About Me
I'm a leading scholar in Gothic Literature and Horror Film Studies and a university educator with over 20 years of teaching experience. I'm a dedicated Public Scholar who connects my teaching and research to my activism and vice versa.
I specialize in Black Diasporic Gothic and Horror, racial representation in Gothic Literature and Horror Film, and socio-political uses of Gothic and Horror tropes in discussions about race. In simpler words, I specialize in how fiction and society reduces real people to figures of monstrosity.
My work has led to a number of awards and grants including a British Academy Global Professorship (2020) and a Fulbright Scholar award (2017).
Experience
Designer of Coded Black Online Video Game
The game stems entirely from my research and scene designs. I wrote the primary and secondary narratives as well, and learned video, sound, and image editing to modify many of the assets for the game. I also worked with AI voices to provide some of the narration and created AI images for the accompanying website.
Associate Professor, Indiana University
Experienced in developing, implementing and assessing courses in the areas of Literary Studies, Black Studies, American Studies, Culture Studies, and Film Studies. I taught Horror Film courses every year until my Global Professorship in 2020. I've taught undergraduate seminars, larger lecture courses of 100+ students, and small graduate seminars. I've supervised a great number of Masters and Doctoral projects, and undergraduate thesis projects. I've also been the managing staff for graduate teaching assistants and graduate research assistants, and served on and led a number of faculty committees.
Coded Black (video game)
Coded Black teaches the long, horrible, contradictory, and illogical history of anti-Blackness and its nightmarish consequences while also providing evidence to counter the racist ideologies.
Recent Projects
African American Gothic in the Era of Black Lives Matter (minigraph)
This Cambridge Element explores twenty-first- century Black Gothic literature and film as it responds to American anti-Blackness. The element argues the "texts" collectively represent a mode of Black Gothic fiction termed Black Lives Matter (BLM) Gothic.
Co-Editor, Bloomsbury Gothic Legacies Series
Gothic Legacies showcases the “living archive” of Gothic writers and other creative artists from around the globe, whether through a critical examination of the persistence and pertinence of their tropes and themes or the creative reception of their works in literature, theatre and performance, popular and fine art, film and television, music, and other media.
Co-Director, Centre for the History of the Gothic, University of Sheffield
Organized and led several online conferences and symposium featuring speakers and keynotes from around the world. Designed and delivered a hybrid Gothic Futures Summer Institute, a week-long event featuring in-person attendees from 4 different countries, not including the UK, and virtual attendees from several other countries.
Skills
Video, Image and Sound Editing
Experienced in using Audacity, Audio Mass, Canva, Adobe Premeire Pro, and Adobe Photoshop. Proficient in a variety of Generative AI programs including Adobe Firefly and Leonardo AI to generate project tailored images, and using Play.HT, Eleven Labs, and Respeecher for voice modification and creation.
Research and analytical writing
Interdisciplinary researcher skilled in archival research in the areas of culture studies, race studies and literary studies. Skilled editor and published author of numerous essays and books.
Game Design Consultation
Skilled in visual, sound and narrative analysis for cultural synsetivity and impact.
Lecturing and Teaching
Skilled and passionate university teacher with over 20 years of experience in a variety of classroom and public settings, countries, and formats.
"Real Horror forces itself upon us unbidden. Real Horror renders the subject/ victim helpless and violates his or her most rudimentary expectations about the world."
Robert C Solomon