Professional Summary
Sharon Dean teaches American ethnic and women's literature, film, and composition. She has an extensive teaching and publishing background in films by and about women, with an emphasis upon the aesthetics of independent African American women filmmakers. Her article on the politics of invisibility in the films of Julie Dash and Kathleen Collins has appeared in Jump Cut and is part of a longer work. Through the Center for Women's Studies, where she previously served as Acting Associate Director, she has offered courses on American women writers, black women in film, and the "peculiar sisterhood" that exists among black and white women in fiction. Her dissertation, which she is completing at Indiana University, discusses the creation of surrogate communities in the work of black women writers of the Harlem Renaissance; her edition of A Hairdresser's Experience in High Life, an 1859 autobiography of a free black woman hairdresser in Cincinnati, is part of the Schomberg Collection of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers. Her current scholarship focuses on the storytelling strategies used by returning women students to negotiate their cultural positions in first-year composition classes, on racial impersonation in slave narratives written by white women, and on the parallel cultural functions of theatrical minstrelsy and cinematic cross-dressing. Professor Dean has published widely in the area of Black Women's Studies and the Harlem Renaissance, most recently in the Oxford Companion to African American Literature.
Education
Doctor of Arts: University of Illinois 1971
Research Support
2003 Success Challenge Grant Type:Grant
2003 Provost’s Award for Senior Faculty Mentor Type:Grant
2002 International Ethnic Women Writers Conference Women’s Studies Travel Grant Type:Grant
2002 -2004 University of Cincinnati Success Challenge Grant: Redesigning Placement at UC Type:Grant
06-03-2003 Collaborative Film Projects Interrnational Screening First Year Experience Grant Type:Grant
12-2001 Dean’s Supplemental Travel Funds Type:Grant
1998 -2000 Success Challenge Grant First Year Students and the Service Learning Experience Type:Grant
1997 -1999 University of Cincinnati College of Evening and Continuing Education Type:Fellowship
1997 University of Cincinnati Faculty Development Grant Type:Grant
06-02-1997 University of Cincinnati W.S. Travel Grant Type:Grant
1997 CECE General Education Course Proposal Grant Type:Grant
1995 University of Cincinnati Women's Studies Travel Grant Type:Grant
1994 University of Cincinnati General Education Summer Stipend Type:Grant
06-1994 -09-1994 General Education Course Development Summer Grant 1500.00 Type:Grant
1989 Racial Awareness Pilot Project, University of Cincinnati Emphasis on Diversity Award Type:Grant
1988 -1991 The Center for Women's Studies, University of Cincinnati Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) 140,000.00 Type:Grant
01-1988 -06-1988 The Ohio Humanities Council Liberty's Stepdaughters: Women, the Constitution, and the Evolution of American Citizenship 19,000.00 Type:Grant
05-1988 The Ohio Arts Council and Oho Humanities Counci Punching In: Women and Wage Work 30,000.00 Type:Grant
1985 The Graduate School, Indiana University Grant-in-Aid of Research Type:Grant
05-1987 The Ohio Arts Council The Other Hollywood: Black Images on the Silver Screen 1500.00 Type:Grant
06-1985 Lilly Endowment Perspectives on American Culture Through Cinema 21,295.00 Type:Grant
1984 NEH Negative to Positive: Strategies for Using Black Film in the University Classroom 150,000.00 Type:Grant
06-1983 Indiana Humanities Commission Creative Uses of Black Film: Workshops/Festival of Films by Independent Black Filmmakers 8500.00 Type:Grant
1982 Indiana Arts and Humanities Commission Widening the Margins: Issues in the Writing of Contemporary Black and White Women Writers 30,000.00 Type:Grant
1981 Indiana University The Southern Woman: Myth and Reality Type:Grant
1975 -1976 HEW Minorities Commission, State of Virginia American Minorities: Library Acquisition and Course Development Grant 315,000.00 Type:Grant
Abbreviated Publications
Work in Progress
"Black Writers of the Harlem Renaissance." Katherine Dunham. Ed. Steven Tracy.
Other Publication
"Sibyls and Sisters: Race vs. Color in Short Stories by 'New Negro' Women Writers." Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the Short Story in English (1995).
"Crossing Boundaries: The Divergent Function of Passing in Hollywood and Independent Black Films." Proceedings of the Second Annual NAAAS Conference (1994).
"A Hairdresser's Experience in High Life. Eliza Potter. Cincinnati, 1859." (1992).
"The Other Hollywood: Black Images on the Silver Screen." Hollywood: Legend and Reality (1987).
"Margaret Walker Speaks to Our Century." Indiana University Learning Resources (1985).
"'Flower Dust and Springtime': Harlem Renaissance Women." Radical Teacher (1981): 1, 8.
Eliza Potter. "A Hairdresser's Experience in High Life." (1985).
Newspaper Article
"Daughters of the Dust." Crazy Ladies Community News 1992
Book Chapter
Margaret Myers. "Proceedings of the 23rd. Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing." Ellison’s “Cadillac Flambé”: Race and Brand Identity. Durham, NC, 2007.
"InterSEXions: Bisexuality and Transgender." “There’s no Difference/Between a Bridge and a Wall”: Bisexuality as Film Idiom in Hedwig and the Angry Inch., 2006.
Margaret Myers. "Proceedings of the 21st Conference on History and Research of Marketing." Why There’s No Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the Cincinnati Freedom Center. Long Beach, CA, 2005.
"Aunt Lute Anthology of American Women Writers. Vol. I." Eliza Potter. Aunt Lute Foundation, 2004.
Barbara Wenner. "Attending to the Margins." Skin Deep: Towards an Equality of Disclosure. Ed. Michelle Kells and Valerie Balester. Boynton/Cook, 2001.
"Encyclopedia of Black American Literature." Oscar Micheaux. University of Michigan Press, 2000.
"Encyclopedia of American Literature and Culture." Slave Narrative. Ed. Steven Serafin. New York: Gale Research, 2000.
"Encyclopedia of American Literature and Culture." The Harlem Renaissance. Ed. Steven Serafin. New York: Gale Research, 2000.
"NWSA Journal." Enabling Discourses: New Directions in Black Feminist/Womanist Literary Criticism., 1999.
"The Oxford Companion to African American Literature." Eliza Potter. Ed. William Andrews. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
"The Oxford Companion to African American Literature." Anne Spencer. Ed. William Andrews. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
"Radical Teacher and the New Pedagogy." 'Flower Dust and Springtime': Harlem Renaissance Women Writers. Ed. Louis Kampf, Paul Lauter, et al. Cambridge, MA: Center for the Study of Education and Politics, 1996.
"Sisters of the Harlem Renaissance." Alice Dunbar Nelson. Bloomington: Helaine Victoria Press, 1991.
"Haunting the House of Fiction." The Haunting of Irene Redfield: Racial Bogeys in Nella Larsen's Passing. Ed. Lynette Carpenter and Wendy Kolmar. University of Tennessee Press, 1989.
"The Dictionary of Literary Biography: Modern American Poets, 1880-1945 (Part II)." Anne Spencer. Ed. Peter Quartermane. Detroit, MI: Bruccoli Clark, 1987. 420, 428.
"Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminist Criticism." Zora Neale Hurston's 'Intimate Gate': Female Story-telling in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Judith Spector. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Press, 1986.
"Black Sister II: Essays on Black American Women Poets, 1746-1980." 'Sister Warriors': The Poetry of Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich. Ed. Erlene Stetson. Bloomington, IL: Indiana University Press, 1984.
Presentations
Paper Presentations
(05-2007. ) Ellison’s “Cadillac Flambé”: Race and Brand Identity .Durham, NC.
(09-2005. ) ’The Quality of Light’: Re-imagining in Film and Criticism the Poetry of Audre Lorde .
(04-2005. ) Why There’s No Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the Cincinnati Freedom Center .Long Beach, CA.
(03-25-2004. ) Sibyls and Sisters: Creative Alliances Among Women of the Harlem Renaissance .Ohio Wesleyan University.
(03-20-2003. ) Service Learning in a City Under Stress .New York.
(02-27-2003. ) ’Nonetheless Truthful, Nonetheless Strange’: A Black Hairdresser’s Experience of Cincinnati’s High Life .Cincinnati, OH.
(05-03-2002. ) The Educated Eye: Intertexuality of Literature and Film in the Writing Classroom .San Francisco, CA.
(04-24-2002. ) Double Exposures/Doubly Exposed .
(03-2002. ) Writing Across the Curriculum in Thailand .Chicago, IL.
(11-2001. ) Victim-Survivor-Heroine: Women’s Literature in a Service Learning Context .Kansas City, MO.
(03-2001. ) The Unbidden Child: Witnessing in Beloved and Daughters of the Dust .University of Maryland.
(02-2001. ) The Films of Gordon Parks: Weapons for Learning .Cincinnati, OH.
(01-2001. ) Color/Blind America: Hollywood’s Antidote for Communism’s Threat .Chicago, IL.
(2001. ) Out of the Classroom and Into the World: The Intersection of Professional and Pedagogical Mentoring .Denver, CO.
(10-13-2000. ) Sisters Under the Make-up: the Spectacle of Black and White Women’s Friendships in Literature and Film .West Virginia University.
(04-13-2000. ) Born in Flames: An Introduction to and Coda For The Current Post-Feminist Revolution .
(10-22-1999. ) Necessary Abrasions .Texas A&M University.
(05-18-1999. ) How do You Re-invigorate the Access Student? .Youngstown State.
(04-03-1998. ) Family Stories and the Problem of Disclosure in Classroom-based Research .Chicago, IL.
(11-08-1997. ) Theatre as Church and Film as Gospel: Race Films and the Aesthetics of Swing .Chicago, IL.
(11-02-1997. ) The Ethics of Canonizing the Community in Multi Cultural Readers for Composition .Detroit, MI.
(04-09-1997. ) Skin Deep: An Equality of Disclosure .Kent State University.
(03-14-1997. ) 'The Fabric of Our Lives'--And We Don't Mean Cotton: Popular Culture As Revisionary Text .
(02-21-1997. ) Lethe and Sethe: Maternal Memory in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Beloved .Grailville, OH.
(11-15-1996. ) 'Once a Pancake, Always a Pancake': The Politics of Makeup in Cinematic Drag .Bowling Green State University.
(10-11-1996. ) 'I Was His White Woman': Sisterhoods Under Stress in Waiting to Exhale .
(04-22-1996. ) Negotiating the Boundaries of Error: The Teacher as Tutor in the Editing Process .University of Cincinnati.
(04-13-1996. ) Performing Gender: Drag Queens and Hollywood's New Minstrel Show .University of Cincinnati.
(03-29-1996. ) Making the Move from the Outside In: How Students Negotiate Cultural Positions in First Year Composition Classes .Milwaukee, WI.
(02-23-1996. ) The Will of the Fathers: Women and 1950's Hollywood .Berea College.
(11-17-1995. ) From Margin to Center: The Use of Internal Narratives to Negotiate Outsider Status in the Composition Classroom .San Diego, CA.
(11-03-1995. ) 'They Were Here, Now They're Out There': Projections and Recesses in The Searchers .St. Louis, MO.
(10-13-1995. ) Double Consciousness as Empowerment: Strategies of the Home Community in the Composition Classroom .St. Louis, MO.
(06-11-1995. ) The Last Chance Edit: Re-visioning in the Contact Zone .Northern Kentucky University.
(06-06-1995. ) Towards a New Cinematic Sisterhood .University of Oklahoma.
(04-22-1995. ) From Brutus Jones to Desdemona Jones: Race Film's Riff on Theatrical Stereotypes .Rhode Island College.
(04-22-1995. ) The Intersection of Black Feminist Criticism and Filmmaking .SUNY Binghamton.
(04-08-1995. ) Making Narrative New .Bellarmine College.
(03-24-1995. ) The New Mulatto and the Function of Passing in Independent Film by Black Women .University of Oklahoma.
(02-23-1995. ) Eating is Believing: The Dinner Scene in The Color Purple, Book and Film .University of Cincinnati.
(02-18-1995. ) No More Uncle Toms: Race Films as Revisionist Theater .Virginia State University.
(10-28-1994. ) A Hairdresser's Vision of Gender Politics in 19th C. Cincinnati .University of Cincinnati.
(10-03-1994. ) The Emerging Aesthetic in Black Womanist Filmmaking .University of Cincinnati.
(06-06-1994. ) Sibyls and Sisters: Race vs. Color in Short Stories by the 'New Negro' Women Writers .Iowa State University.
(04-18-1994. ) 'By Any Means Necessary': Writing as Self-Defense and the Use of Autobiography .University of Cincinnati.
(02-25-1994. ) 'If I Do, I Can Do It Myself': Violation and Rebellion in Autobiographies by African American Women .Louisville, KY.
(02-17-1994. ) Crossing Boundaries: The Divergent Function of Passing in Hollywood and Independent Black Films .Virginia State University.
(02-04-1994. ) Female Slave Narratives as Proto-Feminist Self-Help Books .University of Cincinnati.
(05-13-1993. ) Reel Feminism: Images of Minority and Mainstream Women in Film .University of Cincinnati.
(03-31-1993. ) Black Women in American Film .Lebanon Correctional Institution.
(02-26-1992. ) Talking Mirrors: A Discursive Theory for Independent Black Women Filmmakers .
(10-1991. ) 'They See Me, But They Can't Recognize Me': Invisibility in the Work of Independent Black Women Filmmakers .West Virginia University.
(06-22-1990. ) Cincinnati as Metaphor and Herstory in Stowe, Potter, McCullers, and Morrison .
(06-05-1990. ) Interracial Friendships in Literature by Women: The Naming of Difference .New York.
(06-14-1988. ) Surrogate Communities in the Work of Harlem Renaissance Women Writers .Minneapolis, MN.
(05-14-1987. ) Feminism: Is it a Black or White Issue? .University of Cincinnati.
(05-09-1987. ) Media Violence Against Women .University of Cincinnati.
(05-05-1987. ) John Ford's The Searchers: Women and the Anti-Western .University of Cincinnati.
(02-1987. ) The Controversy over The Color Purple .
(01-1987. ) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and the Tradition of Black Women's Autobiography .University of Cincinnati.
(12-1986. ) The Quilted Consciousness of The Color Purple .University of Cincinnati.
(08-1986. ) To 'O' and Beyond: Building on Difference .Chicago, IL.
(06-1986. ) Ketchin' Babies: Black Midwifery in the 1920's .University of Illinois.
(06-1986. ) Nothing But a Fine-Toothed Comb: The Autobiography of Eliza Potter, 'Colored Hairdresser' .
(05-10-1986. ) Stormy Weather: Black Women in American Film .
(04-26-1986. ) Totem and Taboo: The Impact of Psychological Theory on the Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance .University of Cincinnati.
(06-19-1985. ) Creative Use of Black Film in the College Classroom .Indianapolis, IN.
(12-28-1984. ) Anthologizing the Muse: The Harlem Renaissance Woman Poet in the Hands of Her Editor .
(11-02-1984. ) The Trickster as Self in The Autobiography of Malcolm X .Bloomington, IN.
(03-1984. ) Salt and Pepper Teams: Adding More Than Spice to the Teaching of Afro-American Studies? .
(02-12-1983. ) Harlem Beyond the Hudson: Women Writing During the Harlem Renaissance .Wooster College.
(10-1978. ) Images of Black Women in the Media .Bloomington, IN.
(04-1978. ) White Faces, Black Masks: White Women Who Wrote Slave Narratives .Denver, CO.
(06-1976. ) Discovering Elsie Clews Parsons, Pioneer Folklorist .University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
(11-1975. ) Images of Minorities in Children's Picture Books, 1920-1970 .Williamsburg, VA.
(03-1973. ) The Films of Yasujiro Ozu .University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
(04-28-1992. ) Cultural Consciousness in Interracial Relationships .University of Cincinnati.