Dr. Paul Nadal

Biography

Paul Nadal is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of literature and economy, with a particular focus on Asian American and Philippine Anglophone literature. His research combines literary analysis with economic history, using archival research to study the novel and developing a multiscalar reading practice that elucidates the historical meanings contextualized within the works themselves. His current book project, 'Remittances, Literary Economy,' develops a sustained inquiry into the convergence of novels and remittances, exploring the money migrant workers send home. He theorizes remittances as a currency that facilitates heuristic readings intersecting the circulations of literature, people, ideas, and value. This book uncovers the significant role that English-language literature played in the twentieth-century transformation of the Philippines into one of the world's largest labor-export economies. Nadal's academic journey includes a Ph.D. in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a dissertation fellow at the Institute of International Studies. He has also held the title of Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Wellesley College. At Princeton, he is jointly appointed in the Departments of English and American Studies and teaches courses such as 'Asian American Literature' and 'Global Novel,' focusing on historical materialist methods and the interplay of culture and economic mediations.

Research Interests

Experience