- Professor and Department Chair
- Africana Studies
- Phone: 401.874.4730
- Email: catherine_john@uri.edu
- Office Location: Swan Hall, Rm 175G
- Website
Biography
Catherine John-Camara has a doctorate in Literature with an emphasis in African diaspora literary and cultural studies. She was born and raised in Jamaica and migrated with her family to Boston, Massachusetts where she attended Medford High School and Boston College. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz where she studied with Gloria Akasha Hull, James Clifford and Kristin Ross.
Her research addresses philosophical issues relevant to folk culture in African American and African Caribbean contexts. In addition to literature, she teaches courses on film and Hip Hop culture. During the course of her academic career, she has received teaching awards and pioneered study abroad programs to the Caribbean.
Education
- Ph.D. in Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1997
- B.A. in English, Boston College, 1988
Selected Publications
Afro-Indigenization and Marasa Consciousness: A Theory of Grassroots Cultural Practice
[Under Review – Duke Press]
Clear Word and Third Sight: Folk Groundings and Diasporic Consciousness in African Caribbean Writing, [Monograph]
Co-Published by Duke University Press, 2003 & The Press of the University of the West Indies, Mona, 2004
Caribbean Memoir: The Life and Legacy of Cyril Bailey, Railroad Stationmaster in Early 20th Century Jamaica
[Manuscript-in-progress]
Roast Breadfruit and Other Migration Mythographies
[Creative Non-fiction manuscript-in-progress]
ARTICLES
“Insurgent Attitude: The Shifting Ground of the Black Feminine,” in Cultural Dynamics: Decolonial Feminist Praxis (forthcoming, Fall 2021.)
“The Prosperity Gospels of Superstardom: Kanye’s Philosophy,” co-authored with Leroy Myers, Jr. and Zachary Leacock. In The Journal of Hip Hop Studies, Vol. 6 [2019], Iss. 1, Art 1.
“Pedagogical Poetics and Curricular Design in the Interracial Classroom: A Black Female Perspective,” in Curriculum at the Crossroads: Women of Color Resist and Reflect, Eds. Kirsten Edwards & Maria del Guadalupe Davidson, 8-21. New York: Rutledge Press, 2018 (20 pages).
“Blackness Through a Dual Lens: A Caribbean Journey into the African American Experience” in Public: A Journal of Imagining America, Syracuse Unbound, an imprint of Syracuse University Press, ISSN 2326-2567, 2016, (27 pages).
“Black Film Comedy as Vital Edge: A Reassessment of the Genre” in The Blackwell Companion to Film Comedy. Edited by Andy Horton & Joanna Rapf, 343-364. Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2013.
“Caribbean Organic Intellectual: The Legacy and Challenge of Erna Brodber’s Life Work.” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, SX 39, (Nov. 2012): 72-88.
“The Man in the Gutter is the God Maker: Zora Neale Hurston’s Philosophy of Culture” in The Inside Light: New Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston. Edited by Deborah Plant. 165-179. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger Publishers, 2010.