Alec Joyner

Alec Joyner

Dissertation

"Going to Pieces: The Laughter of the Other in US Novels of the 1930s"

Research Interests

Biography

Alec Joyner is a 6th-year PhD candidate in English & Comparative Literature. His dissertation is titled "Going to Pieces: The Laughter of the Other in US Novels of the 1930s." His writing is forthcoming or has appeared in MELUS, Public Books, Harvard Review, Chicago Review of Books, and Full Stop. He currently serves as a preceptor in the Columbia Core Curriculum, teaching Literature Humanities, and he also coordinates Columbia's University Seminar in Affect Studies. He holds MA and MPhil degrees from Columbia in English & Comparative Literature, as well as a graduate certificate from Columbia's Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender (ISSG), and a BA from Yale in English and creative writing. Before graduate school, he worked as an English teacher in a French public school and as a literary scout for European book publishers.