Christina Sharpe papers (Ms.2018.015)

Biographical / Historical

Christina Sharpe completed her Bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania in English and Africana studies during which time she spent a semester in Nigeria at the University of Ibadan. Afterwards, Sharpe went on to get both her Masters degree as well as a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Clearly expressing an interest in American literature, African American writing, and black feminist theory, expressed in her graduate dissertation on Bessie Head, Sharpe acquired an associate professorship at Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges from 1996 to 1998 at which point she moved to Tufts University in Medford. There, Sharpe taught courses such as "Race and the Senses," "Queer Diasporas," and "Black Feminist Theories" in the English department. In 2005, Sharpe was awarded tenure and became a full professor in 2017. In 2018, Sharpe moved to York University in Toronto, where she is currently teaching in the English Department.

Alongside teaching, Sharpe has also published two major books, Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects (2010) and In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (2016) which have both garnered a number of honors and nominations. Additionally, Sharpe has published numerous articles, book chapters, and essays including "Response to Jared Sexton's "Ante-Anti-Blackness: Afterthoughts" (2002) which appeared in Lateral, "Learning to Live Without Black Familia: Cherríe Moraga's Nationalist Articulations" (2003), and "The Costs of Re-membering: What's at Stake in Gayl Jones's Corregidora" (2000). Sharpe has lectured and participated in conferences around the world, and is recognized today as a leading academic in Black Feminist Theory, English literature, and Africana studies. Her current book projects include Thinking Juxtapositionally, an analysis of the treatment of slavery and black history in America through artists and institutional spaces, and she is writing the introduction to Collected Poems of Dionne Brand (1982-2010).