I have a Ph.D. in American Literature from the CUNY Graduate Center and am a Professor of Humanities at New York Institute of Technology-NYC. My scholarship on African American Literature and Trauma Studies prioritizes the potential for transformative witness in addition to upholding the rigorous standards of these academic specializations. Among the most influential texts for my understanding of literary analysis and witness are Testimony: Crises of Witness in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History by Dori Laub and Shoshana Felman and Jane Lazarre’s essays and memoirs.

There have been significant discussions about white scholars in African American Studies and related scholarly areas, including the insightful examples linked below that I have found valuable and would like to share.

Read more: About

Where Is the White Professor Located?

Molefi Kete Asante 

White Scholars/African American Texts

Edited by Lisa A. Long

Naming the Problem That Led to the Question “Who Shall Teach African American Literature?” or, Are We Ready to Disband the Wheatley Court?

Nellie McKay

Rachel Dolezal Case Leaves a Campus Bewildered and Some Scholars Disgusted*

Stacey Patton

*BTW–I am cited in this one. It has a lot of great conversation on this controversy, and I was grateful to be included.