As Dennis Tyler read Saul Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet for a class on African American and Jewish relations, he couldn’t help but notice that "the one black character in the text was not only nameless, but also voiceless." Referred to only as "the black pickpocket," the character is nevertheless a central figure as the Jewish hero, Mr. Sammler, "follows him all over New York City," Dennis says, "in order to catch the pickpocket in action as he steals from other people."

Moreover, Mr. Sammler "enjoyed telling his Jewish male friends about his encounters with the black pickpocket," in particular repeatedly describing an incident when the pickpocket corners Mr. Sammler in the lobby of his apartment building and reveals his uncircumcised penis. "His friends were all curiously obsessed with the incident, demanding to know specific details about the size and shape," Dennis says. Theorizing about the homoerotic bond linking the black and Jewish characters, Dennis wonders if "Sammler’s ritual of dismemberment—the fixation on the pickpocket’s penis and the need to isolate it from the rest of the body—is an attempt to eroticize and perhaps even maintain control of an essence of manhood that is both feared and desired."

Indeed, he turned his wondering and theorizing into a paper for his class with Professor Eric Sundquist and, in shortened form, into a research proposal for the Ford Fellowship. Dennis had applied—and been turned down—shortly after he arrived at UCLA for graduate studies in English, proposing an extension of the senior honors thesis on the Harlem Renaissance that he’d written as an undergraduate at Stanford. UCLA faculty encouraged him to try again, and the proposal about Mr. Sammler’s Planet was successful.

His research plan, however, is still developing, as his adviser, Associate Professor Richard Yarborough, has encouraged his explorations. "The great thing about the Ford," Dennis says, "is that I now have the resources and time to research multiple projects and determine which one would make the best dissertation."

Although Dennis spent the summer pursuing the Bellow project with Professor Yarborough—while becoming thoroughly familiar with about 100 books for his first qualifying examination—he’s also looked in other directions. Coursework on disability studies with Helen Deutsch, for example, has prompted him to consider how race signifies a disability in black male bodies in 20th- century African American literature. "I’m interested in how the legal and scientific discourse on black blood as defective either marks African American men as degenerate or labels them freaks of natural law," Dennis says. "Perhaps one example of the rhetorical association of blackness and disability is the stereotype of the handicapped black man who can’t lift himself up by the bootstraps."

Dennis himself has achieved quite a record with bootstraps. Attending public schools in New Orleans, he "always felt that I had found my niche in academics," he says, but "even though I did well in high school, I admit there was some uncertainty as to whether or not I would have the same success in college." A high school guidance counselor encouraged him to be assertive in his college applications, and he was accepted at both Columbia and Stanford universities.

People always seemed to find it "such a shock" to learn he was attending Stanford, he says. "It’s rare that black men from New Orleans go off college and still rarer that they leave the state to do so." Although confident of his intelligence and abilities, he nevertheless "felt a great deal of pressure to perform well at Stanford, and I wasn’t sure what all my studying would amount to."

The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, awarded at the end of his sophomore year, helped him to envision a future. The Fellowship’s goal is to encourage minority scholars to become professors, and for the first time, Dennis found himself "not just being an English major but actually thinking about a career in academia." The Fellowship provided an opportunity to attend conferences and get a taste of the academic lifestyle.

Dennis chose UCLA for his graduate work because "I was won over by the extraordinary faculty when I visited the campus." In particular, he was impressed with Professor Yarborough, who continues to be a mentor. "He’s wonderful because he encourages me to choose a research topic that best fits my interests" Dennis says. "He’s really good at forcing me to think more critically about my research ideas, and he’s always willing to make time for me no matter how busy his schedule. That’s why I’m holding onto him." As it happens, Professor Yarborough is also a Ford Fellow.

Just settling down to his graduate studies, Dennis has made no firm career plans; teaching at a research university is a goal, and he’s confident about finding a position. Nevertheless, he says, "I get the sense that the job market itself is such a crapshoot. The choice about where I teach may not ultimately be up to me." For these reasons, he says, "I’m content with taking everything one step at a time."

Published in Fall 2005, Graduate Quarterly