Research

Dr. Ayesha K. Hardison, Associate Professor of English, published a book on Writing through Jane Crow: Race and Gender Politics in African American Literature (University of Virginia Press 2014). In Writing through Jane Crow, Hardison examines African American literature and its representation of black women during the pivotal but frequently […]

Dr. Robin D. Muhammad, Chair and Associate Professor of African American Studies, published an article on “Garveyism Looks Toward the Pacific: The UNIA and Black Workers in the American West” in Perspectives journal online. In the article, Muhammad discusses the growth of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) or the […]

Many states have fallen behind in providing funding, implementing policies, and placing a high priority on improving rural and small-town schools—led by Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina and Arizona—according to the new biennial Why Rural Matters 2013-14 report from the nonprofit Rural School and Community Trust. “This is a biennial report […]

Dr. Michael B. Gillespie, Assistant Professor in African American Studies, analyzes Spike Lee’s film “Do The Right Thing” in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Film, due out in July. Gillespie’s piece on Do The Right Thing is part of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Film, which comprises 200 essays by leading film scholars […]

Dr. Michael B. Gillespie, Assistant Professor in African American Studies, published an essay on “Dirty Pretty Things: The Racial Grotesque and Contemporary Art” in the new book Post-Soul Satire: Black Identity after Civil Rights, which is due out in July. Post-Soul Satire is edited by Derek Maus and Jim Donahue (University Press of […]

Dr. Michael B. Gillespie, Assistant Professor in African American Studies, published “Smiling Faces: Chameleon Street, Racial Passing/Performativity, and Film Blackness” in Passing Interest: Racial Passing in U.S. Fiction, Memoirs, Television, and Film, 1990-2010. Gillespie’s essay examines Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s Chameleon Street (1990) and the ways that the film’s story of a black “Great […]

Dr. Michael B. Gillespie, Assistant Professor in African American Studies, published an article on “2 Nigs United 4 West Compton: A Conversation with Kevin Jerome Everson” in Liquid Blackness in April 2014. Excerpts: Kevin Jerome Everson’s work represents a distinct processing of materials, craft, and blackness. While he has worked […]