Connor, Kimberly Rae

Dr. Kimberly Rae Connor is Associate Professor in the College of Professional Studies at the University of San Francisco. She received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. Dr. Connor’s academic interests focus on African American religious life and cultural production. She is the author of three books, including most recently Imagining Grace: Liberating Theologies in the Slave Narrative Tradition (University of Illinois Press, 2000).

Academic Novels as Satire

2007 0-7734-5418-7
This book explores the ways in which academia serves as a repository for contemporary cultural issues, problems, and performances by way of interpretations of academic fiction that observe this phenomenon. Composed by practicing academics who also appreciate satire aimed at their profession, the authors offer this collection as a correction to increasingly cynical portrayals of academic life. Instead the authors provide interpretations that identify satire as a timely and effective genre for critically commenting on the state of academia because it reveals ethical dimensions that engage an ironic voice to negotiate issues of culture and identity. Included among the essays are the results of responses gathered from practicing authors in the genre of academic satire who provide commentary and insights exclusive to this collection.