My research and teaching focus on black religion in nineteenth and twentieth century African American literature. I am currently working on my first book project, which examines the cyclical appearance of apocalypse in African American literary history at moments of acute eschatological and political disappointment. I argue that apocalypse persists in African American literature because black writers fashion it into a practice to confront the bewildering conditions of African American (un)freedom across the long nineteenth century. In their concerted efforts to find possibilities for black life capable of interrupting the terrible trajectory of their presents, the African American apocalypticists I study posit new understandings of freedom and collectivity to bridge the chasm between the world as it is and the world as it could be.
Fall 2025 courses
Survey of African American Literature
Signs of Power: Apocalypse in 19th-Century African American Literature
Fall 2025 office hours
MW 2-3pm
Education
PhD, African American Studies & English, Yale University
BA, Africana Studies & English, Johns Hopkins University