Dr. Jacqueline Goldsby

Biography

Jacqueline Goldsby is the Thomas E. Donnelly Professor of Black Studies and English at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1998 and an A.B. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984. Her research focuses on African American literature and the ways texts articulate the un-archived dimensions of American life, especially during the era of Jim Crow segregation from 1865 to 1965. Goldsby interrogates the tensions in interdisciplinary approaches to literary studies, employing both formal close reading and material cultural histories of Black-authored books. Her notable works include 'Spectacular Secret: Lynching American Life Literature' and the prepared Norton Critical Edition of James Weldon Johnson's novel 'Autobiography Ex-Colored Man'. She is also the co-director of The Black Bibliography Project, which aims to enhance descriptive bibliography in African American literature. Her teaching interests encompass 20th-century African American literature, critical bibliography, and the Black Chicago Renaissance. Goldsby’s publications contribute significantly to the understanding of the cultural and literary milieu of African American authors in a transformative era.

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