Skip to main content

RaShell Smith-Spears

Charles A. Smith/University Communications

Associate Professor

 

Email: rashell.spears@jsums.edu

Phone: 601.979.5859

Office Location: Dollye M.E, Robinson Liberal Arts Building, 4th floor, Office #431

 

 

 

 

DEGREES

Ph.D., University of Missouri—Columbia, English, 2005

MFA, University of Memphis, Creative Writing, 1999

M.A., University of Memphis, English, 1998

B.A., Spelman College, English, 1997

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

African American Literature

19th Century Literature

Identity Politics

Popular Culture Studies

Creative Writing

 

COURSES TAUGHT:

Graduate

Seminar on Black Authors

Creative Writing Seminar

American Literature after 1900

Publication Process: Poetry & Prose

 

Undergraduate

Margaret Walker

Richard Wright

Black Authors

The Novel

Composition I & II

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:

College Language Association

Popular Culture Association of the South

 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND CREATIVE WORKS:

 “My grandmothers were . . .full of sturdiness and singing”: Margaret Walker’s Literary Portrayal of Working Class Women.”  JEAL: Journal of Ethnic American Literature 7 (2017): 28-46.  Print.

  “Even Our Women are Warriors: The Black Woman as Warrior in LA Banks’ Vampire

Huntress Legend Series.”  Meeting Points.  Eds. Helen Chukwuma and Preselfannie McDaniels.  Trenton: African World Press, 2016.  Print.

 “Everybody’s Mama Now: Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day as Discourse on the Black

Mother’s Identity.”  Black Motherhoods.  Ed. Karen Craddock. Toronto: Demeter Press, 2016.  Print.

 “Margaret Walker.” The New Literary Encyclopedia.  February 2015.  Web.

“Deferred.”  Dying Dhalia Review.  (May 16, 2017).  Web.

“Born Again.”  Sycorax’s Daughters.  Eds. Kinitra Brooks, Linda D. Addison, and Susanna

Morris.  San Francisco: Cedar Grove Publishing. 2017.  Print.

“Vivify.” (writing as Cashmere S. Jackson.) Sex Objects.  Ed. Delilah Devlin. Berkley: Cleis

Press, 2016.  Web.

“Losing her Religion.”  Mississippi Noir.  Ed. Thomas Franklin. Brooklyn: Akashic Books, 2016. Print.

 “Robert Greenfield: Vampire Story.”  Black Magnolias: A Literary Journal 6.4 (Winter

2012-2013): 88-96.  Print.

Back to EMFL Faculty