Tracy Walters — Curriculum Vitae
Dept of Africana Studies
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York 11793-4340
Email: twalters@notes.sunysb.edu
Or, walterstracey@hotmail.com
Phone: (631) 632-7475
Education
1999 Ph.D. in English, Howard University, Dissertation: “(Re)Claiming the Classics: The Emancipatory
Strategy of Selected African-American Women Poets: Phillis Wheatley, Henrietta Cordelia Ray, and
Gwendolyn Brooks.”
1996 M.A. English, Howard University Thesis: A Post-Structural Approach to Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The
Anniad.”
1993 B.S. Journalism, State University of New York at Brockport
Academic and Research Appointments
2007-present AssociateProfessor of Africana Studies, State University of New York at Stony Brook
1999-2000 Adjunct Lecturer in English Composition, The New School University
1999-2000 Lecturer, English Literature, New York City Technical College
1998-1999 Adjunct Lecturer, English Composition, Northern Virginia Community College
Academic Honors
2006 NYS/UUP Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Affirmative Action Leave Award, for research leave to
complete manuscript (spring-summer 2006; salary replacement).
2003 Bellagio Rockefeller Fellowship awarded to the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook to hold an
international conference “Transcultural/Translators: Mediating Race, Indegeneity and Ethnicity in Four
Nations” at the Bellagio Estate in Italy (covered travel, lodging, and dining expenses).
2001 Folger Shakespeare Fellowship, to aid in research and writing (summer, $3,000)
2001 Stony Brook Diversity Grant Challenge. Financial award for programming that promotes diversity
($500)
Administrative Committees
2007 Director of Undergraduate Studies for Africana Studies
2006 Selection committee A. Sanchez Prize, LACS
2006-present Advisory committee Women’s Studies.
2006 Conference planning committee twentieth year anniversary of HISB
2006 Selection committee HISB Cornell Summer Fellowship
2006, 2005, 2001, and 2000 Black History Month Committee
2005-present Affiliate Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies
2005 and 2003 Selection committee for LACS Rockefeller Scholarship Award
2005 Search Committee for History and Intellectual Tradition position, Africana Studies
2003 Search Committee for departmental Chairperson, Africana Studies
2003-present Humanities Institute Advisory Board
2002-present Affiliate LACS Faculty Member
2002 Faculty Mentor for individual students in the Turner Fellowship
2002-2003 Faculty Advisor Black World Student Newspaper
2002, 2001, 2003 Selection Committee for Richard B. Moore Scholarship
2002, 2001, 2003 Selection Committee for Verdon Bliss Memorial Scholarship
2001-present Affiliate English Department
2001 Chairperson Conference “Rethinking African Diasporic Literature”
2001Search Committee for departmental secretary, Africana Studies
Publications
A. Books
Writing the Classics Black: The Poetic and Political Function of Classical Revision in African American
Women’s Writing. Palgrave (2007)
B. Edited Books
Zadie Smith: Critical Essays Under contract, Peter Lang (2008)
C. Articles Published in Refereed Journals
"Challenging Hierarchies: Aphra Behn’s Authentication Through Classical Translation." Translation
Review 64(1):12-24. 2002
"Gwendolyn Brooks ‘The Anniad’ and the Indeterminacy of Genre." College Language Association
Journal, 44(3): 350-366. 2001
D. Selected Articles in Books
1. "A Black Briton’s View of Black British Literature and Scholarship." In Black British Writing. Victoria
Arana and Lauri Ramey, editors. 169-176. New York: Palgrave Press. 2004.
2. "Rita Dove’s Mother Love: Revising the Black Aesthetic Through the Lens of Western Discourse." In
August Wilson and Black Aesthetic. Dana A. Williams and Sandra S. Shannon, editors. 37-48. New
York: Palgrave Press. 2004.
3. "We’re All English Now Mate Like it or Lump It": The Black/Britishness of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth.
Kadija Sesay, editor. 314-322. Write Black Write British: From Post Colonial to Black British Literature.
London: Hansib. 2005.
4. "Paying Homage to the Foremother: Reading Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye as an Intertextual
Revision of Gwendolyn Brooks’ Maud Martha" Dana Williams, editor. Ohio University Press,
forthcoming.
5. "Music and Metafiction: Aesthetic Strategies in Black Writing" In Black British Aesthetics Today.
Victoria Arana, editor. Cambridge Scholars Press, forthcoming.
E.Selected Book Reviews, Bio-Bibliographica Entries and Miscellaneous
Book Review of Manthia Diawara’s We Won’t Budge. Wasafari. 21 (2006): 99-100.
Book Review of Ayaan Hirshi Ali’s The Caged Virgin. Callaloo (under review).
"Zadie Smith." In Dictionary of Literary Biography: Black British Writers. Victoria Arana, Ed. Bruccoli
Clark and Layman (2008).
"Black/British Fiction." CD Rom, Humanities Institute Stony Brook University 2004
"Cheryl L. West." In The Dictionary of Literary Biography: Twentieth Century American Dramatists.
Christopher Wheatley, editor. 297-305. New York: Gale, 2003.
"Radical Alliance of Poets and Players" and "Eddy Grant." In Companion to Contemporary Black British
Culture. Alison Donnell, editor. 95, 256-257.
London: Routledge Press. 2002.
"A Black Briton’s View of Black British Literature and Scholarship". Bma The Sonia Sanchez Review,
6(2):141-151, 2001.
"Sapphire." In Contemporary African-American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook,
Emmanuel S. Nelson, editor. 411-415. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Lectures, Talks and Panels
I have presented lectures on topics related to my research at various conferences.
1. “Music and Metafiction: Aesthetic Strategies in Black Writing.” Columbia University Seminar, 2006.
2. “Controlling Images of Black Womanhood in Zadie Smith Novels,” Women and Society Conference.
Marist College, NY., 2006.
3. Respondent for panel at “Black British Aesthetics Today.” Symposium. Howard University:
Washington, D.C., 2006.
4. “‘We’re All English Now Mate’ Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and the Question of Black/British Fiction.”
Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, 2004.
5. “Classical Discourse and Political Agency: Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers and Classical
Revision.” American Philological Association, San Francisco, CA. 2004.
6. “We’re All English Now Mate Like It or Lump It”: Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and the Question of
Black/British Fiction.” Conference on translating and mediating cultural differences. Rockefeller
Foundation, Bellagio, Italy. 2003.
7. “Revising Aesthetics of Blackness: Rita Dove’s Mother Love.” Sixty Third Annual College Language
Association Conference, Washington, D.C., 2003.
8. “Challenging Hierarchies Black Women and the Classical Tradition.” The Faculty Colloquium Lecture
Series, Humanities Institute, Stony Brook University, NY, 2002.
9. “Recognizing, Redefining, and Reexamining the Black British Literary Canon,” International
conference on African Diasporic Writing. Stony Brook University, New York. 2001.
10. “A Black Briton’s View of Black British Literature and Scholarship.” Conference on Black British
Writers. Howard University, Washington, D.C., 2000.
11. “A Literary Kinship: The Black Arts Movement: The British Perspective,” Northeast Modern
Language Association Conference, Hartford, Connecticut 2001.
12. “The Establishment of the Black British Literary Canon.” Conference on bridging the African
Diaspora in the new millennium. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska. 2001.
13. “(Re) presenting Greek Myth: Feminist Revisions.” Conference on reading and writing myth,
University of Lancaster, Lancaster, England. 1998.
14. “The Classical Voice of Phillis Wheatley.” A colloquium on literature and film, West Virginia
University, West Virginia. 1997.
15. “Feminist (Re)reading of Phillis Wheatley’s Poetry,” National Association of African American
Studies Conference, Morehead State University, Kentucky. 1996.
Upcoming Invited Lectures and Panels:
“Why Have All the Black British Writers Left England,” On Whose Terms? Critical Negotiations in Black
British Literature and the Arts. March 13-14 2008
“An Introduction to Classica Africana” National Council for Black Studies, March 19-22
Work in Progress
Book Manuscript--Finding Zadie Smith in White Teeth and On Beauty.
Essay “Controlling Images of Black Womanhood in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and On
Beauty.”
Essay “Oedipus in Black” Adrienne Kennedy and Rita Dove’s Revision of Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex.”
Essay “A Comparative Reading of Rita Dove’s Through the Ivory Gate and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest
Eye.”
Essay “Erasing Race: Rita Dove and Zadie Smith’s Rejection of a Black Literary Identity.”
Essay “Double Consciousness in Black British Fiction: Zadie Smith, Bernadine Evaristo, and Jackie
Kay.”