John Streamas

  1. Associate Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies and American Studies and Culture
  2. Head of Section, Comparative Ethnic Studies
Email Addressstreamas@wsu.edu
LocationThompson Hall 17

Biography

I immigrated from Japan. My mother was a war bride. I have worked in proofreading and copyediting, syntactic analysis, statistical clerking, manual writing, and periodical distribution. I have taught writing and literature courses, creative writing, ethnic studies, and American studies.

Education

  • Ph.D., American Culture Studies: Bowling Green State University, 2001
  • Graduate Certificate, Ethnic Studies: Bowling Green State University, 2001
  • M.A., English: Syracuse University, 1981
  • A.B., English: Miami University, 1977

Research Interests

I am interested in the narrative and racial politics of time and space, the implications of color and colorism, and the Japanese American experience during World War II. Recently, I have explored the vexed relationship between higher education and people of color.

I am currently working on a book linking narrative temporalities to nuclear weapons and racism, tentatively titled The Ends of Times: Race and Nuclear Apocalypse.

Teaching Interests

I teach the literatures and cultures of people of color, cultural theory, immigration, and writing.

Publications

Articles and Book Chapters

  • Streamas, John. “Time Zero”, Kronoscope, vol. 24, no. 2, 2025, pp. 94-104.
  • Streamas, John. “Overselling Higher Education to Communities of Color,” Social Justice in Action. Models for Campus and Community, edited by Neal Lester. MLA, 2024, pp. 36-49. ISBN: 9781603296588 (Paperback). ISBN: 9781603296571 (Hardcover)
  • Streamas, John. “Not Down but Different: Depression in the Shadow of the Black Dog,” in Re/Visioning Depression: Creative Approaches to “Feeling Bad,” edited by Julie Hollenbach and Robin Alex McDonald. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. pp. 39-50.
  • Streamas, John. “The War Between School Time and ‘Colored People’s Time”, Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 25, no. 6, 2020, pp. 709-721.
  • Streamas, John. “A Vision for Scholar-Activists of Color”, Journal of Academic Freedom, vol. 10, 2019, pp. 1-10.
  • Streamas, John. “Asia-Pessimism: Modeling a Revolution in Failure,” The Comparatist, vol. 43, 2019, pp. 112-24.
  • Streamas, John. “East by Northwest: Preserving Pacific War Memory at Hanford and Minidoka.” Dark Tourism in the American West. Ed. Jennifer Dawes. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, pp. 69-89.
  • Streamas, John. “How We Lost my Academic Freedom: Difference and the Teaching of Ethnic Studies.” In Teaching with Tension: Race Resistance and Realities in the Classroom, Eds. Philathia Bolton, Cassander Smith, and Lee Bebout. Northwestern UP, 2019, pp. 143-162.
  • Streamas, John. “Not Same, Not Different: Counting Temporalities in Peter Malekin’s Alchemy of Time and Ruth Ozeki’s Time Being.” Time, Consciousness, and Writing: Peter Malekin Illluminating the Divine Darkness . Eds. Robert Eddy and Theo Malekin. Brill Rodopi, 2018, pp. 274–291.
  • Streamas, John. “A Mottled Minority: Asian American in the Whitening Academy”, Narratives of Marginalized Identities in Higher Education Inside and Outside the Academy. Eds. Jo Davis-McElligatt, Keith Dorwick, and Sandosh Khadka. Routledge, 2018.
  • Streamas, John. “The Real War That Got into the Movies: Eastwood and Spielberg in the Pacific.” The Films of Clint Eastwood: Critical Perspectives. Eds. Matt Wanat and Leonard Engel. University of Utah Press, 2018, pp. 99-112.

Creative Writing

  • Streamas, John. “Parallel Waters” (poem), High Desert Journal No. 32. Spring 2021.
  • Streamas, John. “Golden Years” and “Shelter Out of Place” (poems), Tales from Six Feet Apart, online anthology from īO Journal, 2021.
  • Streamas, John. “Saw Something, Said Something” and “For Richard Wright” (poems) in Rigorous 4:4.

Courses Taught

  • AMERST/WOMENST 216 Introduction to American Cultural Studies
  • AMERST 506 Frameworks in American Cultural Studies
  • AMERST 520 Colonization, Globalization and Decolonization
  • AMERST 590 Seminar in American Studies
  • CES 101 Race and Racism in the United State
  • CES 111 Introduction to Asian Pacific American Studies
  • CES 211 Asian Pacific American History
  • CES 220 Social Justice Literature
  • CES 244 Critical Globalizations
  • CES 301 Race and Global Inequality
  • CES 304
  • CES 313 Asian Pacific American Literature
  • CES 314 Pacific Islander History and Culture
  • CES 380 Immigration and Citizenship in the Global Economy
  • CES 401 Seminar in Culture and Power
  • CES 405 [CAPS] Cultural Criticism and Theory
  • CES 413 Asian Pacific Americans and Popular Culture
  • CES 440 [CAPS] Global Social Justice
  • CES 491 Theories of Racism and Ethnic Conflicts
  • CES 494 Advanced Topics in Ethnic Studies