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Carmen
Humanities
D214
Nolte-Odhiambo
Associate Professor of English
808-689-2345

Born and raised near Düsseldorf in Germany, Carmen Nolte-Odhiambo has lived in Rome and New York City as well as on O‘ahu. She holds a BA in Literature from Hawai‘i Pacific University and attended the Comparative Literature program at CUNY Graduate Center before transferring to University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she received both her MA and PhD in English. Aside from having held academic positions, she has experience in the performing arts, translation, and language instruction. Nolte-Odhiambo is a polyglot: She is fluent in Italian as well as English and German, has studied French and Spanish, and completed graduate coursework in Latin and Old English.

Nolte-Odhiambo is the author of several book chapters and journal articles as well as the co-editor of Childhood and Pethood in Literature and Culture: New Perspectives in Childhood Studies and Animal Studies (Routledge, 2017). She regularly presents her research at conferences held by local, national, and international professional organizations such as the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Studies Association (ASA), and the International Research Society on Children’s Literature (IRSCL). She is currently at work on a monograph – tentatively titled “Childhood in Giorgio Agamben's Philosophy: Infancy, Bare Life, Potentiality, Play” – that critically examines the manifold resonances of the child-figure in Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben's oeuvre.

Research interests: childhood studies; literature and literary theory; continental philosophy; feminist and queer theory; language and translation studies

Ph.D. English
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2013

M.A. English
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2007

B.A. Literature
Hawai‘i Pacific University, 2003

2020-Present: Associate Professor 
University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu

2015-2020: Assistant Professor 
University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu

2014-2015: Instructor 
University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu

2012-2014: Lecturer 
University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu

2005-2011: Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa 

  • ENG 100 Composition I
  • ENG 100T Composition I with Tutorial
  • ENG 200 Composition II
  • ENG 260 British Literature I
  • ENG 272 Introduction to Literature: Culture and Literature
  • ENG 272 Introduction to Literature and Culture: Literature of Migration
  • ENG 300B Topics in Literary Theory: Feminist Criticism
  • ENG 300G Topics in Literary Theory: Queer Theory
  • ENG 331B Topics in British Literature Pre-1700: Folktales and Legends
  • ENG 383 Children's Literature
  • ENG 385 Fairy Tales and Their Adaptations
  • ENG 386 Adolescent Literature
  • ENG 440G Major Author: Sara Ahmed
  • ENG 441 Gender and Sexuality in Literature and Film
  • ENG 491 Senior Project

Senior Projects Supervised

Yazmyne Duldulao, Unlocking Imagination: A Call for Balance in Writing Instruction.

Christian Kaneko, The Role of the Game Master in Interactive Storytelling.

Michelle Chronister, Pandemic Learning: E-learning Pedagogy and Its Effects.

Caitlin Atkins, Female Protagonists in Young-Adult Novels.

Ihilani Carter, Maternal Feminism: To My Biological Mother.

Laurie Mitchell, I Am a Feminist: Contemporary Complexities of Intersectionality.

Naomi-Grace Lau, Gender and Sexuality: Through the Lens of Pharmacy.

Krystle Lockheart, Young-Adult Literature and Censorship.

Stephanie Brooks, A Princess and a Tomboy: Chinese vs. Euro-American Gender Norms.

Tatiana Estill, Cyberpunk Fairy Tales vs. Classic Fairy Tales.

Nathan Brown, Selfish Saviors: The White Savior in Real Life and Entertainment.

Meagan Esperas, Mo‘olelo Lōkahi: Being a Story of Unity.

Aaron Ki‘ilau, The Cynic’s Guide to Customer Service: An Unromantic Explanation of Your Service Industry Job.

Kenneth Murdock, ‘I the Armor, and You the Dress’: Gender Roles in Game of Thrones.

Bryson Chun, Ka Mo‘olelo: Using New Media to Reclaim the Indigenous Narrative.

Marissa Pagud, Heteronormativity and the Queerness of Children’s Literature.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Book Chapters

Edited Collection

Book Reviews 

  • Folktales and Fairy Tales: Traditions and Texts from around the World. 2nd ed. (Ed. Anne E. Duggan and Donald Haase.) Marvels & Tales 31.2 (2017).
  • Justice in Young Adult Speculative Fiction: A Cognitive Reading. (By Marek C. Oziewicz.) Marvels & Tales 30.2 (2016).
  • Die Geschichte vom Rotkäppchen. (The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood.) (By Hans Ritz.) Marvels & Tales 28.2. (2014).
  • Snotty Saves the Day and Lily the Silent. (By Tod Davies.) Marvels & Tales 28.1. (2014).
  • Handbuch zu den “Kinder- und Hausmärchen” der Brüder Grimm: Entstehung – Wirkung – Interpretation. (Handbook of the Grimm Brothers’ “Children’s and Household Tales”: Origin – Impact – Interpretation.) (By Hans-Jörg Uther.) Marvels & Tales 24.1 (2010).
  • Adventures Into Otherness. (By Maria Lassén-Seger.) Marvels & Tales 23.2 (2009).
  • The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature (edited by Jack Zipes) and Crosscurrents in Children’s Literature (edited by J. D. Stahl, Tina L Hanlon, and Elizabeth Lennox Keyser). Marvels & Tales 22.2 (2008).

The Containment of Childhood: Children’s Literature and Political Rights. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2013.

"Translating the Human: From Infancy to Literacy and Back Again." Session on Theory. Annual Conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) (Palm Springs 2024)

"A Different Rhythm: Chanting and Temporality in Hawaiian Adolescent Literature." 17th International Child and the Book Conference (Podgorica, Montenegro 2023). 

"Animal Studies." Podcast. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa English Department (Honolulu, 2023).

"Puer Sacer: The Child as a Figure of Bare Life." Panel on International Children's Rights Discourse. Conference on Child Protection and the Rights of the Child: Transnational Perspectives. Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice (CHRRJ) at McMaster University (Ontario, Canada 2023)

“Can the Wild Child Speak? Kaspar Hauser Syndrome and Bare Life.” Philosophy and Literature. Conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) (Los Angeles 2022)

"Out of Time: Aetotemporalities and Hawaiian Young Adult Literature." Children's Literature Association session on Bodies, Borders, and Boundaries: Embodiments of Multicultural and Transnational Children. Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA) (Seattle 2020) 

"Out of Time: Aetotemporalities and Young-Adult Literature." Childhood and Youth Studies Caucus panel on Kanaka Maoli Childhood, Epistemologies, and Futurity. Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association (ASA) (Honolulu 2019)

"Queering Aetotemporality: The Liminal Figure of the Pet." Second CIRQUE (Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca Queer) Conference on Performativity: Pasts, Presents, and Futures (Pisa, Italy 2019)

"'I be home': Childhood Belonging in Hawai'i." Nineteenth Biennial Conference on Literature and Hawai‘i’s Children (Honolulu 2018)

"'I be home': Childhood Belonging in Hawai'i." Conference of the Oceanic Popular Culture Association (OPCA) (Honolulu 2018)

"Through the Black Mirror: Child Abuse in 'Shut Up and Dance.'" Playing with Childhood in the 21st Century Conference (Pittsburgh 2018)

“Unhoming the Child: Queer Paths and Precarious Futures in Kissing the Witch.” Conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) (Honolulu 2017)

"Settler Colonialism and Queer Kinship in Lois-Ann Yamanaka's Blu's Hanging." Conference of the International Research Society on Children's Literature (IRSCL) (Toronto, Canada 2017)

“Hawai‘i’s Unbecoming Children.” Children’s Literature Forum. Conference of the Modern Language Association (MLA) (Philadelphia 2017)

“Childhood and Pethood in Children’s Literature and Culture.” Eighteenth Biennial Conference on Literature and Hawai‘i’s Children (Honolulu 2016)

“The Unbecoming Child and Its Discontents.” Conference of the Oceanic Popular Culture Association (OPCA) (Honolulu 2016)

“Becoming Adults: The ‘Not-Yet’ Realm of Childhood.” Conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) (Portland 2015)

“Female Adventurers and the Confines of Gender.” Seventeenth Biennial Conference on Literature and Hawai‘i’s Children (Honolulu 2014)

“Performing ‘Home’: Domestic, National, & Transnational Longing & Belonging.” Conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) (Honolulu 2010)

“Don't Disturb the Universe: Adult/Child Hierarchies in Children’s Literature.” Fifteenth Biennial Conference on Literature and Hawai‘i’s Children (Honolulu 2010)

“Subverting Colonial Knowledge and Ideology.” Place and Space in Children’s Literature Conference (Oxford, England 2009)

“Cultural Translation and Resistance.” Conference of the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA) (Honolulu 2008) 

“Magical Feast: Digesting the Harry Potter Series.” Fourteenth Biennial
Conference on Literature and Hawai‘i’s Children (Honolulu 2008)

“Female Rebels in Astrid Lindgren’s Work.” Fourteenth Biennial Conference on Literature and Hawai‘i’s Children (Honolulu 2008)

“Re-Framing Fairy-Tale Heroines in Contemporary Pop Culture.” Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations (PCA/ACA) (San Francisco 2008)

“The Plot Thickens: Friends and Foes in Harry Potter.” Thirteenth Biennial
Conference on Literature and Hawai‘i’s Children (Honolulu 2006)

Current AY

  • Humanities Assessment Coordinator 
  • Faculty Mentor