Dr. Tasha Hawthorne

Biography

Tasha Hawthorne earned a B.A. in English and African American Studies with Departmental Honors from Bates College, an M.P.S. in African American Studies from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University. In 2016, she joined the faculty at Berea College as an Assistant Professor of English. Her work explores the intersection of gender, sexuality, genre, race, and politics in Black fiction. She is currently focused on projects discussing the crucial yet little-known role that Black pulp fiction has played in African American art and politics. Hawthorne was the recipient of the 2019-2020 Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and her work was also nominated for the Carnegie Mellon Fellowship for 2020-2021. With a decade of experience in teaching and advising in various educational settings, including universities and secondary schools, she has taught a variety of courses such as Introduction to African American Literature, African American Women Writers, and others at Berea College and Phillips Academy Andover, where she earned the F.C. Robertson Instructorship for excellence in teaching.

Research Interests