Toni Morrison Scholar, Dr. Linda Krumholz, Ends Term as Director of Black Studies Program.
Linda Krumholz, Director of Black Studies from 2013 to 2016 is now returning to full time teaching within the English Department. Linda came to Denison in 1992 as a member of the English Department which she has also chaired (2007-2010). Since coming to Denison, Linda has taught in both Black Studies and English and has been a member of the Black Studies Committee throughout her time here. While at Denison, Linda has received the distinction of being named the Lorena Woodrow Burke Chair of English (2010-2015). In addition, she has been a long time member and Co-Chair of the Homestead Advisory Board, has co-chaired the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Learning Committee (2002-2004), and has served as Chair of the Faculty (2011-20112). Dr. Krumholz teaches introductory courses in composition and literary theory as well as courses that focus on 20th- and 21st-century American literature. Her courses include Ethnic Literature, African American Women’s Novels, the H arlem Renaissance, Narratives of Slavery, Contemporary Native American Literature, and Toni Morrison’s Novels. Linda’s research focuses on the role of contemporary novels by African American and Native American authors to transform social representations and beliefs about race, history, economics, power, and cultural identities. Her essays have appeared in journals such as Contemporary Literature, African American Review, Western American Literature, and Modern Fiction Studies, and in anthologies.
Dr. Krumholz’s recent publications include:
“The Web of Stories: Reading and Change in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller.” All of Us Remembering: New Perspectives on Leslie Marmon Silkso’s Storyteller. Ed. Catherine Rainwater, University of NM Press, forthcoming fall 2016.
“Blackness and Art in Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby.” Contemporary Literature 49.2 (Summer 2008): 262-291. Reprinted in Critical Voices on Toni Morrison. Ed. Meenakshi F. Paul and Khem Raj Sharma. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2015. 164-198.
Review of Valerie Smith’s Toni Morrison: Writing the Moral Imagination. African American Review 47.1 (Spring 2014): 219-221.
She is currently working on two related essays: “Unsettling America: Race, Writing, and Young Love in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy” and “Genesis and Revelations: Property and Identity in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy.” Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, set primarily in 1690 New England, explores the historical processes by which slavery and blackness become linked. Krumholz is examining ways that Morrison engages with early American history to challenge and revise U.S. origin stories.