy. University of Oklahoma Press, 1996, pp. 136-151.
• "The Voice of the Serpent: An Interview with Leslie Marmon Silko." Bookpress: The Newspaper of the Literary Arts, vol. 3, no. 2, March 1993, pp. 1 and 6.

Additional Information

Prof. Burlingame has given numerous conference presentations on the works of Louise Erdrich, James Welch, David Treuer, Zitkala-Sa, and others; the mascot issue; teaching Native American literature; and the theme of adoption in literature. Among the places she has presented are the Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference, the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) Conference, Michigan College English Association (MCEA) Conferences, Liberal Arts Network Development (LAND) Conferences, and the Ypsilanti District Library at Whitaker Road.