Michael Kobre, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Michael Kobre is Dana Professor of English. He teaches classes in modern literature, American literature, critical theory and popular culture and in the university’s general education program.

His critical writing and fiction have appeared in Tin House, TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, West Branch, Critique, Mississippi Quarterly and other journals and in anthologies of essays on such subjects as the novelist Walker Percy, the rock star Bruce Springsteen, and superhero narratives. He’s the author of Walker Percy’s Voices (University of Georgia Press, 2000).

In addition to classes in literature and criticism, he has also offered courses on the political and social context of popular music and on comic books and graphic novels. His recent critical writing has focused on the genre of superhero narratives, examining the recurring deaths and rebirths of superheroes and the perpetual transformations of superhero bodies.

Once in a while, he can actually get through a class session without referring to Marvel superheroes or Bruce Springsteen, but only once in a while.

He received the Queens Teaching Award in 1994.

Education

Ph.D., English, Ohio University
M.F.A., University of Iowa
B.A., English, Ohio University