Hazel V. Carby is the Charles C. and Dorothea S. Dilley Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and Professor Emeritus of American Studies at Yale University. A pioneering critic in the field of Black feminist studies focusing on race, gender, class, and diaspora, Carby has published extensive scholarship including five books: Multicultural Fictions (1980), Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist (1987), Race Men: The W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures (1998), Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America (1999), and Imperial Intimacies: A Tale of Two Islands (2019).
Born in Okehampton, Devon, Great Britain to a Jamaican father and Welsh mother, Hazel Carby grew up with her parents Carl Colin Carby and Iris Muriel Carby in South London. She trained as a ballerina before pivoting to the study of literature. In 1970, she earned her Bachelor's degree in English and History at Portsmouth Polytechnic University (now University of Portsmouth). After supplementing that degree with a Professional Graduate Certificate in Education from London University's Institute of Education (1972), Carby taught secondary school in Newham from 1972-1979; a time when then-Secretary of Education Margaret Thatcher was beginning to dismantle social service policies in which Carby was invested. She moved on to pursue a Master's degree and then a PhD at the University of Birmingham, where she studied under the mentorship of foundational Black Marxist cultural theorist Stuart Hall in the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies. During this time, Carby co-edited The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in Seventies Britain and produced a groundbreaking dissertation called "Uplifting As They Write: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist" (1984), which would later become Reconstructing Womanhood.
Carby taught for the majority of her academic career at Yale University, beginning in 1981-1982 and then spanning from 1989 until her retirement in 2019. In 1982 she married Cultural Studies scholar and fellow Yale University Professor Michael Denning. They have one child: the anthropologist Nicholas Carby-Denning. From 1982-1989 Carby taught English at Wesleyan University.
Across her essential scholarship, Carby engages deeply with translatlantic questions of and historical materialist approaches to race, gender, sexuality, class, migration, empire, inheritance, and the narrative production of history. Her papers currently focus on her extensive academic career, with particular emphasis on her commitment to teaching and student mentorship, her participation in various councils and committees for Yale University's American Studies and African American Studies departments, her time directing Yale's Initiative for Race, Gender, and Globalization, her extensive research, and her participation in various conference and publication projects.
The correspondence is regarding Adele Logan Alexander's book proposal for a biography of Adella Hunt Logan
Carby recommends Claudia Tate for three fellowships: from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Wilson Center, and the AAUW Educational Foundation
Includes correspondence from Emily Friedrichs, Joshua Guild, Ivy Wilson, Leigh Raiford, Michelle Stephen
Some materials regarding a faculty retreat.
Carby created this array of documents to "generate a campus-wide series of conversations about the lack of diversity among the Yale faculty," to quote her document titled "Race, Gender and Ethnicity at Yale University."
CVs included in this folder are Achille Mbembe's.
Materials relate to invited lecturers for the Initiative's Colloquium Series. Lecturers include Michelle A. Stephens, Anne McClintock, Robert D. Nixon, Nalo Hopkinson, Edwidge Danticat. Folder also includes information on the New Paradigms for the Caribbean Conference.
Materials relate to invited lecturers for the Initiative's Colloquium Series. Lecturers in this folder include Jayna Brown, Cheryl Finley, Nalo Hopkinson, Sonia Boyce. This folder also includes an index, details on PTAEO, requests for service, and budget.
Materials relate to invited lecturers for the Initiative's Colloquium Series. Lecturers in this folder include David Bailey, Caryl Phillips. This folder also includes a syllabus and administrative documents related to one of Carby's classes and various other administrative documents.
Materials relate to invited lecturers for the Initiative's Colloquium Series. Lecturers in this folder include Caryl Phillips. This folder also includes various other administrative documents.
Materials relate to invited lecturers for the Initiative's Colloquium Series. Lecturers in this folder include Renaldo Walcott, Saidiya Hartman, Ranjana Khanna, Sarah Nuttall, Achille Mbembe, James Walvin, Tina Campt.
The Department Card Program is a payment and reimbursement system that Carby used for event planning, travel, and management.
Posters advertise different events / speakers from the Initiative's Colloquium Series.
Title of folder is written with quotation marks to indicate that this is Carby's title for the bound notebook.
Documents are titled "Theory, Black Feminism and the Study of Afro-American Culture," "Histories of Containment: Black Women As Text," "Sexuality, Culture, Theory: The Black Woman As Text," "Theory, Culture, Sexuality: The Black Woman As Text" (3 essays of this title)
Teaching assistant for the course: Nicholas Forster.
Includes typed draft of lecture sixteen; lecture seventeen is not included in the folder.
Carby's annotated typed draft is titled "Imagining Black Men: the Politics of Cultural Identity."
Fred Moten's paper is titled "The New International of Rhythmic Feeling(s)." Tina Campt's paper is titled "What's the Score? Gender-Diaspora-Photography."
Conferences papers included in this folder are by: Deborah A. Thomas, Patricia Saunders, Shalini Puri, Jorge L. Giovannetti, Michelle Stephens, Harvey Neptune, Melanie Newton, Alissa Trotz, Roshini Kempadoo, Marlon Griffith. Many of these papers include Carby's notes on the back.
Three of the letters included in this folder are written to Carby by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Correspondence is one note from Ann Fitzpatrick.
Correspondence is comprised of one email from Painter to Carby.
Correspondences is between Carby and Scott.
Correspondence is between Carby and Mary Louise Patterson.
Hazel Carby purchased this (and other texts in this series) at Centerprise Bookshop, a radical bookshop in London.
Panel organized by Carby.
The Search Committee was in operation at Yale University.
This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Hazel Carby, Charles C. and Dorothea S. Dilley Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and Professor Emeritus of American Studies, Yale University. Carby's foundational and extensive scholarship focuses on race, gender, class, African American Studies, and African Diaspora Studies. Materials in this collection include correspondence, administrative documents, conference files, teaching materials, lecture, essay, and book drafts, handwritten research notes, research materials, and print materials, dating 1972-2016. The collection is arranged into 10 series.
Series 1, PERSONAL and BIOGRAPHICAL, 1984 – 2006, includes an interview transcription, assorted materials that Hazel Carby produced and arranged in order to teach students at her son's elementary school about Black History Month, and Hazel Carby's bound doctoral thesis. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.
Series 2, CORRESPONDENCE, 1982 – 1999, includes letters, greeting cards, and related research materials and writings by Carby. Of particular interest is a small selection of the letters from Carby's intellectual collaborator, Saidiya Hartman, and from other scholars and writers. Also included are cards from friends and former students. This series is arranged alphabetically by correspondent name then by topic.
Series 3, ADMINISTRATIVE, 1979 – 2010, includes meeting documents, printed correspondence, handwritten notes, and CVs. The series holds extensive documentation of Yale University's lecture series, the "Initiative for Race, Gender, and Globalization"; including presentation introductions written by Hazel Carby and materials related to scholars such as Achille Mbembe and Tina Campt and to writers such as Caryl Phillips and Nalo Hopkinson. The series also includes printed correspondence, meeting reports, book proposals, chapter drafts, and presentation drafts related to three study groups in which Hazel Carby was involved from 1979-1980 at Birmingham University: English Studies Group, Media Group, and Race and Politics Group. This series is arranged alphabetically by institution and then by record type.
Series 4, TEACHING, 1987 – 2016, includes syllabi, annotated research materials, handwritten and typed notes, and course readings. Of particular interest are printed and handwritten lectures and lecture notes written by Hazel Carby. Also included are typed assignments by students. This series is arranged alphabetically by course title and then alphabetically by record type.
Series 5, CONFERENCES, 1991 – 2013, includes correspondence, administrative documents, conference programs, handwritten notes, and printed conference papers by Hazel Carby and others. Of particular interest is an annotated typed draft of Carby's essays titled "Imagining Black Men: the Politics of Cultural Identity" (1992) and "Issues of Race and the Assault on Diversity: The End of 'Reconstruction' and the Maintenance of the Boundaries of Segregation" (1991). Also included is a typed paper by Fred Moten titled "The New International of Rhythmic Feeling(s)" (2008) and a typed paper by Tina Campt titled "What's the Score? Gender-Diaspora-Photography" (2008). Printed conference papers that include Hazel Carby's handwritten notes on each presentation will also be of interest. This series is arranged alphabetically by conference title and then alphabetically by record type.
Series 6, WRITINGS BY CARBY, 1980 – 2008, includes articles, book chapters, papers, reviews of Hazel Carby's work, and contracts. Of particular interest are Carby's rough drafts and publication contracts. Also included is correspondence between Carby and Frederic Jameson. This series is arranged alphabetically by format and then alphabetically by title.
Series 7, WRITINGS BY OTHERS, circa 1989 – 2005, includes photocopied and printed essays, photocopied books, typed and handwritten notes, and correspondence. Of particular interest is an unpublished manuscript by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. titled "Richard Wright Memorial Lectures," as well as correspondence from Gates, Jr. to Carby. Also included is a typed essay by Rinaldo Walcott titled "Origins…Beginnings…:Transatlantic Slavery" (n.d.). This series is arranged alphabetically by author's last name then by title.
Series 8, SUBJECT FILES, ca. 1990 – 2012, includes printed essays, correspondence, clippings, handwritten notes, printed interview transcriptions. Original folder titles are written in quotations. The processor created all other folder titles. This series is arranged alphabetically by title.
Series 8, Subseries 1, PEOPLE, ca. 1990 – 2012, includes research files about people. Of particular interest is Carby's handwritten notes on Kara Walker. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by subject's last name then by record type.
Series 8, Subseries 2, PEOPLE – LOUISE THOMPSON PATTERSON, ca. 1998, 2000-2005, includes research files about Louise Thompson Patterson related to a research project on which Hazel Carby collaborated with Patterson's daughter Mary Louise Patterson. The correspondence and project report related to the project may be of particular interest. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by record type.
Series 8, Subseries 3, TOPICS, includes correspondence, annotated readings, and handwritten notes about an assortment of topics including "Black film history," "Blues women" and "Migration." Also included are several bound notebooks containing Carby's handwritten notes on a variety of subjects including Zora Neale Hurston and W.E.B. Du Bois. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by topic.
Series 9, PRINT MATERIAL, 1972 – 2016, includes books, journals, lecture posters, and an exhibition program. Many books included in this series were published by small, radical presses such as The Third World's Artist Collective, English Centre, Reality Press, the Centerprise Publishing Project, and the Black Ink Collective. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type and then alphabetically by title.
Series 10, RESTRICTED, 2003 – 2004, 2015, includes materials related to the 20th Century African American History Search Committee at Yale University (2003-2004), and materials related to faculty diversity at Yale University (2015). This series is arranged alphabetically by record type. The series is closed until January 1, 2032, after which date this series will open without restrictions.
Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Hazel V. Carby papers, MS.2022.006, Box [#], Folder [#], Pembroke Center Archives, John Hay Library, Brown University.
This collection is arranged into 10 series.
There are no restrictions on access for analog materials, except that Series 10, RESTRICTED, is closed until January 1, 2032. The collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view born-digital records. Born-digital materials in this collection may not have been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed to hay@brown.edu.
Gift of Hazel Carby beginning in 2022.