African American Studies Staff

Courses:

African American Literature; U.S. Ethnic Literature; LGBTQ Literature; Introduction to English Studies; Introduction to Literature; African American Film

Education:

PhD, English, The Ohio State University

MA, English, The Ohio State University

BA, English, University of Cincinnati

Articles:

“Queering Personhood in the Neo-Slave Narrative: Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories.” African American Review 47.4 (2014): 447-459.

 “Cultivating Black Lesbian Shamelessness: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.” Rocky Mountain Review 66.2 (2012): 158-175.

 Selected Conference Presentations:

“Dunbar’s Maternal Masculinities: Mama’s Boys and Mothering Men,” American Literature Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 2016.

 “Queerness and the Supernatural in Antebellum African American Slave Narratives,” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, March 2016.

 “Related by Herself; or, The Legacy of Janie’s Tongue in Phoebe’s Mouth,” College Language Association Annual Conference, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, April 2015.

 “James Baldwin français” panelist, College Language Association Annual Conference, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, April 2015.

 “Looking for Lafayette: Vampires and Other Monsters in African American Archives,” Queer Places, Practices, and Lives Conference, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, May 2014.

 “Can Black Queer Sexuality and Lynching Share Dramatic Space?: James Baldwin’s Lynching Narratives,” Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Conference, Harrisburg, PA, April 2014.

 “Neuter-Bound/Neuter-Freed: Reconsidering Antebellum Black Sexuality and Gender,” Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2013.

 “Honey Boo Boo Meets Jim Crow: Racial Segregation and the Politics of Cuteness,” Ray Browne Conference on Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, February 2013.

 “Neo-Slave Narratives, Social Monsters, and Queering Human Rights,” Global Queerness: Sexuality, Citizenship, and Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century Conference, College of Wooster, Wooster, OH, October 2012.

 “‘An Organization to Save My Life’: AIDS and Black Communities in the Writing of Essex Hemphill and Assotto Saint,” Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Annual Conference, Scottsdale, AZ, October 2011.

Fellowships and Awards:

Wood Professorship, Department of English, Western Kentucky University, 2016-2017.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute on Paul Laurence Dunbar and American Literary History, Ohio History Society, Columbus, OH, July 2015.

Muste Award, Best Dissertation of the Year (Black Shamelessness: African American LGBT Writing, 1982-1991), Department of English, The Ohio State University, 2013.

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, The Ohio State University, 2012-2013.