An ASU professor was recognized Wednesday evening for penning a book that examines works of fiction from areas surrounding U.S. borders.
Claudia Sadowski-Smith received the Transdisciplinary Book Award from ASU’s Institute for Humanities Research for “Border Fictions: Globalization, Empire, and Writing at the Boundaries of the United States.”
In her book, the associate English professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences analyzed novels, short stories and dramas by writers who examine dramatic change along the northern and southern U.S. borders.
“I was interested in the fact that there was a huge surge in representation of the borders of Mexico and Canada in the late 1990s,” Sadowski-Smith said. “I wanted to look at how border areas are transformed and how people are affected by these transformations.”
She has been collecting and examining the contemporary narratives — about 20 total — since 1998, and published the book last February.
Some prominent authors examined in the “Border Fictions” book include indigenous writer Leslie Marmon Silko and Mexican writers Carlos Fuentes and Alberto Rios, an ASU professor.
The pieces Sadowski-Smith analyzed deal with cultural and economic integrations manifested at U.S. borders and historical perspectives on modern border developments, she said.
Sadowski-Smith, who grew up in Germany, said watching a border disintegrate with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 influenced her work.
“It brought about so many changes — many unexpected changes,” she said.
In 1992, she moved to the U.S., and later to Tucson, where she witnessed another kind of border controversy.
“I saw a border being reinforced, when borders were supposed to be disappearing globally,” she said.
What makes Sadowski-Smith’s collection unique is that it pulls from a cross-section of writers who focus on the Canadian border in addition to the Mexican border, she said.
“I wanted to get away from the idea that border issues are only identified with … the Mexican border,” Sadowski-Smith said. “If we look at [the Mexican and Canadian borders] together, we have a much more complex idea of what borders are.”
Sally Kitch, director of the institute, said she wanted to combine the recognition of other humanities authors at ASU with Sadowski-Smith’s award in order to create a cross-disciplinary humanities discussion.
“It’s a very impressive collection of books,” Kitch said. “[Sadowski-Smith’s] book crosses disciplines, it’s socially engaged and it reveals aspects of immigration that we pay little attention to in our humanities studies.”
English rhetoric and composition graduate student Leslie Daniels said she was impressed by the volume of humanities publications at the reception.
“It’s so important to recognize the amount of work that goes into the research and editing process,” she said. “It’s good to see the humanities publishing topics of modern social concern.”
Sadowski-Smith said she’s grateful to the institute not only for the recognition, but also for the opportunity to build intellectual discussion.
“The IHR is trying to bring together humanities scholars at ASU,” she said. “The award is designed to celebrate work that transcends academic borders.”
Reach the reporter at jessica.testa@asu.edu.
