PUBLICATIONS/WRITING PROJECTS
Book Projects
Articles and Essays in Collections
"Like Being Mugged by a Metaphor: Multiculturalism and
State Narratives" in Mapping Multiculturalism, eds,.
Avery Gordon and Chris Newfield (Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1996)
"The Postmodernist Rag: Political Identity and the Vernacular
in Song of
Solomon" in New Essays on Song of Solomon, ed.
Valerie Smith, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995.
"Don't Talk with Your Eyes Closed/Caught in the Hollywood
Gun Sights" in
Borders, Boundaries. and Frames: Cultural Criticism and Cultural
Studies
(essays from the English Institute), ed. Mae Henderson, New York:
Routledge,
1995.
'Who's Looking for What?: Popular Culture and 'Political Correctness,"'
part
of "Can Popular Culture Be Politically Correct: A Symposium,"
Social Text
36, 11.3 (Fall 1993).
"Standing in for the State: Black Nationalism and 'Writing'
the Black
Subject, Alphabet City 3 (October 1993).
"If I Could Talk About It, This Is Not What I Would Say,"
Assemblage:
Critical Journal of Architecture and Design Culture (special
issue on
violence/space) 20 (April 1993).
"Foreword" to (Dis)Forming the American Canon: African
Arabic Slave
Narratives and the Vernacular", Ron Judy, Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press,
1993.
"Multiculturalism: Negotiating Politics and Knowledge,"
Concerns: Women's
Caucus for the Modern Languages 22.3 (Fall 1992).
"To Take Dancing Seriously Is to Redo Politics", Z
Magazine Z Papers 1.4
(October 1992).
"Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels: Ideological
War by
Narrative Means," in Race-ing Justice, Engendering Power:
The Anita Hill-
Clarence Thomas Controversy and the Construction of Social Reality,
ed.
Toni Morrison, New York: Pantheon Books, 1992.
"The Statement of the Black Faculty Caucus: Multiculturalism"
[with Ted
Gordon] in Debating "PC": The Controversy Over Political
Correctness on
College Campuses, ed. Paul Berman, New York: Bantam Doubleday
Dell
Publishing Group, Inc., 1992.
"Narrative, Metacommentary, and Politics in a 'Simple' Story"
in
Approaches to Teaching Things Fall Apart,
ed. Bernth Lindfors, New York:
Modern Language Association, 1991
.
"But Compared to What? Realism, Essentialism, and Representation
in Spike
Lee's School Daze and Do the Right Thing,"
Black American Literature
Forum 25.2 (Summer 1991).
"Shuckin' Off the African-American Native Other: What's Po-Mo
Got to Do
with It?" Cultural
Critique 18 (Spring 1991).
"Toni Morrison" in African American Writers,
eds,. Valerie Smith, Lea
Baechler, and A. Walton Litz, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1990.
"Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and African-American Literary Discourse:
Figures in
Black and The Signifying Monkey," New England
Quarterly (December
1989). Reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism CLS-65-YB
(1991/1992).
"Constructing and Reconstructing Afro-American Texts: A Consideration
of
the Critic as Ambassador and Referee," American Literary
History
(Summer 1989)
"Purple Rain: It's Not Just a Movie," Tabloid: A
Review of Culture and
Everyday Life No. 9 (1985).
LECTURES
"Black Nationalism and Popular Culture" lecture at Vassar
College, 31
October 1995.
"Narrative, Blackness, and the Political Economy," lecture
at Washington
University, presented by African & Afro-American Studies,
20 April 1995.
"Black Nationalism and State Culture: Writing the Political
Subject," lecture
at Brown University, 11 April 1994.
"Black Nationalism, Literary Critical Production, and the
Creation of a Non-
State Romanticized Subject," lecture in the Department of
English series
"'Race,' Racial Representation, and the 19th Century Literary
Imagination,"
Stanford University, 1 April 1994.
"Black Nationalism and Black Cultural Common Sense,"
lecture in the
Africana Studies and Institute of Afro-American Affairs series
Black
Thought in Progress, New York University, 22 March 1994.
"Race, Black Nationalism, and State Culture," lecture
and colloquium at
Wesleyan University, 7-8 February 1994.
"'Deep Cover: Black Nationalism and Hollywood," lecture
in the Brooklyn
College Contemporary African American Culture and Criticism"
series, 28
October 1993.
"Race and the Narrative Construction of Reality," Georgetown
University
Student Affairs Distinguished Lectures 1993-1994, Washington,
D.C., 25
October 1993.
"Black Feminism and Rethinking Black Cultural Commonsense,"
lecture in
the Institute for Research on Women's 1993-1994 series "Thinking
About
Women," 21 October 1993.
"Race, State imperatives, and Policy," lecture at the
University of California
Humanities Research Institute, University of California, Irvine,
16
September 1993.
"'Deep Cover,' Black Nationalism, and Black Spectatorship,1
Department of
English lecture and colloquium series, Wesleyan University, 04
December
1992.
"Violence within the Culture," keynote address at "Many
Voices, One Call:
Violence within the Culture" conference, University of Texas,
Austin, TX, 06
November 1992.
"Getting from Here to There: Cultural Studies," lecture
at Whitney Museum
of American Art, 27 October 1992.
"Political Correctness' and the University," presentation
at the University of
Colorado, Colorado Springs, 10 September 1992.
"Whose Identity and History? 'The Passion of Remembrance'
and
Limitations of Black Nationalism,"lecture and film discussion
at "Both Sides
of the Camera 1992, Women and Film: Sexual
Politics in Film," Princeton University, 27 February 1992.
'What is African-American Intellectual History?" lecture
at the Society for
the Humanities, Cornell University, 05 February 1992.
"'She's Gotta Have It' and Womanist Deconstruction,"
presentation at the
Neighborhood Film/Video Project, International House of Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania, 06 May 1991.
"Representation, Realism, and Essentialism," presentation
at the
"Colonialism, Exoticism, and Sexuality," panel of the
"Both Sides of the
Camera: Women and Film Series," Princeton University, 25
April
1991.
"Problems in Afro-American Cultural Discourse, Trumbell Lecture
in
American Studies at Yale University, April 1991.
"Multiculturalism and Postmodernism," lecture at Swarthmore
College,
March 1991.
United States Information Service-sponsored Telephone Colloquia
[with
Arnold Rampersad]: (1) University of Sydney, Australia, October
1990 and
(2) Cairo University, Egypt, February 1991.
On the Battlefield of Love and Theory: Reading The Color Purple,''
Lecture
and Workshop in Program Series: "Integrating Black Studies
into the Core
Curriculum," Marquette University, 18-19 October 1990.
"African-American Cultural Discourse: Remapping Cultural
Studies and
Postmodernism," Lecture:Syracuse University, 08 December
1989.
'Whose Narrative is This Anyway?|" Presentation on Spike
Lee's "She's
Gotta Have it" at the Center for the Study of Black Literature
and Culture's
Black Film Series, University of Pennsylvania, 12 November 1990.
"Black Feminism," Lecture: Women Studies Program, Harvard
University,
04 December 1989.
"Reading Under Water: Afro-American Literature--Zora Neale
Hurston,"
L.L. Smith Lecture, University of Wyoming, October 1988.
"Song of Solomon and the Discourses of Magical Realism
and
Poststructuralism," Presentation: Review Club, Stanford University,
June
1986.
"Teaching 'Those Wild Spaces": Alternative Pedagogy
and Literatures of
American Women of Color," Stanford University, May 1986.
CONFERENCE PANEL AND SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATIONS AND/OR
ORGANIZING
"Black American Literature and/in American Literary Surroundings,"
presented as part of the American Literature Division program
"Conflict
and Consensus in American Studies," Annual Convention of
the Modern
Language Association, Chicago, 27-30 December 1995.
"Black Nations/Queer Nations? Lesbian and Gay Sexualities
in the African
Diaspora" conference plenary session presentation, Center
for Lesbian and
Gay Studies, City University of New York, 09-11 March 1995.
"Desires and Black Men," presentation at "Beyond
the Boundary: Men, Race,
and Culture" conference at New York University in conjunction
with the
Whitney Museum Exhibition "Black Men: Representations of
Masculinity in
Contemporary American Art," New York, 24-25 February 1995.
"Race Matters: Black Americans, U.S. Terrain," conference
at Princeton
University, 28-30 April 1994. I organized the conference and presented
a
paper as part of the "Ideology and Aesthetics" panel.
Cultural Studies seminar presentation and "Labor Culture:
Yesterday,
Today, Tomorrow" symposium presentation, George Mason University,
15-
16 April 1994.
"Location is Whom, Identity is Where, Politics is Now, and
the Terrain is
Slippery," at the Princeton/Rutgers conference "Placements/Displacements:
The Politics of Location," Princeton University and Rutgers,
8-9 April 1994.
"Black Studies Intellectualism: Crossing Community Lines,"
symposium at
the Wolfe institute Brooklyn College 2000 Conference, 09 December
1993.
'Who Is Speaking to Whom: 'Post-Theory' and African-American Studies,"
at SUNY Stony Brook's conference "Disorderly Disciplines,"
29-30 October
1993.
"Imagining Alliances," panel participation as part of
"Cross Talk: A
Multicultural Feminist Symposium,The New Museum, New York, 05-06
June 1993.
"Black Nationalism, Non-State Romanticism, and Criticism,"
presented as
part of the Division on Literary Criticism's program "Nationalism
and
Criticism," Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association,
New
York, 27-30 December 1992.
'Who's Looking for What?" presented as part of the Division
on Popular
Culture's program "Can Popular Culture Be Politically Correct?"
Annual
Convention of the Modern Language Association, New York 27-30
December 1992.
"Like Being Mugged by a Metaphor, Part ll: The Worlding of
Political
Subjects," presentation at Translating Cultures: The Future
of
Multiculturalism conference, University of California,
Santa Barbara, 11-15 November 1992.
"Like Being Mugged by a Metaphor, Part I: Black Nationalism
and Family
Narrative," presentation at "Crossing Identifications"
conference, Center for
Lesbian and Gay Studies, CUNY Graduate Center, 25 September 1992.
"Don't Talk with Your Eyes Closed: Criticism and Black Film,"
English
Institute, Harvard University, 27-30 August 1992.
"Thinking and Agency: The Worlding of African-American Studies,
or,
Praxis Makes Perfect," Keynote Address at the "Theory,
African-American
Studies, and Black Community" Graduate Student Conference,
University of
Pennsylvania Afro-American Studies Program and the Center for
the
Study of Black Literature and Culture, 12-13 June 1992.
"The End of Anti-Communism?" presentation at "Rethinking
Culture in the
Post-USSR Era" symposium, Center for the Humanities at Wesleyan
University, 27 May 1992.
"Caught in the Hollywood Gun Sights: Race and Representation,"
presentation at the Frames of Reference: Hollywood, Race, and
Ethnicity"
conference, CUNY Graduate Center, 15 May 1992.
Jury Member and Respondent, "Femininity and Masculinity:
The
Construction of Gender and the Transgression of Boundaries in
20th
Century American Art and Culture, 1992 Whitney Museum
Symposium on American Art and Culture, New York, 09 May 1992.
"Cultural Studies, Subjugated Knowledges, and Everyday Life,"
panelist at
the Committee for Cultural Studies/CAMEO Conference "The
Politics of
Representation/The Struggle for Voice," CUNY Graduate Center,
01-02 May
1992.
"The New Scholarship: History, Multiculturalism, Sexuality,"
panelist at the
Teachers for a Democratic Culture and Union of Democratic Intellectuals
Conference "Reconstructing Higher Education:
Beyond the Academic Culture Wars," Hunter College, 10-12
April 1992.
"Mapping the Interstices Between Afro-American Studies and
Cultural
Studies," presentation at the "Americanist Visions of
Cultural Studies,
Columbia University, 06-07 March 1992.
"Blackness on the Ground of Postmodernism," presentation
at the "Multiple
Tongues: Centering Discourse by People of Color" Conference,
University of
California, Los Angeles, 30 January -01 February 1992.
"Race, Gender, and Postmodernism," presentation part
of "'Race and
Literature" Symposium at the University of Southern Maine,
27 April
1991.
"Black Subjectivity and Left Analysis," panel on "Cultural
Politics," part of
the Conference 'What is an Oppositional Left," University
of Vermont,
March 1991.
'When Boys Collide: Gender Negotiations in Afro-American Cultural
Studies," Modern Language Association Annual Convention,
Chicago, 27-30
December 1991.
"Like Being Mugged by a Metaphor: Blackness and Essentialism,
Symposium:The Evolving Construction of Race," Columbia University,
08
November 1990.
'What's a Nice Colored Self Like You Doing in an Anti-Essentialist
Place Like
This? Reconciling Ethnic Identity and Postmodern America,"
Annual
Meeting of the American Studies Association, New Orleans, 04 November
1990.
"2 Live Crew: Readings and Misreadings, Panel Discussion,
Afro-American
Studies Program, 'Works in Progress," Princeton University
19 September
1990.
"But Compared to What? Realism, Essentialism, and Representation
in Spike
Lee's School Daze and Do the Right Thing," Conference:
'African-American
Film and Media Culture: A Re-Examination," Whitney Museum
of American
Art, New York, 09 June 1990.
'We Can Fight or We Can Hammer Out the Terms of Engagement,"
Conference: "Cultural Diversity in the Liberal Arts Curriculum,"
State
University of New York, Albany, 05-06 May 1990.
"Cleaning the Chalkboard: African-American Cultural Expression
and a
Reusable Past," Conference:"History Today and Tonight,"
Rutgers University
and Princeton University, 02-03 March 1990.
"Black Independent Filmmakers: Cultural Studies Problematic
[with Ann
Cvetkovich], Modern Language Association Annual Convention, New
Orleans, 27-30 December 1990.
"Pedagogy and Politics," Symposium on Gender and Race
in the Classroom,
Swarthmore College, 17-18 November 1989.
"The Politics of Afro-American Vernacular: Case in Point,
Zora Neale
Hurston", Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis,
MN, 2-4
November 1989.
"Taking Seriously the Writing and the Tears: The Color
Purple and Genre
Appropriations," Institute on Culture and Society, Carnegie-Mellon
University, 15-22 June 1989.
'Where the Street Has No Name: Language Play and Constructions
of
Identity in Song of Solomon," Modern Language Association
Annual
Convention, San Francisco, 27-30 December 1988.
"Afro-American Women and Their Scholarship," South Central
Modern
Language Association Conference, Arlington, TX, October 1988.
"Afro-American Literary Discourse and Critical Reception,"
Society for
Value in Higher Education Annual Meeting, Seton Hill College,
August 1988.
"'Elbow Room' and Shuckin' Off the 'Native Other,'"
Modern Language
Association Annual Convention, New York, 27-30 December 1987.
"Afro-American Literature and Literary Criticism Workshop"
[with Henry
Louis Gates, Jr.], Conference: "Politics, Knowledge, and
the Consumer
Society," Stanford University, February 1986.
MEDIA ACTIVITIES
"ABC Lateline," television interview (for broadcast
in Sydney, Australia) on
U.S. presidential election [with Noam Chomsky and others], Australia
Broadcasting Company, 04 November 1992.
"ABC Lateline," television interview (for broadcast
in Sydney, Australia)
concerning the LAPD verdict and subsequent Los Angeles Riots [with
Studs
Terkel and Ben Wattenberg], Australia Broadcasting Corporation,
04 May
1992.
'What is Neo-Puritanism? Political Correctness, Government, or
Corporate
Intrusion on Individuals," participation in a roundtable
on "Our Voices,"
Black Entertainment Television, Washington, D.C., 06 December
1992.
"The Harlem Renaissance," KAZI [Austin, TX] Radio Interview,
20 January
1989.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
MLA Division Executive Committee Member (Black American Literature
and Culture) -1994-1998.
PMLA Advisory Committee 1991-1994.
Social Text Editorial
Collective, 1991-present.
GLQ (Gay
and Lesbian Studies Quarterly), Advisory Board, 1993-present.
camera
obscura, Advisory Board, Fall 1994-Spring 1996; Editorial
Board,
effective Fall 1996.
Manuscript reader for various journals--among them American
Literary
History, African-American
Review, Callaloo
College Literature; and for
various presses--among them the University of Chicago, Cambridge
University, and the University of Minnesota.
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
Princeton University Class of 1931 Bicentennial Preceptorship
1993-1996;
University Research Institute Grant, University of Texas at Austin,
1988;
Charles Gaius Bolin Dissertation Fellowship, Williams College,
1986-1987; Danforth-Compton Dissertation Fellowship, Stanford
University, 1985-1986; Stanford University Graduate Fellowship,
Stanford University, 1980-1984
COURSES TAUGHT
Afro-American Intellectual History; American Literature 1865 to
the
Present; Harlem Renaissance and the Roots of Afro-American Modernism;
Introduction to Afro-American Literature; Modern and
Postmodern Black Fiction; Nineteenth Century Afro American Literature;
Those Wild Spaces: Literature of American Women of Color
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Afro-American modern and postmodern fiction; Afro-American literary
history, and theory; Afro-American women writers; Afro-American
popular culture and film; women's studies.