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An important aspect in my career as a scholar is to make accessible issues that touch African American and African Diaspora communities within and outside academia.
An important aspect in my career as a scholar is to make accessible issues that touch African American and African Diaspora communities within and outside academia.
Photos by Ellie Forrest & Jadyn Osborne
On February 11, 2026, I took part in The Black Lit. Expo at Austin Peay State University. The goal was to look honestly at the state of Black literature in the United States and to give students a space to encounter the writers who continue to shape it.
Dr. Paula White, Dr. Ebone Amos, and I each hosted our own tables. Students moved from stand to stand, picking up books, asking questions, and making connections they had not made before. At my table, I brought works by James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Ta Nehisi Coates, Marie Vieux Chauvet, Toni Morrison, Paul Beatty, and travel writer Mike Nixon. I wanted the display to show the range of Black literary expression and the many ways it refuses to be reduced to a single story.
Literature in general is where philosophy meets art. But Black literature carries a particular weight because it speaks to the lived experience of Black people in the United States and to the philosophical questions their presence has forced the nation to confront. Students felt that immediately. Baldwin echoed the present. Vieux Chauvet carried the weight of exile. Morrison insisted on beauty even in difficulty. Moments like that remind me why I teach.
We ended the Expo with a lively discussion about the state of Black literature in the current political climate. The conversation was honest, sometimes heavy, sometimes hopeful. Everyone in the room learned something.
I left grateful. Events like this remind me that literature is something we gather around. It keeps us thinking, questioning, and reimagining.
People are Tweeting about my recently published research: "There's also a beautiful article from Ronnel Berry and Michael Thomas, Reading the Sensual in James Baldwin's Govanni's Room" - Professor Julie Nouvion, Sorbonne Nouvelle University
“James Baldwin: Between Civil Rights, Gender Performativity and White Innocence,” at the online Confrence Gender, Sexual and Race Dynamics in the Americas, Université Gustave Eiffel, 14 January 2021. (I was very nervous!)
Participation in documentary: Fighting for Respect: African American Soldiers during WWI. Directed by Joanne Burke, 2021.
The Birth of a Nation, "la révolte d’un oublié de l’Histoire" interview with French TV channel Ô. In the interview I discuss the absence of Nate Turner's harrowing story in history textbooks, 2012.
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