Faculty Research

The current research and published works of the Department’s primary and joint faculty reflect the rich interdisciplinary methodologies, theoretical paradigms, and critical issues that have defined and continue to reshape the field of African American Studies.  Collectively, our scholars have: produced top-tier publications–books, journals, and edited collections; presented ground-breaking and field-changing research at major conferences, meetings, and colloquia; and served as leaders, in a variety of capacities, within the field (and related ones, too).  As the individual faculty profiles further reveal, our scholars are currently engaged in research projects that are examining the most pressing questions in African American Studies, and their forthcoming works will have lasting impacts on the field.  To engage the broader community, the Department of African American Studies frequently hosts symposia, which are open to the Georgetown and Greater Washington, DC communities, and engages broader questions in African American Studies and society.

Faculty Publications

Primary Faculty

LaMonda Horton-Stallings, Ph.D.

The Afterlives of Kathleen Collins:
A Black Woman Filmmaker’s Search for New Life
A Dirty South Manifesto: Sexual Resistance and Imagination in the New South
Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures
Mutha’ is Half a Word!: Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture
Black Sexual Economies: Race and Sex in a Culture of Capital (Co-Editor)
Word Hustle: Critical Essays and Reflections on the Works of Donald Goines (Contributing Author)

Robert J. Patterson, Ph.D

Destructive Desires: Rhythm and Blues Culture and the Politics of Racial Equality
Exodus Politics: Civil Rights and Leadership in African American Literature and Culture
“Black Literature, Black Leadership: New Boundaries, New Borders” in South Atlantic Quarterly (Ed. Robert J Patterson and Erica R. Edwards)
The Psychic Hold of Slavery: Legacies in American Expressive Culture (Co-Editor with Soyica Diggs Colbert and Aida Levy-Hussen)
Black Cultural Production After Civil Rights

Dayo F. Gore, Ph.D

Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War
“Want to Start A Revolution?” Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle (Co-Editor with Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard)
To Turn this Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism (Editor)

Zandria F. Robinson, Ph.D.

Chicago: Race, Class, and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South
Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life 

Joint Faculty

Soyica Diggs Colbert, Ph.D.

Radical Vision:
A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry
The African American Theatrical Body: Reception, Performance, and the Stage 
Black Movements: Performance and Cultural Politics
The Psychic Hold of Slavery: Legacies in American Expressive Culture (Co-Editor with Robert J. Patterson and Aida Levy-Hussen)
“Introduction: On Black Performance“ in African American Review: Special Issue “On Black Performance” 45.3 (2012). (Issue Editor)

Anita Gonzalez, Ph.D.

Performance, Dance and Political Economy (Co-Editor)
Black Performance Theory (Co-Editor)
Afro-Mexico: Dancing Between Myth and Reality
Jarocho’s Soul

Angelyn Mitchell, Ph.D.

The Cambridge Companion to African American Women’s Literature (Ed. Angelyn Mitchell and Danille K. Taylor)
The Freedom to Remember: Narrative, Slavery, and Gender in Contemporary Black Women’s Fiction
Within the Circle: An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present (Editor)