Contact: jat9@hawaii.edu
My research and teaching interests are African American literature (with a strong interest in African American modernism), African American visual culture, literature of the Black diaspora, African literature with a focus on migration, and the history of theory in its various forms. I have published on a range of material and authors ranging from a book chapter on lynching photography, Richard Wright in The New Centennial Review, Ralph Ellison in Intertext: A Journal of Theoretical Reflection, Frederick Douglass in Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, HBO's The Wire in Studies in Popular Culture, memorials and political violence in Transforming Anthropology, and interviews with historically significant figures across multiple venues such as Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men & JSR. I have recently published articles African migration literature in Research in African Literature, and also articles in Utopian Studies, & JSR. I am coeditor with professor Iheka (Yale University) of African Migration Narratives: Politics, Race, and Space (U. Rochester Press 2019) and author of African Migration and the Novel: Exploring Race, Civil War, and Environmental Destruction (U. Rochester Press 2024). I have a forthcoming article in Modernism/Modernity on time and emotions in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raising in the Sun.
I currently have an article on Locke's The New Negro (1925) under review. I am working on a book centered on African American modernism and labor. The latter project examines visual culture - photography, painting, and film - and literature from 1900 to World War II. The project examines the works of Paul Dunbar, Jean Toomer, Alain Locke, Jessie Fauset, Aaron Douglass, Oscar Micheaux, Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, James Van Der Zee, Claude McKay, and many more to synthesize visual representation with literary expression.
Areas of Interest
African American literature (with a focus on modernism), African American visual culture, African literature, literature of the Black diaspora, and theory
Courses
Spring Semester 2025
- ENG-780B: Seminar in Comparative Literature: African Migration Literature
Fall Semester 2024
- ENG-270: Intro to Lit: Literary History
- ENG-365: Fiction
Spring Semester 2024
- ENG-320: Introduction to English Studies
- ENG-434: Studies: 20th & 21st C Literature
Fall Semester 2023
- ENG-337: American Literature Mid-19th to Mid-20th Century
- ENG-373: African American Literature
Spring Semester 2023
- ENG-338: American Literature Since Mid-20th Century
- ENG-735F: African American Literature & Theory: African American Modernism
Summer Semester 2023
- ENG-320: Intro to English Studies