Texas A&M University Maritime Studies
Daniel S. Traber

Daniel S. Traber

Professor, Maritime Studies College of Marine Sciences & Maritime Studies • Texas A&M University at Galveston
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Research Interests

Current Research Interests

American literature, popular culture, film

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy in English and American Literature University of Houston, 2000
  • Master of Arts in English and American Literature University of Texas at El Paso, 1995
  • Bachelor of Arts in English (minor in History) University of Texas at Austin, 1991

Courses Taught

  • ENGL 203: Writing about Literature
  • ENGL 251: Introduction to Film Analysis
  • ENGL 253: Introduction to Cultural Studies and Popular Culture
  • ENGL 338: American Ethnic Literature
  • ENGL 415: Herman Melville's Sea Novels

Publications

Books:

  • Culturcide and Non-Identity across American Culture.  Lexington Books, 2017.
  • Whiteness, Otherness, and the Individualism Paradox from Huck to Punk.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Selected Articles:

  • "Whose Loud Fast Rules? -- Always Already Post-Hardcore." Hardcore Research: Punk, Practice, Politics, edited by Konstantin Butz and Robert A. Winkler. Transcript, 2023: 215-225.
  • "You Ain’t No Punk, You Punk: On Semiotic Doxa, Postmodern Authenticity, Ontological Agency and the Goddamn Alt-Right." The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock, edited by George McKay and Gina Arnold, Oxford UP, 2021: 521-537.
  • "Clothing and the Oceanic Identity in Melville's Redburn." Critical Studies in Men's Fashion, vol. 8, nos. 1 & 2, 2021: 29-43.
  • "Motorsports as Popular Culture as Politics: Le Mans, F1, and Video Games."  Special issue on Neoliberalism in Popular Culture, The Journal of Popular Culture 51.2 (2018): 466-486.
  • "Pick It Up!  Pick It Up!: The Transnational Localism of Ska."  Popular Music and Society 36.1 (2013): 1-18.
  • "The Identity Joke: Race, Rap, Performance in CB4."  American Studies 52.1 (2012): 123-142.
  • "Locating the Punk Preppy (A Speculative Theory)."  The Journal of Popular Culture 41.3 (2008):488-508.
  • "Performing the Feminine in A Farewell to Arms."  The Hemingway Review 24.2 (2005): 28-40.
  • "L.A.'s 'White Minority': Punk and the Contradictions of Self-Marginalization."  Cultural Critique 48 (2001): 30-64.
  • "Whiteness and the Rejected Other in The Sun Also Rises."  Studies in American Fiction 28.2 (2000): 235-253.

Selected Presentations

  • "Patriotic Possession?: The Exorcist’s Mixed Politics (Form vs. Content)." Popular Culture Association. New Orleans, LA. 18 April 2025.
  • "Metafiction Bites: How Jaws Attacks Narrative Form (On Authority and Conspiracy in the 1970s)." Popular Culture Association. Chicago, IL. 28 March 2024.
  • "Affect and Interpellation in the Cinematic Car Chase." Popular Culture Association. San Antonio, TX. 7 April 2023.
  • "You Ain’t No Punk, You Punk: Postmodern Semiotics and the Alt-Right." Popular Culture Association. Virtual Conference. 5 June 2021.
  • "Pop, Politics, Pedagogy: The Case of Teaching Le Mans." Popular Culture Association. San Diego, CA. 12 April 2017.
  • "Stick It to the Man!: The Mythos of the (Vanishing) Manual Transmission." Popular Culture Association.  Seattle, WA.  23 March 2016.
  • "The Transnational Dandy in Redburn." International Melville Conference. Tokyo, Japan. 26 June 2015.
  • "Fanged Mestizos, Monstrous Pluralism in Blade." Popular Culture Association. New Orleans, LA. 4 April 2015.
  • "Monstrous Forms: Genre and Race in Deep Blue Sea."  Popular Culture Association. Chicago, IL. 16 April 2014.
  • "Driving Simulators, Hegemony and How to Make Sucking Subversive." Popular Culture Association. San Antonio, TX. 23 April 2011.
  • "Los Vatos Rudos: Pachuco-Ska's Transnational Localism." International Association for the Study of Popular Music. Cincinnati, OH. 12 March 2011.

Professional Appointments

  • Elected American Literature Representative, South Central Modern Language Association Executive Committee, 2014-2016.