John Streamas, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies and American Studies and Culture

Director, American Studies and Culture Ph.D. Program

 

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.

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.