Dr. DeLisa D. Hawkes

I am an Assistant Professor of English and affiliate faculty of the African American Studies Program at The University of Texas at El Paso. My current research focuses on representations of genealogical discovery and ancestry in nineteenth and early-twentieth century African American literature. I am especially interested in the literary depictions of interactions between African Americans and Native Americans during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. I have published in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections such as MELUS, North Carolina Literary Review, and 21st Century US Historical Fiction: Contemporary Responses to the Past. My research has been supported by several fellowships and grants including support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for Historic American Visual Culture at the American Antiquarian Society, and the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers. Interdisciplinary methodologies inform my research and teaching interests in nineteenth to twenty-first century African American and Native American literatures, critical race studies, genealogy, historical and speculative fiction, and racial passing. At UTEP, I teach courses in African American literature, Black Diaspora literature, and multiethnic literature. Community-engaged scholarship is very important to me, and I am always excited to participate in opportunities to share the work that I do on campus with surrounding communities. I am an active member of the College Language Association, the Langston Hughes Society, the Modern Language Association (MLA), the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, and C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists. I currently serve as a representative on the MLA Delegate Assembly.