Christopher C. De Santis

Professor of African-American and American Literature and Director of Graduate Studies

Normal, Illinois 61790-4240

309-***-**** (Office)

abqcut@r.postjobfree.com

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in English

(August 1997, Honors)

Specialization: American and African American Literature

M.A. in African American Studies

(December 1990)

B.A. in English

(June 1989)

PUBLICATIONS

EDITED BOOKS

Langston Hughes: A Documentary Volume (Columbia, SC: Bruccoli Clark Layman, Inc., 2005).

Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and World Affairs, vol. 9, The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002).

Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights, vol. 10, The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001).

Langston Hughes and the Chicago Defender: Essays on Race, Politics, and Culture, 1942-62 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995).

ARTICLES and CHAPTERS for BOOKS

• "The Essayistic Vision of Langston Hughes," Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes, ed. John Edgar Tidwell and Cheryl R. Ragar (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007), 284-304.

• "Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance," Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, ed. Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman (New York: Routledge, 2004), 588-593.

"Pseudo-History Versus Social Critique: Faulkner's Reconstruction," Southern Quarterly 43.1 (Fall 2005): 9-27.

"The Dangerous Marrow of Southern Tradition: Charles W. Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the Paternalist Ethos at the Turn-of-the-Century," Southern Quarterly 38.2 (Winter 2000): 79-97.

"'Some chord of kinship stronger and deeper than blood': An Interview with John F. Callahan, Editor of Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth," 34.4 (Winter 2000): 601-620.

"Southern Reconstruction and the Rhetoric of Enlightened Paternalism in Rebecca Harding Davis's Waiting for the Verdict," 41 (March 1998): 249-268.

"Rage, Repudiation, and Endurance: Langston Hughes's Radical Writings," Reprint,, vol. 108, ed. Debbie Stanley (Detroit: Gale Research, 1998), 317-322.

"'The Thing Indefinable and Unconquerable': Howard Fast's Experiment in Democracy," 22.1 (Spring 1999): 1-7.

"Rage, Repudiation, and Endurance: Langston Hughes's Radical Writings," Langston Hughes Review 12.1 (Spring 1993): 31-39.

REVIEW-ESSAYS

"Dear Carlo, Dear Langston: An Epistolary Friendship," 24.2 (June 2002): 53-55.

"Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth and the Problems of Literary Hearsay," 21.1 (November-December 1999): 7-9.

"Exchanging Our Country Marks: A Review Essay," 37.2 (Winter 1999): 63-66.

"Refiguring Literary Images of an All-White Eden: A Review Essay," 36.1 (Fall 1997): 145-147.

"Innovative Phrasings in Literary Scholarship: Craig Werner's Playing the Changes,"34.1 (Fall 1995): 125-128.

"Representations of the Great Migration: A Review Essay," 32.4 (Summer 1994): 149-156.

"Voice, Identity and the African-American Literary Tradition," Southern Quarterly 31.4 (Summer 1993): 141-146.

REVIEWS

"The Contemporary African American Novel Narrowly Conceived," rev. of The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches, by Bernard W. Bell, American Book Review 27.1 (November/December 2005): 18-19.

Review of Rails Under My Back, by Jeffery Renard Allen, 22 (Fall 2002: 169-170..

Review of Dancing with Strangers: A Memoir, by Mel Watkins, African American Review 34.3 (Fall 2000): 561-562.

Review of Juneteenth, by Ralph Ellison, ed. John F. Callahan, 19.3 (Fall 1999): 172-3.

"Racial Violence, Cultural Anxiety, and American Literature at the Turn-of-the-Century," rev. of Race, Rape, and Lynching: The Red Record of American Literature, 1890-1912, by Sandra Gunning, American Studies Journal (Summer 1998).

Review of The Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience during the Civil War, by James G. Hollandsworth, Jr., Southern Quarterly 35.1 (Fall 1996): 134-136.

"The Content of a Distinguished Career," rev. of Praisesong of Survival: Lectures and Essays, 1957-89, by Richard K. Barksdale, African American Review 28.1 (Spring 1994): 147-150.

"Voice, Identity, and the African American Literary Tradition," rev. of In the African-American Grain: Call and Response in Twentieth-Century Black Fiction, by John F. Callahan, Southern Quarterly 31.4 (Summer 1993): 141-146.

REFERENCE BOOK ARTICLES

"Langston Hughes," Encyclopedia of American Literature, Second Edition, Vol. III: Into the Modern, 1896-1945, ed. George Parker Anderson et al. (New York: Facts on File, 2007), 137-138.

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Encyclopedia of American Literature, Second Edition, Vol. III: Into the Modern, 1896-1945, ed. George Parker Anderson et al. (New York: Facts on File, 2007), 207.

"Hughes, James Mercer Langston (1902-1967)," Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration, 3 vols., ed. Steven A. Reich (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006), vol. 1, 416-418.

"Dunbar, Paul Laurence (1872-1906)," Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration, 3 vols., ed. Steven A. Reich (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006), vol. 1, 266-267.

"Langston Hughes," An Encyclopedia of American Literature of the Sea and the Great Lakes, ed. Jill B. Gidmark (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000).

"Melvin B. Tolson," American National Biography, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

"Badman," "Baltimore Afro-American," "Chicago Defender," "Journal of Negro History," "Langston Hughes Review," "Phylon," ed. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

"Desegregation," "The Great Migration," "Langston Hughes," "Plantation Tradition," "Scottsboro Boys," Dictionary of Twentieth Century Culture, African American Culture vol., ed. Sandra Adell (Detroit: Manly, Inc., 1996).

BOOK-IN-PROGRESS

Reconstruction and the American Cultural Imagination: Racial Fantasies in Post-Civil War America

SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS

"Langston Hughes and the NAACP," Fight For Freedom: A Century of the NAACP and the Struggle for Racial Equality, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, February 2009.

"Reading 'Race' in the American Literature Classroom: Problems and Issues," Conference of Illinois Teachers of English, Normal, Illinois, March 2006.

"The Harlem Renaissance," Paderborn American Studies Institute, Normal, Illinois. September 2005.

"The Dangerous Marrow of Southern Tradition: Charles W. Chesnutt's Critique of the Color Line," Ohio Writers Celebration, Notre Dame College, Cleveland, Ohio, October 2003.

"Black Writers in the Age of Reaction," Paderborn American Studies Institute, Normal, Illinois, September 2003.

"The Essayistic Vision of African America's Poet Laureate: New Directions for Hughes Scholarship,", New York, New York, December 2002.

"Rediscovering Langston Hughes as Essayist," Let America Be America Again: An International Symposium on the Art, Life & Legacy of Langston Hughes, Lawrence, Kansas, February 2002.

"Reconstruction Politics, Historical Memory, and the American Novel," American Culture Association Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 2000.

"The Tyranny of the Southern Past in the 1930s: Scottsboro, Margaret Mitchell, and Faulkner," Back to the Futures: An Institute in American Studies, Dartmouth College, June 1999.

"Freedom Road: Howard Fast's Contribution to Reconstruction Era Myth-Breaking,", Chicago, Illinois, December 1999.

"The Ordeal of Integration," special guest lecture, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities Program on "The Ends of Civilization," East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, April 1999.

Moderator, "Literature and Social Concern," Massachusetts State Colleges Graduate Research Symposium, Worcester, Massachusetts, April 1999.

"Ralph Ellison's War on the Myths of the Post-War Years: The Legacy of Reconstruction in Invisible Man," Conference, Orlando, Florida, April 1998.

"Teaching Ellison's Invisible Man in the Context of the Great Migration," presented with Elizabeth A. Schultz, on "The Great Migration and American Culture," Lawrence, Kansas, July 1996.

"Langston Hughes's Radical Aesthetic," special guest lecture,, Lawrence, Kansas, July 1994.

"Racializing the Plague: The Marginalization of the African American Presence during the Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793," Mid-America American Studies Association Conference, Lawrence, Kansas, April 1994.

AWARDS AND HONORS

Sigma Tau Delta Faculty Appreciation Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring of Students, Illinois State University (2006)

English Education Program Recognition for "Non-Methods English Professor Who Models Exemplary Pedagogy," Illinois State University (2006)

Nomination, Strand Diversity Achievement Award, Illinois State University (2003)

Early Promotion to Associate Professor, (2002)

University Research Initiative Award, (2002)

Pre-Tenure Faculty Initiative Grant, (2001)

College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Initiative Award, (2000)

Sigma Tau Delta Faculty Appreciation Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring of Students, (2000, 2002)

University Research Grant, (2000)

Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship,, 1997

Merrill Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research in English, 1997

Edwin M. Hopkins Award for Excellence in the Study of Literature,, 1996

Summer Graduate Honors Fellowship,, 1994

Kenneth Rockwell Award for Excellence in the Study of Literature,, 1994

Ford Foundation Summer Research Grant,, 1990

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Professor, Illinois State University, August 2007 to present

Courses Taught:

• American Literature, 1920-1940 (undergraduate)

• American Literature, 1870-1920 (undergraduate)

• Foundations of African American Literature and Culture (undergraduate) •Blues and the Black Aesthetic (graduate)

Associate Professor, Illinois State University, August 2002 to August 2007

Courses Taught:

• Race and American Literature (graduate)

• African-American Literary Criticism and Theory (graduate)

• Introduction to Graduate Studies in English (graduate)

• American Literature, 1870-1920 (undergraduate)

• Studies in Amer. Lit., 1870-1920: Race, Nation, and Reaction (graduate)

• The Harlem Renaissance (graduate/undergraduate)

• Foundations of Inquiry: (Re)Envisioning the American Dream (undergraduate)

• The Black Aesthetic (graduate)

• Introduction to English Studies (undergraduate)

• Senior Seminar (undergraduate)

• African-American Literature (undergraduate)

• Foundations of African American Literature and Culture (undergraduate)

Assistant Professor, Illinois State University, August 1999 to July 2002

Courses Taught:

• African-American Literary Criticism and Theory (graduate)

• The Harlem Renaissance (graduate/undergraduate course)

• African-American Literature in the Age of Reaction (graduate/undergraduate)

• The American Novel (graduate/undergraduate)

• African-American Literature (undergraduate)

• Literary Narrative (undergraduate)

• American Literature, 1920-1945 (undergraduate)

• Foundations of African-American Literature and Culture (undergraduate)

• African American Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism, 1940-1960 (graduate)

Assistant Professor, Westfield State College, September 1997 to August 1999

Courses Taught:

• "Race" in the Making of American Literature (graduate)

• Senior Seminar: William Faulkner and the Crucible of Race (undergraduate)

• African-American Literature (undergraduate)

• Nineteenth-Century American Literature (undergraduate)

• Major American Writers: "(Re)Visions of the 'American Dream'" (undergraduate)

• Reinventing America: Race, Class, and Gender in U. S. Society (undergraduate)

• Composition (undergraduate)

• Composition and Literature (undergraduate)

Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Kansas, 1993-1997

Courses Taught:

• Introduction to Fiction (undergraduate)

• Composition (undergraduate)

• Composition and Literature (undergraduate)

Academic Tutor,, (1992-93):

Research Assistant,, (1989-90)

ACADEMIC SERVICE

• College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Status Committee, 2006-2008

• Chair, Faculty Affairs Committee, Academic Senate, Illinois State University, 2005- 2006

• English Undergraduate Studies Committee, Illinois State University, 2005-2006

• English Department Diversity Committee, Illinois State University, 2004-2005

• Academic Senate, Illinois State University, 2003-2006

• English Graduate Committee, Illinois State University, 1999-2001; 2002-2004; 2007- 2008

• University Teaching Awards Committee, Illinois State University, 2001-2004

• University Curriculum Committee, Illinois State University, 2001-2002

• Ad-Hoc Committee on African American Literature and Culture, Illinois State University; 1999-2001

• Search Committee, American Literature, 1870-1920, Illinois State University, 1999-2000

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