Lawrence Jackson is associate professor of English and African American Studies. Professor Jackson earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University in 1997, and he began his teaching career at Howard University in Washington, DC. He joined Emory’s faculty in 2002, the year his biography, Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius, was published. Currently, Professor Jackson is writing a literary history called A Song in the Front Yard: A History of African American Writers and Critics from 1935-1960. His future projects include a full-length biography of the African American writer Chester Himes and a memoir of the 1970s and 1980s. He has lectured widely in the United States and abroad, and he was featured in 2002 documentary on Ralph Ellison’s life. Professor Jackson offers courses primarily in 19th and 20th century African American literature and culture, shaped by his interest in urban studies, social class formation, realism and modernism, popular culture, black nationalism, and decolonization theory.

Selected Publications:

• "The Aftermath: The Harlem Renaissance Twenty Years Later,” Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance, ed. George Hutchinson. New York: Cambridge UP, 2007.
  

• “Ralph Ellison’s Integrationist Politics.” Oxford Historical Guide to Ralph Ellison. Ed. Steve Tracy. New York: Oxford UP, 2004.
  

• Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius, 1913-1953. John Wiley: New York, 2002.
  

• “The Birth of a Critic: The Literary Friendship Between Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.” American Literature (June 2000).
  

• “An Interview with Edward P. Jones.” African-American Review (Spring 2000).
  

• “Ralph Ellison, Sharpies, Rinehart and Politics in Invisible Man.” Massachusetts Review (Spring 1999).