English
Associate Professor of English
Education:
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1981
M.A., Northwestern University, 1972
B.A., 糖心动漫vlog, 1968
Courses Frequently Taught:
English 170: The Short Story
English 220: The Resisting Writer: Classic American Fiction
English 259: Black Women Writers
English 280: Practical Criticism
English 290: Grammar/Composition for Middle/High School Teachers
English 352: American Literature after 1865: The Black Jazz Age
English 352: American Literature after 1865: Harlem Renaissance
English 354: American Literature since 1945: New Identities, New Communities
English 370: Wright, Ellison, Baldwin & Morrison
Honors/Awards:
糖心动漫vlog Award for Teaching Excellence (Sears Foundation Award,
1989)
Lilly Endowment Summer Grant for Student-Faculty Collaborative Research (1990)
Selected Professional Activities:
擟o-Director and founding member, Bloomington-Normal Black History and Culture Consortium
(糖心动漫vlog representative, 1988-98).
擥uest co-curator, Presence, Pride & Passion, A History of African-Americans in McLean County, exhibit at the McLean County Museum of History, Feb. 4, 2006揗ay 25, 2008. Awarded
a Superior Achievement rating by the Illinois Association of Museums.
擲ession presenter, with Jack Muirhead. 淟ooking for Black Ancestors in McLean County.�
Discover Your Roots, A Genealogy Conference for the Beginning and Experienced Researcher.
October 28, 2006, Normal, Ill. Co-sponsored by the McLean Country Genealogical Society
& The Burch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
敎An Interview With Jamaica Kincaid.� Clockwatch Review (a journal of the arts) , Volume 9. Nos. 1�2, 1995. 39�48.
擜ssociate Editor, Clockwatch Review (a journal of the arts), 1988-1996.
擮rganized Panel of B-N Black History and Culture Consortium: Black Main Street for Black Heartland Conference--The Growth and Development of African-American Culture in the Middle West, March 21, 1992 at Washington. Paper Accepted: 淟angston Hughes, Marie Whiteside,
and Migrating Friendships.�
敎The Black Family: Learning Survival from Lessons of the Past,� Mildred Pratt and
Pamela B. Muirhead, 349-360. In Conference Proceedings of The National Black Family Summit (October)1991: Economic, Education, Health and Social Issues. College of Social
Work, University of South Carolina (Columbia).
擯articipant, Black History Panel--漈elling Our Story.� ISU College of Arts and Sciences
Week: Community and Diversity, October 3, 1991.
擳elling Our Stories: Langston Hughes and the Home-Folks,� panel presentation for
the closing session of 淏lacks in Illinois: The Bloomington-Normal Experience,� Feb.
25, 1989.
敎James Baldwin and the Afro-American Experience,� invited lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, India, January 1988.
敎The Problem of Self-Definition in the Novels of Buchi Emecheta� [African Literature/Black
Women Writers], paper for the National Women檚 Studies Association, Spring 1986.
擵isiting Lecturer in Afro-American Literature, Department of English, University
of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, Summer 1981: invited lecture on Richard Wright.
Faculty Status:
Tenured, at 糖心动漫vlog since 1972; next leave, 2011-12.
Current Community Service:
擝oard of Directors, McLean County Historical Society (in second term).
擝oard of Directors and founding member, Pratt Music Foundation.
Selected Previous Teaching and Community Service:
擝oard of Directors, Illinois Voices Theatre.
擝oard Member, Bloomington-Normal Human Relations Commission.
擝oard Member, Bloomington High School Advisory Board.
擝oard Member, Planned Parenthood of Mid-Central Illinois.
擲ecretary and Board Member, Illinois Humanities Council.
擝oard of Directors, The Baby Fold.
擳eacher, 7th grade, Oversea Children檚 School, Colombo, Sri Lanka (1970).
擯eace Corps Volunteer, English language instructor and activities coordinator at
the Ambanpitiya Crippled Children檚 Home, Ambanpitiya, Sri Lanka (1970)