Education
- PhD, American Studies and African American Studies, Yale University, 2003
- MA, American Studies and African American Studies, Yale University, 1999
- BA, English, Hampton University, 1996
Academic Appointments
Other University Affiliations
- Professor, University of South Carolina, English and African-American Studies, since 2018
- Interim Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Studies and College Initiatives, University of South Carolina, 2021-2022
- Director, African American Studies Program, University of South Carolina, 2018-2022
- Associate Professor, University of South Carolina, English and African American Studies, 2009-2018
- Visiting Professor, University Studies Abroad Consortium in Florianópolis, Brazil, Summer 2017.
- Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina, English, 2003-2009
- Instructor, Yale University, African American Studies, 2001
- Teaching Assistant, Yale University, English and History, 1998-1999
Other University Affiliations
- Affiliate USC Faculty, Media Studies
- Affiliate USC Faculty, Southern Studies
Publications
Books
Books
- Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics. Rutgers University Press, 2023.
- EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest. Rutgers University Press, 2019.
- Comics and the U.S. South. Eds. Qiana Whitted and Brannon Costello. University Press of Mississippi, 2012.
- “A God of Justice?” The Problem of Evil in Twentieth-Century Black Literature. University of Virginia Press, 2009.
- Introduction to Black Panther (Penguin Classics Marvel Collection), Don McGregor, Rich Buckler, Billy Graham, et. al., Penguin Classics, 2022
- “Blues Fallin’ Down Like Hail: Reading ‘The Sky is Gray’ as a Blues Narrative,” in MLA Series: Approaches to Teaching Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Other Works. Ed. John Lowe and Herman Beavers, 2019.
- “Comics and Emmett Till,” Picturing Childhood: Youth in Transnational Comics. University of Texas Press, 2017.
- "The Blues Tragicomic: Constructing the Black Folk Subject in McCulloch and Hendrix's Stagger Lee." The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. Rutgers University Press, 2015.
- "Black Culture, Speculative Fiction, and the Past as Text in Jeremy Love's Bayou." Class, Please Open Your Comics: Essays on Teaching with Graphic Narratives. McFarland, 2015: 195-216.
- “'And the Negro thinks in hieroglyphics': Comics, Visual Metonymy, and the Spectacle of Blackness." Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Vol. 5. No. 1 (2014): 79-100.
- “Of Slaves and Other Swamp Things: Black Southern History as Comic Book Horror,” Comics and the U.S. South. Eds. Qiana Whitted and Brannon Costello. University Press of Mississippi, 2012.
- “Using My Grandmother’s Life as a Model: Richard Wright and the Gendered Politics of Religious Representation,” Southern Literary Journal, 36.2 (2004): 13-30. Reprinted in Harold Bloom, ed., Richard Wright: Bloom's Modern Critical Views, 2nd Edition. New York, Infobase Publishing, 2009.
- “In My Flesh Shall I See God: Ritual Violence, Racial Redemption, and Countee Cullen’s ‘The Black Christ’,” African American Review, 38.3 (2004): 379-393.
- “The Battle Scars of Angola Janga,” ASAP/J, Black One-Shot Series, 2020. http://asapjournal.com/b-o-s-9-3-angola-janga-kingdom-of-runaway-slaves-qiana-whitted/
- “To Flip and Move and Shine: Ebony Flowers’ Hot Comb,” The Comics Journal, Oct. 22, 2019. http://www.tcj.com/to-flip-and-move-and-shine-ebony-flowers-hot-comb/
- “Slavery Was No Opera: Alyssa Cole’s An Extraordinary Union,” Public Books, 2017. http://www.publicbooks.org/slavery-was-no-opera/
Awards and Honors
- UofSC Russell Research Award in Humanities and Social Sciences, 2022
- Will Eisner Industry Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work, 2020
- Finalist, Farrar Award in Media & Civil Rights History, 2019
- Department of English Research Professorship, 2016
- USC Provost Humanities Grant, 2012-2014
- English Department Teaching Award, 2012
- USC College of Arts and Sciences Summer Research Fellowship, 2011
- USC Institute for African American Studies Research Grant, 2010-2011
- USC NAACP Andrew Billingsley Faculty Award, 2004
- Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 2002-2003
- Yale University Dissertation Fellowship, 2000-2001
- Yale African American Studies Research Grant, 1998
- Yale University Graduate School Fellowship, 1996-1999
- Hurston/Wright Foundation Creative Writing Workshop, 2000
- Hampton University President's Award, 1996
- English Departmental Award, 1996.