Dr. Trudier Harris to present April 8 keynote address at ASU's Delta Symposium XVI

March 9, 2010 -- Arkansas State University-Jonesboro’s 16^th annual Delta Symposium will present the first of its keynote speakers, Dr. Trudier Harris, on Thursday, April 8 at 11 a.m. in ASU’s Reng Student Services Center/Student Union Auditorium, 101 N. Caraway Road, Jonesboro. Dr. Trudier Harris will present “The Scary Mason-Dixon Line: African American Writers and the South,” based upon her recently published book of the same name.

In “The Scary Mason-Dixon Line: African American Writers and the South” (Louisiana State University Press, 2009), Harris explores why black writers, whether born in Mississippi, New York, or elsewhere, have consistently both loved and hated the South.  For these authors, Harris explains, the South represents not so much a place or even a culture, but a rite of passage. Not one of these writers can consider himself or herself a true African American writer without confronting the idea of the South in a decisive way.

Dr. Harris, a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., is the J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English Emerita at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the winner of that institution’s inaugural George H. Johnson prize, recognizing her distinguished achievement as an Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH) Faculty Fellow. She also taught in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. One of the most eminent authorities on African American literature, she is the author of numerous books, including “From Mammies to Militants: Domestics in Black American Literature,” “Saints, Sinners, Saviors: Strong Black Women in African American Literature,” and “Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison.” She is also co-editor of a number of anthologies, including “The Oxford Companion to African American Literature.” In addition, she has written a memoir, “Summer Snow: Reflections of a Black Daughter of the South.”

The recipient of numerous awards for teaching, research, and writing, Dr. Harris has lectured not only throughout the United States but also in Jamaica, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, England, and Northern Ireland. In her thirty-six years of full-time teaching, she also served on the faculties of The College of William and Mary and Emory University.This appearance marks her third trip to ASU and her second appearance at the Delta Symposium during the last sixteen years. For more on Dr. Harris, visit her online at the Department of English and Comparative Literature, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

For more information, contact Dr. Gregory Hansen, Department of English and Philosophy, Symposium Committee, at (870) 972-3043. 
 

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