Expert Profile: Amy Elder | Research Directory

Professional Summary

My teaching and research specialty is African literatures and cultures and Ethnic American literatures and cultures, with an emphasis on African and American ethnic women. I began my study of African literature while on a Senior Fulbright Award at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, 1976-7 and introduced an African literature sequence into the English Department curriculum after my return to the University of Cincinnati. I also developed a sequence of undergraduate courses in Ethnic American literature, and am past Director of the Ethnic American Studies Certificate Program housed in the English Department. In my new Department of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies, I am teaching courses in African, ethnic, and 'Third World' women's literature from a feminist/womanist perspective, adding this viewpoint to the traditional western feminist perspective. My affiliation with the Africana Studies Department allows me to reach additional students interested in African and diasporic writing.

I have been President of WOCALA, the women's caucus of the African Literature Association and am currently ending my third term as Secretary to the Executive Council of the ALA. Previously, I was Treasurer of MELUS, the Society for the Study of the Ethnic Literature of the United States, and was one of the judges of the 2006 and 2007 African Studies Association Women's Caucus African Women Writers Award. My articles and books, The Hindered Hand (1978) and Narrative Shape Shifting (2009) reflect my two primary research interests, the former studying the cultural implications of nineteenth-century African-American fiction and the latter analyzing the aesthetic hybridity of three contemporary African writers.

Positions and Work Experience

1976 -1977 Senior Lecturer, Fulbright Award, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

Research Support

1998 -2007 Taft Domestic Travel Grants Completed Type:Grant Level:National

2007 Charles Phelps Taft Endowment Fund Application to complete a book-length mss. Role:Author Completed Type:Fellowship

1988 -1989 Taft Faculty Fellowship Type:Fellowship

1986 -2006 Charles Phelps Taft Endowment Fund Taft Foreign Travel Grant Completed Type:Fellowship Level:International

1979 University Research Council Faculty Fellowships Type:Fellowship

06-1978 University Research Council Stipends Type:Grant

04-1976 Ohio Council for the Humanities Grant Type:Grant

06-1974 University Research Council Stipends Type:Grant

1973 Taft Travel Research Grant Type:Grant

1972 University Research Council Faculty Fellowships Type:Fellowship

Abbreviated Publications

Peer Reviewed Publications

(1978). THE HINDERED HAND: Cultural Implications of Early African-American Fiction. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Arlene (Amy) (2009). NARRATIVE SHAPE-SHIFTING: MYTH, HUMOR, AND HISTORY IN THE FICTION OF BEN OKRI, B. KOJO LAING, AND YVONNE VERA. Oxford, UK: James Cook Publishers.

(2000). Narrative Journeys: From Orature to Postmodernism in Soyinka's 'The Road' and Okri's 'The Famished Road'. Multiculturalism and Hybridity in African Literatures 409, 416.

(1999). Dancing the Page: Oral Narrative Traditions in N. Scott Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain . Narrative, 7(3), 272, 288.

(1998). Ama Ata Aidoo: The Development of a Woman's Voice. Emerging Perspectives on Ama Ata Aidoo 157, 169.

(1997). Criticizing From the Borderlands. Colorizing Literary Theory, 26(4), 5, 11.

(1992). Silence as Expression: Sally Morgan’s My Place. Kunapipi, XIV(1), 16, 24.

(1992). sassafrass, cypress and indigo: Ntozake Shange’s Neo-Slave (Blues)Narrative. African American Review, 26(1), 99, 107.

(1991). The Paradoxical Characterization of Okonkwo. Approaches to Teaching THING FALL APART 58, 64.

(1991). In Pursuit of the ‘Kenyan Dream’: Mwangi Ruheni’s The Future Leaders and Meja Mwangi’s Kill Me Quick . World Literature Written in English.

Arlene A. Elder (2004). "Bessie Head: The Inappropriate Appropriation of Autobiography." Emerging Perspectives on Bessie Head, ed. Huma Ibrahim. 1.

Arlene A. Elder (2003). “Motherhood as Nationhood: Contrasting Visions in Marjorie Macgoye’s coming to birth and Yvonne Vera’s Without a Name . Woman in the Academy, Festshrift for Professor Helen Chukwuma, eds. Seiyifa Koroye and Noel C. Anyadike. 235.

Arlene A. Elder (1991). Reprint of sections of the Chapter on Charles Chesnutt from The Hindered Hand (Westwood, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978) in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, vol. 39, Ed. Paula Kepos, Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. . Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, 39.

Arlene A. Elder (1991). "Self, Other, and Post-Historical Identity in Three Plays by Jack Davis." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, xxv(1).

Arlene A. Elder (1990). Editor's Column, "Preliminaries, " for a special MELUS edition on folklore and orature. MELUS (journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-ethnic Literature of the U.S., 16(1), 1.

Arlene A. Elder (1990). 'The Future Human Race’: Charles W. Chesnutt's Utopian Illusion." MELUS, 15(3).

Arlene A. Elder (1990). "Language, Myth, and Women's Voices: Heteroglossia in the Work of Grace Ogot and Hazel Mugot, " . Journal of Commonwealth Literature, xxv(1).

Arlene A. Elder (1989). " '. who can take the multitude and lock it in a cage?' Noemia De Sousa, Micere Mugo, Ellen Kuzwayo: Three African Women's Voices of Resistance, " . Black Women's Writing: Crossing the Boundaries, ed. Carole Boyce Davies, special issue of Matatu: Zeitschrift fur Afrikanische Kulture und Gesellschaf, 6(3), 77.

Arlene A. Elder (1988). "Harrison and Tutuola: The Vitality of the African Continuum, ." World Literature Written In English.

Arlene A. Elder (1987). "Ama Ata Aidoo and the Oral Tradition: A Paradox of Form and Substance, ." Women in African Literature Today, special issue of African Literature Today 109.

Arlene A. Elder (1985). "Swamp versus Plantation: Symbolic Structure in W.E.B. DuBois' The Quest Of The Silver Fleece, ." Critical Essays on American Literature: W.E.B. DuBois, ed. William L. Andrews. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1985, 201-220; originally published: Phylon, 34, 1973.

Arlene A. Elder (1976). "Oscar Micheaux: The Melting Pot on the Plains, ." The Old Northwest, 2(3).

Book Chapter

(1993). A History of Twentieth-Century African Literatures. In Oyekan Owomoyela (Eds.), East African Literature (pp. 49, 84). Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.

(1992). Reworlding: Essays on the Literature of the Literature of the Indian Diaspora. In Emmanuel Nelson (Eds.), Indian Writing in East Africa and South Africa (pp. 36pp). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Invited Publication

Arlene A. Elder (1988). "Ed Bullins: Black Theatre as Ritual, ." Connections: Essays in Black Literatures 101.

Arlene A. Elder (1989). Headnote for "William Wells Brown, ." The Heath Anthology of American Literature 2584.

Encyclopedia Article

Arlene A. Elder (1997). "Imperium in Imperio, " and "Du Bois, The Quest of the Silver Fleece." In The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York and London: Oxford U. Pr.

Arlene A. Elder (1994). Commissioned entry, "Orature, ." In Encyclopedia of English Studies and Language of Art, (pp. 895). New York: Scholastic Publishers.

Arlene A. Elder (1991). "Bessie Head, ." In commissioned entry in Literary Exile in the Twentieth Century. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Presentations

Invited Presentations

Arlene A. Elder (1995. ) "Contemporary African Culture," .NEH Summer Seminar, Madonna College, Livonia, MI. Level:Regional

Lecture

Arlene A. Elder (1998. ) Lecture on the Harlem Renaissance .Cincinnati Public Library, downtown branch. Level:Regional

Arlene A. Elder (1997. ) "The Professor and the Dodo," .UC. UC. Level:National

Paper Presentations

Arlene A. Elder (2007. ) "Postmodern Narrative as Political Assertion in Yvonne Vera's The Stone Virgins," . University of West Virginia, Morgantown. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (2006. ) Accra, Ghana. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (2010. ) : “Three Paths to the Crossroad,” .University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (2005. ) University of Colorado, Boulder. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (2004. ) University of Wisconsin, Madison. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (2002. ) University of California, San Diego. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (2001. ) Virginia Commonwealth Univ.. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (2000. ) “Transformative Spaces/Unnatural Places: Magical Women and Cyberfeminism in Ben Okri and Kojo Lange,” .University of Kansas. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (1999. ) "Stories as Moral Directives: Orature and Tradition in Ben Okri's Songs of Enchantment," .Fez, Morocco. Conference. Level:International

Arlene A. Elder (2009. ) Univ. of Western Illinois. Conference. Level:International

Service

WGSS (Promotion Committee for Professor Michelle Gibson, 2010 ) Committee Chair Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 2009 -2010

(WGSS ) Committee Member Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 2010 -2010

WGGS (Friends Travel Grants Committee ) Committee Chair Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 2008 -2010

(WGSS Travel Grant Committee ) Committee Member Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 2010

(WGSS Lecture Series Committee ) Committee Chair Type:University/College Service Level:Department 2008 -2010

(WGSS Workload Committee ) Committee Member Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 2010 -2010

English Dept. (Search Committee for African American/Ethnic Literature position ) Committee Chair Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 2002 -2003

English Dept. (Search Committee for African American/Ethnic Literature position ) Committee Member Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 1997 -1998

English Dept. (Search Committee for African American/Ethnic Literature position ) Committee Chair Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 1996 -1997

Africana Studies (Search Committee for Assistant Professor of Literature ) Committee Member Type:University/College Service Level:Department 2008 -2008

(Reappointment Committee for Professor John Kalubi ) Committee Member Type:University/College Service Level:Department 2008 -2008

(Arts & Sciences Student Grievance Committee ) Committee Member Type:University/College Service Level:College 2005 -2006

(Taft Executive Board ) Committee Member Type:University/College Service Level:College 1992 -1994

(Taft Undergraduate Awards Committee ) Type:University/College Service Level:College 1991 -1994

AAUP (Strike Committee ) Committee Chair Type:University/College Service Level:University 1998 -1998

AAUP (Strike Committee ) Committee Chair Type:University/College Service Level:University 2001 -2001

AAUP (Board of Directors ) Type:University/College Service Level:University 1998 -2002

AAUP (Contract Negotiating Team ) Committee Member Type:University/College Service Level:University 1994 -1995

Just Community Committee ( Reading Selection for Freshman Orientation ) Member Type:University/College Service Level:University 1997 -1998

AAUP (AAUP White Papers ) Editor Type:University/College Service Level:University 1993 -1994

Faculty Senate (Faculty Senate Human Relations Committee ) Elected Member Type:University/College Service Level:University 1992 -1993

African Studies Association (Aidoo/Snyder Prize for an African Woman Writer, African Studies Association Women’s Caucus ) Co-Chair Type:Service to Professional Associations Level:International 2007 -2008

African Literature Association (Executive Council ) Secretary Type:Service to Professional Associations Level:International 2003 -2011

African Literature Association (Women’s Caucus of the African Literature ) President Type:Service to Professional Associations Level:International 2003 -2006

MELUS, the Society of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. Treasurer Type:Service to Professional Associations Level:International 1994 -2000

Modern Language Association (Delegate Assembly of the Modern Language Association ) Special Interest Group Member Type:Service to Professional Associations Level:International 2000 -2002

Modern Language Association (Executive Committee, Division of African Literature ) Elected Member Type:Service to Professional Associations Level:International 1995 -2000

Courses Taught

15-WMST-380 FEM CRITICAL READ Level:Undergraduate

15-WMST-647 ETHNIC WOMEN: LCH Level:Graduate

15-WMST-735 FEM THRY:RC/CLS/NA Level:Graduate

15-WMST-447 ETHNIC WOMEN: LCH Level:Both