Perdigao, Lisa
Lisa K. Perdigao
Emeritus Faculty | College of Psychology and Liberal Arts: School of Arts and Communication
Educational Background
B.A. Boston College 1997
M.A. Boston College 1999
Ph.D. Northeastern University 2004
Professional Experience
Dr. Perdigao teaches courses in American and British literature, children’s and adolescent literature, cultural studies, film, and television. She received the Andrew W. Revay Jr. Award for Excellence in Service in 2019, the Charles E. Helmstetter Award for Excellence in Research in 2014, the Kerry Bruce Clark Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008, and the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society Excellence in Teaching Award in 2005.
Selected Publications
Books
From Modernist Entombment to Postmodernist Exhumation: Dead Bodies in Twentieth-Century American Fiction. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2010.
Death in American Texts and Performances: Corpses, Ghosts, and the Reanimated Dead. Ed. Lisa K. Perdigao and Mark Pizzato. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2010.
Articles and Essays
“‘Not everyone's cut out for Hollywood’: ‘The Iron Ceiling’ in Marvel’s Agent Carter.” Women in STEM on Television: Critical Essays, ed. Ashley Lynn Carlson. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2018. 102-119.
“#ITSALLCONNECTED: Assembling the Marvel Universe.” Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural and Geopolitical Domains, ed. Julian C. Chambliss, William L. Svitavsky, and Daniel Fandino. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2018. 52-63.
“‘I must become something else’: The Evolution of The CW’s Arrow.” Arrow and Superhero Television: Essays on Themes and Characters of the Series. Ed. James F. Iaccino, Cory Barker, and Myc Wiatrowski. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017. 11-26.
“A Home at the End of the World: The Future of Domesticity in the Whedonverse.” At Home in the Whedonverse: Essays on Domestic Place, Space and Life. Ed. Juliette Kitchens. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2017. 182-197.
“The Lazarus Phenomenon: Resurrecting the Green Arrow.” Studies in Popular Culture 39.1 (2016): 81-99.
“Elusive Particles.” Boston Review 25 May 2016.
http://bostonreview.net/poetry/lisa-perdigao-rae-armantrout-itself
“‘In Extremis’: Unnatural Selection in Lifetime’s Speculative Fictions.” The Lifetime Network: Essays on "Television for Women" in the 21st Century. Ed. Emily Witsell and Emily L. Newman. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016. 95-115.
“Becoming the Stories: Indefinite Play in Big Fish.” Tim Burton: Essays on the Films. Ed. Johnson Cheu. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016. 86-101.
“‘The dream has become their reality’: Infinite Regression in Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Inception.” The Cinema of Christopher Nolan: Imagining the Impossible. Ed. Jacqueline Furby and Stuart Joy. NY: Columbia University Press, 2015. 120-131.
“The Intertextual Whedon.” Review of Reading Joss Whedon. Studies in Popular Culture 37.2 (2015): 162-165.
“Gray Matter: The Malleability of Intelligence in Fringe.” Genius on Television: Essays on Small Screen Depictions of Big Minds. Ed. Ashley Lynn Carlson. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015. 59-79.
“At the ‘corner of no and where’: River’s Unmappable Body in the Firefly/Serenityverse.” Firefly Revisited: Essays on Joss Whedon’s Classic Series. Ed. Michael Goodrum and Philip Smith. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. 53-67.
“Ghosts in the Machine: Fringe Bodies.” Supernatural Studies 2.1 (2015): 62-74.
"'Swan Song': The Art of Letting Go in Glee." Glee and New Directions for Social Change. Ed. Brian C. Johnson and Daniel Faill. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2015. 195-206.
“Microreview: Martha Silano, Reckless Lovely.” Boston Review 27 Feb. 2015.
http://bostonreview.net/poetry/lisa-perdigao-microreview-martha-silano-reckless-lovely
"Angela Hunt’s Uncanny Florida." Women of Florida Fiction: Essays on 12 Sunshine State Writers. Ed. Tammy Powley and April Van Camp. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015. 133-144.
"Advanced Introduction to Liminality: Community on the Fringe." A Sense of Community: Essays on the Television Series and Its Fandom. Ed. Ann-Gee Lee. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. 167-179.
"'Transform, and twist, and change': Deconstrucing Coraline." The Gothic Fairy Tale in Young Adult Literature: Essays on Stories from Grimm to Gaiman. Ed. Tanya Pell and Joe Abbruscato. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. 102-122.
"'coming undone': Entering Jorie Graham’s Poststructuralist Poetics." South Atlantic Review 77.1-2 (2012): 34-57.
"'It Aint Balanced Right’: Repositioning the Body in and of As I Lay Dying.” Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Ed. Patrick O’Donnell and Lynda Zwinger. NY: MLA, 2011. 123-135.
"'There’s really nothing left to explore': Imagineering, Innoventions, and Figments in Florida Studies." Simulation in Media and Culture: Believing the Hype. Ed. Robin DeRosa. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2011. 209-217.
"'I hear it’s best to play along': The Poststructuralist Turn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies 8.4 [32] (2011).
http://www.whedonstudies.tv/uploads/2/6/2/8/26288593/perdigao_slayage_8.4.pdf
“‘This one’s broken’: Rebuilding Whedonbots and Reprogramming the Whedonverse.” Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies 8.2-3 [30 & 31] (2010).
http://www.whedonstudies.tv/uploads/2/6/2/8/26288593/perdigao_slayage_8.2-3.pdf
"Re-membering Beloved." The Fiction and Prose of Toni Morrison: Teaching Race, Culture, and Identity. Ed. Jami Carlacio. Urbana: NCTE, 2007. 117-124.
"'the words I’d found': The Politics and Poetics of Recovery in Adrienne Rich’s Poetry." "Catch if you can your country's moment": Recovery and Regeneration in the Poetry of Adrienne Rich. Ed. William Waddell. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 141-157.
"'I got over': Memory, Mourning, and Aesthetics in Erna Brodber’s Louisiana." Come Weep With Me: Loss and Mourning in the in the Writings of Caribbean Women Writers. Ed. Joyce C. Harte. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 74-91.
"'Something He Could Keep': The Politics of Change in Postmodern Adolescent Literature." To See the Wizard: Politics and the Literature of Childhood. Ed. Laurie Ousley. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 109-127.
Research
Death and resurrection in literature, film, television, and comics
Mourning and melancholia in literature, film, and television
Loss and recovery in contemporary poetry
The Marvel Cinematic Universe and the culture of convergence
Comic book adaptations in film and television
Identity politics in the Whedonverses
The struggle with language and identity in young adult (YA) literature
Florida culture in literature, film, and television
Research & Project Interests
Dr. Perdigao’s research focuses on narrative ends and beginnings, specifically the representation of death and resurrection in literature, film, television, and comics. Her first book, From Modernist Entombment to Postmodernist Exhumation (Ashgate, 2010), examines the struggle with and for closure in twentieth-century American fiction. This work has expanded into other mediums as she explores resurrection and regeneration in film and television, including the reanimation of comics on the big and small screen.