Home / People / Kemeshia Randle Swanson, PhD Kemeshia Randle Swanson, PhD Associate Professor of English Education Ph.D., The University of AlabamaM.A., The University of MississippiB.A., Tougaloo College Research Interests African American LiteratureAmerican Literature 1865 to PresentSouthern LiteratureWomen’s LiteratureBlack FeminismsGender and Sexualities StudiesPopular Literature and Culture Published Articles “Gang Wars: The Academy vs. the Street” (2014)“The Sexless Servant is the Safer Servant: Domesticated Domestics in Stockett’s The Help” (2016)“Lessons Learned, Degrees Earned: Street Literature, Black Bodies, and the Contemporary Academic Classroom” (2018) Forthcoming Book Maverick Feminist: To Be Black and Female in a Country Founded Upon Violence and Respectability (University Press of Mississippi) Favorite Quote and Philosophy “It is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others – for their use and to our detriment.”Audre Lorde