I received my Ph.D. in American Literature, with an emphasis on African American Literature, at McMaster University. My dissertation examined the representation of the African American folk, the use of folklore and the literary response to World War II in the writings of Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, Ann Petry and Richard Wright. My MA is from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica where I studied the literatures of Africa and the African diaspora.
My research interests include African American women’s writing and feminist theory, the African diaspora, folklore and folk culture, Caribbean literature and post-1945 African American writing. I am presently working on an extended study of African American writing of the 1950s and the recovery of Black literary and political radicalism during the Cold War era.
Since 2007, I have coordinated EMU’s College-in-Prison Project at Huron Valley Correctional for Women in Ypsilanti. This program brings undergraduate classes to inmate students.