Dr. Qiana Whitted is Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. Originally from Virginia, she earned her BA degree in English from Hampton University and her MA and PhD degrees in American Studies and African American Studies from Yale University. While at Yale, she was the recipient of a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. Her research and teaching focus on Black literary and cultural studies with an emphasis on American comics and graphic novels.
Her book, EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest, published by Rutgers University Press, received the Will Eisner Industry Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work in 2020. Other publications include the co-edited collection, Comics and the U.S. South (with Brannon Costello) and the book, “A God of Justice?” The Problem of Evil in 20th Century Black Literature, as well as numerous essays that explore race and genre in southern studies, speculative fiction, romance fiction, and religious studies. She has also written the introductory essay for the Black Panther volume of Marvel's Penguin Classics collection. Additionally, she is editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society and chair of the International Comic Arts Forum.
Professor Whitted joined the University of South Carolina faculty in 2003, where she has served as Director of the African American Studies Program and as an Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences. She was the recipient of the UofSC Russell Research Award in the Humanities & Social Sciences in 2022.
Her book, EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest, published by Rutgers University Press, received the Will Eisner Industry Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work in 2020. Other publications include the co-edited collection, Comics and the U.S. South (with Brannon Costello) and the book, “A God of Justice?” The Problem of Evil in 20th Century Black Literature, as well as numerous essays that explore race and genre in southern studies, speculative fiction, romance fiction, and religious studies. She has also written the introductory essay for the Black Panther volume of Marvel's Penguin Classics collection. Additionally, she is editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society and chair of the International Comic Arts Forum.
Professor Whitted joined the University of South Carolina faculty in 2003, where she has served as Director of the African American Studies Program and as an Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences. She was the recipient of the UofSC Russell Research Award in the Humanities & Social Sciences in 2022.