Randi Gill-Sadler
Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and English
Education
- Ph.D., University of Florida
- M.A., University of Florida
- B.A., Gardner-Webb University
Areas of Expertise
- 20th Century African American Women's Literature
- 20th Century Afro-Caribbean Women's Literature
- Black Feminist Theory
- U.S. Cultures of Imperialism
- Anti-Colonial Theory
Background
I am a scholar and teacher of 20th century African American and Afro-Caribbean women's literature, U.S. Empire, and Black feminist theory. My research explores representations of U.S. imperialism in Black women's writing and tracks U.S. empire's growing reliance on African Americans' participation in U.S. imperial exploits and use of African American cultural production to maintain and extend its global dominance. Moreover, my research traces Black feminist literary histories that critique African Americans' inclusion and participation in various facets of U.S. empire. In my book manuscript, I revisit the period known as the Black Women's Literary Renaissance to reveal Black women's skeptical posture towards inclusion in the works of writers like Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, June Jordan, and Toni Cade Bambara.
The content of my courses reflects and extends my research interests to include topics such as Black Feminist Literature and Theory; African American Literature and U.S. Empire in Three Acts; Tourism, the Caribbean and the African American Literary Imagination; The Black Arts Movement; and Protest and Rebellion in African American Literature and Film. Many of the Black women writers I study were also excellent teachers and have influenced my teaching as well. They have demonstrated expansive and generative forms of study, writing, and collaboration that I find invaluable and let serve as organizing principles for my courses.
