William Nessly he/they joined NCSSM in August 2023 as an Instructor of American Studies and Asian-American Studies on our Durham campus. He grew up in the Triangle as the mixed-race child of a Japanese mother and a European American father. He taught for 12 years as a professor of English at West Chester University in the Philadelphia area, specializing in Asian American literature, transnational American studies, and postcolonial and narrative theory. Prior to his work as a professor, he also taught high school English in Japan with the JET Program and in New Orleans at LE Rabouin Magnet High School with Teach For America. He earned his PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his bachelor’s degree at Swarthmore College, after graduating from William G. Enloe High School in Raleigh. William teaches about US imperialism, critical and cultural theory, and strategies for writing about the ideology of narrative form.