DISSERTATION:
"Towards a Unified Articulation of the Self: Aesthetic Theory and Practice in the Fiction of Charles Johnson." Dissertation director: Trudier Harris.
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Charles Johnson’s Philosophical Black Fiction. Under contract with University of Illinois Press. The work is a study of the novels of Charles Johnson, an African American writer from Seattle, who blends elements of Western philosophy and Eastern religion as the foundation for his assessment of African American identity issues.
Essays and Interviews:
"‘You think a man can’t kneel and stand?’: Ernest J. Gaines’s Reassessment of Religion as Positive Communal Influence in A Lesson Before Dying." Callaloo. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Forthcoming.
"‘I was my father’s father, and he my child:’ The Process of Black Fatherhood and Literary Evolution in Charles Johnson’s Fiction." "Anything it Has a Mind to Be": Contemporary Black Men’s Writing Since 1970. Keith S. Clark, ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Forthcoming.
"Thomas and James: Rita Dove’s Visions of a Life in Thomas and Beulah and ‘Second-Hand Man.’" Painting with Words and Music: The Poetry of Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Margaret Walker. Trudier Harris, ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Forthcoming.
"Charles Johnson." American Writers Supplement VI. Jay Parini, ed. New York: Scribners, 2000. 185-202.
"‘Maybe I Killed My own Blood’: Döppelgangers and the Death of Double-Consciousness in Walter Mosley’s A Little Yellow Dog." Murder from the ‘Other’ Side. Adrienne Gosselin, ed. New York: Garland Press, 1999. 303-324.
"An Interview with Charles Johnson." New England Review 19:2 (Spring, 1998). 49-61.
"The Dream Defined: Bailey’s Cafe and the Reconstruction of American Cultural Identities." The Critical Response to Gloria Naylor. Sharon Felton & Michelle Loris, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 1997. 211-25.
In circulation:
"‘Out from the lushness of his legacy’: Heritage and Community in Frank London Brown’s Social Fiction." Under consideration at Callaloo for special issue on Chicago African American Writers issue.
Reference Articles and Reviews:
"Jonathan Little. Charles Johnson’s Spiritual Imagination." Review. African American Review. Forthcoming.
"African American Colleges and Universities." The Companion to Southern Literature. Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda MacKethan, eds. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Forthcoming.
"Charles Johnson." American Writers Supplement VI. Jay Parini, ed. New York: Scribners, 200. 158-201.
"Philip Weinstein. What Else But Love? The Ordeal of Race in Faulkner and Morrison." Review. African American Review 33(2): 355-57.
"Edwin Markham." American National Biography. Anne Wimer, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999. Volume 14, 514-16.
"Bob Marley." American National Biography. Anne Wimer, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999. Volume 14, 521-22.
"Dialect Poetry." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Trudier Harris, & Frances Smith Foster, Eds. New York: Oxford University. 1997. 213-16.
"Charles Johnson." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Trudier Harris, & Frances Smith Foster, Eds. New York: Oxford University. 1997. 401-02.
"The Man Who Cried I Am." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Trudier Harris, & Frances Smith Foster, Eds. New York: Oxford University. 1997. 477.
"Middle Passage." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Trudier Harris, & Frances Smith Foster, Eds. New York: Oxford University. 1997. 496.
"Rutherford Calhoun." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Trudier Harris, & Frances Smith Foster, Eds. New York: Oxford University. 1997. 639.
"John A. Williams." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Trudier Harris, & Frances Smith Foster, Eds. New York: Oxford University. 1997. 778-9.
"Illuminating Zora Neale Hurston’s Laughter." Review. Southern Literary Journal. XXVII(2). Chapel Hill, NC. Spring, 1996. pp. 124-127.
"Frances Ellen Watkins Harper." Whitman's and Dickinson's Contemporaries: An Anthology of Their Verse. Robert Bain, Ed. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University. 1996. 254-63.
"Bret Harte." Whitman's and Dickinson's Contemporaries: An Anthology of Their Verse. Robert Bain, Ed. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University. 1996. 364-71.
"Edwin Markham." Whitman's and Dickinson's Contemporaries: An Anthology of Their Verse. Robert Bain, Ed. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University. 1996. 435-40.
"William Vaughn Moody." Whitman's and Dickinson's Contemporaries: An Anthology of Their Verse. Robert Bain, Ed. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University. 1996. 503-12.
"Andrea Lee." The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States. Cathy Davidson and Linda Wagner-Martin, Eds. New York: Oxford University, 1994. 488-9.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:
"Dreamer: Charles Johnson’s New Gospel of ‘Whole Sight.’" International Association of Philosophy and Literature, Stony Brook, NY. May, 2000.
"‘Out from the lushness of his legacy:’ Heritage, Community, and the Chicago School in Frank London Brown’s Social Fiction." Modern Language Association, Chicago, IL. December, 1999.
"The Darkness and Blackness: Racial Appropriation in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and The Marrow of Tradition." Northeast Modern Language Association, Pittsburgh, PA. April, 1999.
"Not a Pretty Site: The L. A. Landscape as Social Commentary in Contemporary African American Detective Fiction." Popular Culture Association, San Diego, CA. April, 1999.
"‘The fighting, perhaps in all the world, was over’: Martial Arts and Identity Formation in Charles Johnson’s Short Fiction." Twentieth Century Literature Conference, Louisville, KY. February, 1999.
"Thomas and James: Rita Dove’s Visions of a Life in Thomas and Beulah and ‘Second-Hand Man.’" George Moses Horton Society Conference, Chapel Hill, NC. April, 1998.
"‘The Idea of Self-Sufficiency’: The Black Artist and an ‘Aesthetic of Blackness’ in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom." College Language Association, Atlanta, GA. April, 1997.
"Two Views of Desire: Charles Johnson’s Faith and the Good Thing, Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, and the Idea of Anti-Naturalism." Modern Language Association, Washington, DC. December, 1996. Also session chair and organizer for this panel.
"Lying in the Weeds, Crying in the Wilderness: Rereading James Baldwin’s Blues for Mr. Charlie." College Language Association, Winston-Salem, NC. April, 1996.
"‘In this Sign, Conjure’: African American Folklore and the Philosophy of Experience in Charles Johnson’s Faith and the Good Thing." Modern Language Association, Chicago, Ill. December, 1995.
"‘You think a man can't kneel and stand?’: Gaines's Revision of Religion in A Lesson Before Dying." College Language Association, Baton Rouge, LA. April, 1995,
"Finn the Red-Handed and the Murdered Finn: A Consideration of Huck's Two Trips to Jackson's Island." Philological Association of the Carolinas, Elon College, NC. March, 1993.
"‘Caliban's Dilemma’: Charles Johnson's Use of Language to Cross Genres in the African-American Philosophical Novel." Twentieth Century Literature Conference, Louisville, KY. February, 1993,
INVITED LECTURES:
"Folklore and the Harlem Renaissance." Vermont Council on the Humanities Annual Conference. November, 1998. "Dreamer: Charles Johnson’s Meditation on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Racialized History." Institute on Race and Social Division, Boston University. April, 1998.
"Reflections on the Harlem Renaissance." Panel Discussion. University of Vermont. February, 1998.
"Stages in the Life of A Faculty Career." Panel Discussion. Middlebury College. January, 1998.
"The Dream Defined: Bailey’s Cafe and the Reconstruction of American Cultural Identities." Abernethy Lecture Series, Middlebury College. March, 1997.
"From the Outside In: Shifting Sources of Self-Definition in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and A. J. Verdelle’s The Good Negress." Clifford Symposium, Middlebury College. September, 1996.
"Coffinmakers and Slave-Ship Cargo: Charles Johnson’s Allmuseri and American Literary Traditions." Thomas Fellowship, Middlebury College. March, 1996.
"Charles Johnson: An Introduction." PALANA Center, Middlebury College. February, 1996.
"Ethnic Notions: A Panel Discussion." Sponsored by Atwater Commons and the PALANA Center, Middlebury College. October, 1995.
"African American Poetry in the Late Nineteenth Century." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. March, 1995
"Rolling on the Threshing-Floor: The African American Church in Go Tell it On the Mountain." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. March, 1994.
"Fats Waller and ‘Powerhouse’: The Uses of Blues in Eudora Welty’s Fiction." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. October, 1993.
ACADEMIC HONORS:
Fellowship for College Teachers and Independent Scholars, 1999-2000. "Chicago’s Legacy: An African American Literary History"
New England Colleges Fund Grant for Collaborative Research, 1999-2000. "The Chicago Defender and African American Literary Culture."
Presidential Fellowship, Salzburg Seminar, 1997
Senior Research and Teaching Fellowship, UNC, 1994-95
James Gaskin Award for Excellence in Teaching Composition, UNC, 1993
Learning Disabilities Services ACCESS Teaching Award, UNC, 1992
Finalist, Students’ Undergraduate Teaching Award, UNC, 1992
Phi Beta Kappa, Centre College, 1986
TEACHING INTERESTS:
African-American fiction, poetry, and drama; African-American and Anglo-American cultural studies; 19th century Anglo-American fiction and poetry; African-American and Southern Anglo-American folklore.
ACADEMIC SERVICES:
Member, Faculty Council, Middlebury College, 1997-98; 2000-01
Member, Curriculum Committee, Middlebury College, 1999-2000
Member, Community Council, Middlebury College, 1996-97
MEMBERSHIPS:
International Association of Philosophy and Literature
Modern Language Association
College Language Association
George Moses Horton Society
Langston Hughes Society