Christina Sharpe completed her Bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania in English and Africana studies during which time she spent a semester in Nigeria at the University of Ibadan. Afterwards, Sharpe went on to get both her Masters degree as well as a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Clearly expressing an interest in American literature, African American writing, and black feminist theory, expressed in her graduate dissertation on Bessie Head, Sharpe acquired an associate professorship at Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges from 1996 to 1998 at which point she moved to Tufts University in Medford. There, Sharpe taught courses such as "Race and the Senses," "Queer Diasporas," and "Black Feminist Theories" in the English department. In 2005, Sharpe was awarded tenure and became a full professor in 2017. In 2018, Sharpe moved to York University in Toronto, where she is currently teaching in the English Department.
Alongside teaching, Sharpe has also published two major books, Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects (2010) and In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (2016) which have both garnered a number of honors and nominations. Additionally, Sharpe has published numerous articles, book chapters, and essays including "Response to Jared Sexton's "Ante-Anti-Blackness: Afterthoughts" (2002) which appeared in Lateral, "Learning to Live Without Black Familia: Cherríe Moraga's Nationalist Articulations" (2003), and "The Costs of Re-membering: What's at Stake in Gayl Jones's Corregidora" (2000). Sharpe has lectured and participated in conferences around the world, and is recognized today as a leading academic in Black Feminist Theory, English literature, and Africana studies. Her current book projects include Thinking Juxtapositionally, an analysis of the treatment of slavery and black history in America through artists and institutional spaces, and she is writing the introduction to Collected Poems of Dionne Brand (1982-2010).
This collection consists of the papers of Christina Sharpe, Professor of English at York University in Toronto, Canada. The collection documents Sharpe's professional life including drafts and proofs of her two books, conference material, several writings by other authors, subject files, and print material dating from approximately 1989-2018. The collection is arranged into 8 series.
Series I, BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL, 2006-2007, contains two editions of Sharpe's Curriculum Vitae as well as funerary documents of Sharpe's colleague Gerald Gill, an esteemed professor of history at Tufts University. The series is arranged alphabetically by subject.
Series 2, CORRESPONDENCE, 2000-2018, consists of personal and professional correspondence, arranged chronologically then by name or subject. This series mostly contains professional correspondence between Sharpe and her colleagues at Tufts, where she was a professor of English for 20 years.
Series 3, CAREER DEVELOPMENT, 1994-2018, records Sharpe's professional activity from 1994 to the present, significantly highlighting her activity on campus to hire more African American faculty, as well as address racism at the university level. The series also contains Sharpe's tenure file from Tufts University as well as several student surveys of her courses. At the end of the series, there is also a program for a conference "Black Women in the Academy: Defending Our Name, 1894-1994" which Sharpe, alongside numerous major academics, likely attended in 1994. This series is arranged alphabetically by institution followed by record type.
Series 4, WRITINGS AND RELATED, 1989-2018, includes drafts, contracts, and visual material of Sharpe's two books: Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects (published in 2010) and In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (published in 2016). Additionally, this series has several drafts of articles and lectures delivered at various institutions. A copy of some of Sharpe's graduate papers are also found in this series. Writings and Related is arranged alphabetically by title, then record type.
Series 5, TEACHING, 1997-2018, is the largest series of the collection, documenting the courses Sharpe has taught throughout her career. The series contains syllabi, readings, attendance lists, papers, and most notably, detailed notes for seminars and lectures written by Sharpe. The series is comprised mostly of materials from her courses, "Queer Diasporas," "Black Feminist Theories," "Race and the Senses," as well as other courses surrounding the material of her two published books. The series is arranged alphabetically by course title, followed by record type.
Series 6, RESEARCH, 1990-2018, is divided into two subseries. The first subseries catalogues Sharpe's secondary source material for teaching and writing by author's last name, including articles and essays by academics such as Saidiya Hartman, Fred Moten, and Hortense Spillers. Some of the research material is heavily annotated by Sharpe. The second subseries is comprised of subject files, arranged alphabetically. Of note, this subseries contains papers and documents regarding Japanese internment, the black body, intimacy, queerness, and diaspora. This series also has source material for Sharpe's books.
Series 7, PRINT AND VISUAL MATERIALS, 1980-2017, contains a photograph, postcards, and slides of images either used for teaching, or for Sharpe's books. One folder is oversized and is housed separately. The series is arranged alphabetically by record type.
All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, available on the John Hay Library website or by request, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The collection is open for research use. The collection can only be seen by prior appointment because some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Christina Sharpe papers, Ms.2018.015, Black Feminist Theory Collections/Feminist Theory Archive, Brown University Library.
This collection is arranged into 8 series.
Gift of Christina Sharpe in 2018.