Education

2004 University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.A.  
2011 University of Minnesota, Ph.D. 

Courses Taught

Contemporary World Literature
East Asian Myth and Legend
Flashpoints: Paris 1870-1871
Honors Thesis
Introduction to Literary Studies
Introduction to Literary Theory
Literary Criticism: Aesthetics, Capital, Technology
Literary History
Literature Thesis
Lu Xun and Translation
Major Authors: Lu Xun
Modern Chinese Literature
Pathways to Honors
Postcolonial Literature and Theory
Research and Writing in the Discipline
Seminar: Radical Ontologies
Seminar: Video Games
World Literature
Writing and Inquiry
Writing and Research
Zhuangzi   

Career Specialties

Daniel Dooghan is a comparatist working on the development, translation, and circulation of world literature. Methodologically he draws on philological, phenomenological, and postcolonial approaches to literary study, among broader theoretical investments. Beyond literature, he also conducts research on video games from similar theoretical perspectives.

Professional and Community Activities

Dooghan's literary research examines how and why texts travel around the world. Paradigmatic for this work is the modern Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881-1936), whose expansive reading and tireless work writing, translating, and editing texts make him an influential and accessible node in the networks of global literary and cultural exchange. This project seeks to identify and investigate these networks to reveal how literary texts function in larger economies of cultural capital and as a means of framing international relations.

His work on video games investigates how game design and the mechanics of play invite players to act out and embody narratives about culture and geopolitics. It examines how games subtly--and likely unintentionally--reflect and reinforce national and economic arguments. How the interplay between surface gameplay and subterranean politics shapes a player's overall experience is the animating question of this research.

Dooghan's recent publications include essays on the translation of Lu Xun's corpus and the game Dark Souls.